I Flew through the Air. Which is awesome no matter what.

This morning I woke up for the first time in my life in a country other than America.

Our Journey began with what I will call a good omen. We went to O’Hare airport to check in and receive our boarding passes, and found out that coach was full so we would be bumped up into business class. I had never traveled in business class, and I thought that 12 or so hours that I had for the flight to Tokyo was ample time for me to try it out and decide if I like it or not.
And like it I did.
To start with the seat had something that I didn’t think they allowed on airplanes--Legroom. By my estimate I had a full yard of space between me and the chair in front of me. And speaking of the chairs, they had a control panel so they could be electronically adjusted. So, basically I had a Lazy-boy recliner as a seat. The next thing I noticed was that in the front pocket, were they keep the safety information and airline magazine and catalogue there was a plastic wrapped pair of complimentary slippers.
Now this was all fine and dandy and luxurious, but by far my favorite part of this flight was the food. First they passed out Champagne or green tea. Being that I dislike the taste of tea, I took the champagne. It didn’t take long for me to remember that I dislike the taste of champagne too. They started us out with a 6 course Japanese meal, which was delicious. Drinks were complimentary so I had sake with my dinner. Then after that, at any time we could order delicious delicacies off of the snack menu. Needless to say, I pigged out. With snacks I tried a Japanese Whiskey. The stewardess told me that there was the option of the dry whiskey or the sweet whiskey. I asked for the sweet one. It still tasted pretty dry to me!
My Tray table was built into the right arm of my seat. When I checked the left arm of my seat to see if anything was there I found a personal TV screen. I was given the option to watch movies on demand (there were about 30 American and Japanese options) or play simple video games such as pong and Tetris.

Our flight path took us up through Canada, Alaska, the tip of Russia and down to Japan. Many of the landscapes, especially the Canadian Rockies were breathtaking. Unfortunately due to when we hit the international dateline we were unable to ring in the new year at midnight, but around the time that we passed the dateline and entered 2010 we ordered a round of Screwdrivers to celebrate.
(I would like to point out that I drank a lot of bottled water during the flight and did not finish all of the drinks that I ordered.)

Upon landing in Japan we made our way to the gate for our connecting flight, and watched the sunset and the moon rise over the land of the rising sun. About 45 minutes before we boarded the airplane to fly to Bangkok a gentleman sat down next to us and started talking about Bangkok. It wasn’t long before we realized that he was a sex tourist. And it was quite a bit creepy talking to him once we realized this.

Closer to boarding time I see Steve wave at someone. Confused as to who he would be waving at I turn around and see our friend Maggie, who was supposed to already be in Bangkok but had her flights canceled due to snow. It was quite a serendipitous moment to see someone we knew during the 4 hours we spend in the Tokyo airport.

During the six hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok we were not bumped to business and had to deal with coach. I’d rather not talk about the experience.