Finally made it

Anyone who has traveled to Asia knows that the travel days (there and back) are the least enjoyable parts of the trip. That said, this was the most painless trip out we've ever had. We flew ANA (All Nippon Airlines) this time because we got the same price from United due to the Earthquake rescheduling that everyone was doing, so the terminal was different than before, which had it's own challenge: Power. When you are as electronic addicted as we are, knowing where you can plug in at an airport is critical, especially when you will be on an airplane for 13 hours with only the batteries you have charged. O'Hare is not as accommodating as Milwaukee on that score.

First one we tried didn't work. The guy next to us already tried it!

This one was already in use....behind a garbage can on the tile floor. We decided to give up on the charging in Chicago.

The flight was great. The food was the best we've ever had on a flight. it was largely empty and quiet. No kids. Long, but very tolerable. The flight attendants were amazing. Always smiling and cheerful and working harder than anyone I saw at United or Delta (or Northwest, God forbid). They would help anyone with anything. I mean, helping an old guy get his shoes on, lifting luggage for women (and these were all fairly petite women themselves), constantly reminding the dumb teenager across the aisle from me to keep his seatbelt out of the aisle(she did this at least six times while I was awake, always with a smile and a please that didn't even sound the least bit sarcastic.) And this is in Economy Class.

Now, I didn't take any pictures of the flight attendants, since that would have looked kinda creepy and they're not on parade, they're working. But I swear they must have to pass a class in flight attendant school on Uniform and Hair. They all looked like they came right out of a flyer for ANA. Hair perfect (and the exact same for all of them) even after working a 13 hour flight, matching purple jackets for seating and aprons for serving (seriously) and "fashionable" neckscarves that were probably started in the 60's and just became part of the Uniform ever since. All sarcasm aside, it was a very pleasant flight, due in large part to their great work ethic.

Got to Tokyo-Narita on time. Changed money, got our rail pass, checked in, went through Japanese security (with our shoes on!) all in just over an hour. Found a nice outlet next to some seats that we shared with a bunch of servicemen en route to their first assignment in Okinawa. And we got to experience our very first earthquake. A 6.something, according to the news. It lasted just long enough for us to realize what it was, but not long enough for us to get scared about it. No one else seemed to care, so we felt pretty calm. After a 4 hour layover, we took the final two hour trip to Fukuoka, hopped on a train, and a ten minute walk later we arrived at our hostel 5 minutes after it closed. Good news is, the guy was walking to the konbini (convenience store) and, well, let's just say I stand out quite a bit in Japan, and it's not my ravishing good looks. He recognized us and let us in, much to our relief that our 24 hours of travel finally came to an end.

I'll have a bit more to say about Fukuoka, but that'll have to wait till after some much needed sleep. Also, sorry about the picture quality. This was all done on my iPad, and the cameras are nothing to write home about.