Traveling Home

I’m sitting at the Tokyo Narita airport watching a monsoon blow through. 30 minutes ago it was just a little cloudy. 10 minutes ago the clouds started moving faster than the airplanes. 5 minutes ago the rain, wind, thunder and lightning started and I’m guessing that flights are going to be delayed. I sure wouldn’t want to take off in that stuff. There, a UPS plane just took off as lightning flashes around it. Nice.

I’m not too crazy about a flight delay, considering that if all goes well I’ll be in travel status for about 32 hours. That’s counting from the time I left the hotel for the airport in Saigon until I get home. My layover here at Narita is particularly long, about 8 hours. Ick.

WiFi is not free here at the airport if you stay on the official network. However, by moving around a little bit you can find several free and open access points, typically associated with one of the airline lounges for the big shot travelers. Right now I’m leeching off the Northwest SkyLounge. I figure they owe me for putting up with their lousy service while racking up many frequent flyer miles. On this trip I flew on China Southern, Vietnam Airlines, and ANA (All Nippon Air). All of them provided far better service than NWA.

I have found that I love SEAfood. I’ve always loved most kinds of seafood, but SEAfood now ranks real high on my list. SEAfood – SEABank – SEAGames: in all cases the SEA refers to SouthEast Asia. It took me a while to catch that nuance, but now I get it. I have never been much of a clams eater, but I had clams four times on this trip and they were fantastic. Small and tasty clams, not those big chewy pencil erasers. I had some octopus in a salad that was really quite tasty and not at all a disgusting texture. Of course there were many other dishes consumed, but those were two surprises for me.

So, after eating great food for 10 days, I couldn’t resist trying the Japanese version of McDonald’s here at the airport. Since I’ve always been a big teriyaki fan, this sign captured my attention. I’ve been a big teriyaki fan, but not a MEGA teriyaki fan. Still, I had to order one. I have no idea what the patties were made of. They were totally different than the hamburger patties in the U.S. They could have been some sort of a veggie thing, but they certainly didn’t taste like beef. Regardless, they tasted okay – probably because they were absolutely dripping in teriyaki sauce. 10 days of eating healthy food shot to hell in one McDonald’s “Value Set.”