CHINA TRIP Day 1: Airports

Monday 5/17, 7:10PM HST = Tuesday, 5/18 1:10AM ET = Tuesday, 5/18 2:10PM in Japan

So I’m sitting in the Namrita Airport in Tokyo, Japan waiting out my 2-hour layover to Taipei. I just bought myself a cute little souvenir (who knows when I’ll come back to Japan? Even if this airport is all I’ve seen =P), some ice cream, and a drink (by the way, they sell beer in the little convenience store shops in the airport terminals). I’m either going to really hate converting currency or I’m going to become really good at it (I’ll actually bet that I will love my iPod touch even more than I already do). I have no idea how much I spent on those three things but it was 900 yen. I’ll convert that later. Walking through the airport, I kept thinking about how convenient and awesome it would be if my friend Mike was with me because he’s so fluent (Michael Kobow, why can’t you be here with me? Haha.)

Now I hate flying. I’ve done it so much going back and forth from school and home that it’s pretty annoying. Although I haven’t flown internationally besides Korea, so far if I were to choose to get on an 8+-hour flight somewhere, it’d be to Asia. I remember the excellent service of Korean Air last summer and although China Airlines isn’t quite up to par, it’s better than any American airline. I had to go through security and check-in again before I could get my ticket to my connecting flight to Taipei, which was a little cumbersome because they made me throw out the water I bought in the Honolulu Airport (it always happens to me).

When I got off the plane and headed toward security and the Japan Airways service counter where I would get my ticket, any anxiety that I might have had being in a foreign country was quickly eased and I became extremely grateful that English is such an international language. I could find my way around easily thanks to everything being in English on top of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. It also made me think how crappy it’s got to be for foreigners to figure out where things are in American airports (at least Honolulu’s got the main Asian languages covered). I was also actually a little surprised (only a little though) at how all the airport staff seem to be able to speak English. It’s impressive, and they speak it pretty well too. The lady at the JAL service counter kept apologizing for the “delay” as she was figuring out my complicated itinerary and what-not (I won’t go into detail). I was barely there for five minutes (at least, that’s what it felt like) so I kept reassuring her things were fine. I usually get pretty impatient and cranky when I fly, but I couldn’t get mad at her at all. I think American airline staff could learn a thing or two.

I’m going to try and do some work before my flight to Taipei. I’ll update more after I land and find a moment.
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I landed in Taipei, went through Customs and got all my stuff together and finally have a moment to myself. I'm the first to arrive in the group so I get to wait a couple hours until everyone else gets here. Thank goodness the Taipei airport has free wi-fi!

Current time: 2:07AM HST = 8:07PM in Taipei = 8:07AM ET

I'm going to keep a tally of how many people come up to me and start speaking in Chinese. I know I don't look Korean, and probably look mixed but it's getting a little frustrating. I was sitting next to two English gentlemen on my flight from Tokyo to Taipei and the stewardesses would ask them about their meal and stuff in English and then turn to me and start speaking Chinese. Right now the tally is 5 and I haven't even LEFT the airport :P.

The exchange rate here is about $30 Taiwan to $1 US. But that doesn't really mean it's a good thing if everything's overpriced. I have to figure out how to spend carefully given the exchange rate. I'm exhausted, but I really can't complain since I had the shortest flight. When it comes to traveling to Asia, I definitely have it easier than the rest of the US!

Until next post,
Jen