Back in Japan

We had a very long travel day. An overnight flight from Bali to Shanghai. That was brutal in Economy Class, but we managed to survive.

There was almost a disaster before leaving Bali. We went to the gate shown on our boarding passes and we were quite early, so we sat there relaxed and unconcerned for quite a while. As it got closer to boarding time, the electronic board showed a gate change, which should have been no big deal. Unfortunately, we were on a lower level which we had reached by escalator. The new gate was a level up, but only stairs were available. No escalator or elevator. It was a long flight of stairs, too much for JO to attempt.

I took off running to find someone to find a way to get her up to the proper level. I had to run all the way to the new gate to find someone to talk to. I ignored the barrier and went right up to the counter and let the guy there know that I needed immediate help. I explained that JO was trapped at the bottom of the stairs. He got on a walkie-talkie, another guy appeared; more on the walkie-talkie ...

He had a solution. He said someone would go there from the check-in counter with a wheelchair and take her through areas normally not accessible to passengers. I ran back to tell her help was on the way. There was already a woman sitting on the stairs with her, and in a moment, someone arrived with the wheelchair. JO had been panicking because I'd been gone so long, and she didn't know where I was or if a solution was coming.

The man with the wheelchair tried to go through one of those Authorized Personnel Only doors, but it was locked, and he didn't have a key. We ended up going through the boarding gate of a different flight/airline on that level. The staff there just let us through. That got us into a corridor (clearly not meant to be seen by passengers) that took us a very long way, up one floor in an elevator, along more seemingly endless corridors. There was a second elevator in there, and even a wheelchair change due to a wheel problem.

Finally, we arrived where we needed to be and were taken right on board. One of the men I'd talked to at the beginning was there waiting for us. Passengers were already starting to board - and we had been there so early, we had had tons of time, and here we were just making it. All because of an absent up escalator or elevator. That was ridiculous. Who designed that with such an obvious flaw?

We flew through the night, arrived in Shanghai in the morning, waited there a few hours, and then got a shorter flight to Haneda.

Akiko was there waiting for us. We had a great dinner together at a restaurant she had found that had vegetarian items on its menu. It was a wonderful way to end our arrival day in Tokyo. This is the last stop on our trip, and Akiko is the last of our friends we'll be seeing.Read more