Wait. What?!

It's 12/4! Guess where I am!

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Not Foster City, California, USA. I'm at Hotel Nikko Narita, a five minute drive from the Naria Airport in Chiba, Japan.

What happened?

Good question.

I said good bye to Jessi this morning. She shoved me out the door (and I giggled at it... hahahaha). Then I went to Kichijoji to buy stuff for my nails and to get a case for my DS (yes, I got one here! Jessi found me a deal!). I went into Yodabashi Camera with my ginormous backpack. -_-;;; They didn't have big lockers at the Kichijoji station which blows me mind since it's such a popular station. :(

Anyway, I arrived in Shinjuku, ready to take the Narita Express. I got there an hour and twenty minutes early so I decided to eat at Doutor Donut (my first time, actually) and then waited down at the platform for a little bit. Then I hopped on the train and was on my way!

I fell asleep on the train but woke up when we arrived at terminal 2. I got off at terminal 1, found the kuroneko (black cat-- it's another name for the Yamato delivery service) stand, got my suitcase, then made my way to check in.

They took my suitcase and one of the United workers put my suitcase on the scale and as he did, he said, "Kono suitcase wa sugoi!" (This suitcase is incredible) Yes, my suitcase was very heavy. In fact, it was too heavy. It weighed in at 35.6 kg. And then he told me, "It's over, so it will cost 600 USD." I paused and asked, "... US dollars?" and he said, "Yes, 600 USD." I looked at the guy at the counter and he said that things over 32 kg are calculated differently so I owed 600 USD. I kept on staring at him, thinking, "My mom's going to KILL me," but he said, "If you have a second piece of luggage to check in, then you can maybe put some things in there." I sat on the floor of the airport and started to shove things into my backpack. When I reweighed my big suitcase, it came in at 31.something kg. Whew. It was only 3000 yen! Much cheaper than 60,000 yen!

I walked happily through security and then went into this bar/cafe, had a half pint of Guinness with a plate of cheese and crackers (I've been kind of beer tasting since my Sapporo visit). Then afterwards, I went over to gate 37. I was going to board in 45 minutes so I thought that I'd pass the time texting my friend Yuri (who applied to study abroad in UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC Davis but got "recommended" to go to University of Massachusetts, Amherst). I thought to myself, "I really don't want to leave Japan" and started to get teary cheeked, especially while texting Yuri. (Saying good bye to her at the Shinjuku train station on Sunday was the most difficult good bye in Japan thus far)

Well, then they called us to board and we were on our way!

I had changed my seat last second and got a window seat. I was ready to knock out as soon as the plane took off. I waited a bit and was used to delays and what not since I take the plane back home so often.

But then there was an announcement about this minor oil spill on the left wing of the aircraft. They said that they would give us an update in half an hour. So we sat there, thinking that it wasn't a big deal. They had boarded us early anyway-- what would half an hour do?

Then they proceeded to update us every half hour about how they would update us the next half hour.

...

Eventually, at 8:20 PM, after sitting in the plane for more than 3 hours, they told us that our flight was rescheduled to 4:25 PM the next day. I started to panic, having no way to tell my parents this. I resorted to texting Jessi so that she could sign onto my Skype account and call my parents. Hahhaa thank goodness! (She told me that a certain ckatsura started to talk to her. Hahhahahaha.)

We filed out of the plane, all really tired and frustrated, and they told us that they were going to try to work out hotel accomodations. They eventually found this place and said that United was paying for it. Along with a 1500 yen voucher for food. Woot. (Btw, the premium-whatever, 1K and some other people with those fancy membership titles were allowed to tag along on another flight. ;o; Us po' folks were left stranded.)

So yep, here I am! All I had today was an onigiri, that puny sandwich at Doutor Donut, a Snickers bars and... well, I'm going to check to see if the restaurant downstairs is open. I need to shower first, though. And if it's not open, there's a Lawson downstairs! I forgot that it was a Lawson! :) I love the konbini.

Anyway, I have a double room all to myself! It's actually kind of nice to leave Japan feeling really relaxed.

So yes, I'll be back tomorrow for sure! I feel really bad for the person/people responsible for the oil spill... mistakes happen! I hope that they don't get fired! :(