An Auspicious Start

Hey oh y’all,

Just a musing. Is this causation or correlation:

Japanese airlines have a really interesting way of welcoming me (or mainly, LAX has an interesting way of sending me off whichever you look at it). See, both of my Japan flights have had, well, trouble.

For example, for my first trip to Japan this past summer, I'm scheduled to leave, and I arrive at the airport. But once I arrived at the airport, it turned out that my tickets had not actually been confirmed and so I had no tickets. So no flight, and I returned home. Now I don’t read tealeaves or whatnot, but in some book that’s a bad omen for a trip, right?

But don’t go thinking that my Japan trip didn’t go well. We ended up getting the tickets for the next day. Then, my 2 weeks in Wakayama, Japan were absolutely amazing (despite being slightly shortened), and I am looking forward to returning.

So, pre-flight troubles --> a bit more stress than usual at the airport ---> an an amazing, life-changing trip. Not exactly the normal pathway for most people, but oh well. I guess it works for me.

Now quandary: given past historical trials (read: one), do I secretly hope for a bad flight experience since it appears correlated with an amazing trip?

So what then do you think went through my mind when the flight attendant announced that my flight to Taiwan (through Tokyo) would be delayed?

Hmmm. Let’s see, a delay of forty-five minutes and a layover of only an hour. I don’t really like those odds. Here we go again.

This of course was only made more exciting when, as we are descending into Tokyo, the pilot begins GAINING altitude. Now, I may not be an expert at flying, but when one wants to land, I think the tendency is to point the plane downward and stay downwards, not accelerate upwards. (Of course this was because we received a signal from the control tower and were put into a holding pattern, but I like to think it was in error.)

So I missed my flight into Taiwan. Fortunately, the flight staff was very helpful and there was another American students traveling on the same itinerary to Taiwan. When faced with a problem, it is very nice to meet someone who is in the same predicament (and is from your home area). 

Anyways, this is an auspicious start to my trip, neh? Stay tuned as we see if I can actually make it to where I'm supposed to go*.

;p

DC

* - Ironically enough, Tokyo is also a place where I am supposed to go, just not my first intended overnight stop.