Travel Troubles

The amazing sequence of events trying to get to Alaska today.  Ok where do I start?  Things were looking good this morning at 4:30 am when we woke up and started packing the car.  Everything was going smoothly as we got to the airport in Sapporo and boarded our first flight to Tokyo at 7:50am.  The first sign of trouble was Tsukasa getting caught trying to smuggle a lighter through in his check in bags.  

 

Then things started to slide downhill.  In my passport I knew I was lacking a very important stamp called the re-entry permit.  This allows holders of visas in Japan to leave and then return on the same visa.  If you leave the country without this stamp you will loose your visa when you try to return to Japan.  Seeing as how I have a permanent Visa I certainly did not want that to happen.  Since this trip was so last minute I had no time to get the stamp in Sapporo.  That is the set up to the rest of this story…. Let this be a good lesson to anyone with a similar situation.  The Tokyo immigration office is fairly close to the airport so Ogu from TNF was kind enough to pick me up and drive me from the airport to the immigration office.  What a mad house, it felt like every foriegner in Tokyo was there trying to get something done, the place was packed.  I bought my 6000yen stamp and pulled a number (204) and waited like all the other suckers.  Somehow they got to my number in about 25 minutes.  The lady checks my paper work and then starts flipping though my passport, back and forth back and forth she keeps on looking at it for a good few minutes.  Then she looks me in the eye and says “there is no room for your re-entry permit, you are going to have to get more pages in your passport”.  My jaw must have hit the floor.   Then she started hitting me with more info that I did not need.  Apparently the rule is that you have to get your permit in the city you live, so I was breaking a major rule.  My passport was so full that my permanent residence visa was on the last page in a technically illegal place.  The inside of the back cover was empty, but they are not allowed to stamp there and on and on.  I explained my situation and tried to convice this lady that she could fit the stamp in there somehow.  She told me I was wasting my time talking to her and I should go to my embassy and get more pages in my passport. 

Oh shit, here we go I thought I am never going to make my 5pm flight.  I called the Embassy and got a nice lady on the phone there.  She understood my situation, but there is no way to get a passport refill on the same day no less trying to get it 15minutes before the lunch break.  No way, not going to happen.  We were halfway to the embassy when I realized that it would be best to go back and try one more time to convince the immigration lady to help me out.  Maybe I could sweet talk her into.  I got back to immigration and explained the situation, the lady at the embassy even said it was ok to go ahead and use the inside of the back cover.  She confired with her superior to the left.  This lady must have spent at least 5 minutes trying to find a place in the passport where the stamp would fit.  Just to give me more heart pain she turned to me one more time and said “I don’t think it is going to be possible”.  I buried my face in my hand and did my best  “oh shit what am I going to do, this is so terrible please please help me I am such a stupid hopeless America, look. 

The Gods of immigration must have cracked a smile at that one, because after another minute of flipping through the pages the superior found a spot between some old stamps to Europe and actually gave me the permit!  I really thought they were going to deny me, I really did.  So I was filled with joy as I made my way back to the airport with Ogu.  We had a bit of lunch and chat about the trip.  Nice everything back on course going smoothly.  So we catch at 1:35 bus to Narita airport.  Off the bus, get the bags walk in and staight to check in.  I get held up at security because of film in my check in bag, they make me hand carry it as the guy says the X-ray will fry the film.  Nice to know.  There seems to be an urgency to get me to the counter I don’t know why as there is over 2 hours to our 5pm flight….  Tsukasa is checking in as I pull up to the counter.  We chat and laugh as we are very stoked to finally be on our way to AK.  The lady behind the counter then turns to me and says, “your friend is on the flight, but you did not make it”.  What?  “The one hour before cut off time, you just missed it, sorry”.  What? WHAT?  You have got to be kidding me?  Turns out our flight was 3:50 not 5pm like I thought, but still what is this crap about a 15 second difference between my travel partner and me?  I told her flat out he can’t go if I am not going.  I said that knowing that his bags were already gone on the way to the flight.  Somehow that seemed to do something and she got back on the phone and made some deal with the flight crew.  I few tense moments later I had my ticket and my bags were on the way! 

Yes yes yes!  But what the heck is going on with my life.  Usually I am pretty on point with things like this.  Man I had better be careful for the rest of this trip.   Still had to get through the security check and final passport control.  I was sweating at this point, it was kind of hot, but that was not what was making me sweat…  I did make it though passport control, the girl there took a minute to find a place in my passport, so I guess I must have paid my dues…  The message to the story, when you travel on short notice be ready for some problems.  and try to prepare better than I did.

 

So we are at the hotel now settled into the room and using the internet. 

 

The final ending to the story of getting to Alaska.  Of course our snowboard bags did not show up with our flight to Anchorage…  There had to be something else happen on this trip right?  We took it easy at the airport, having a little lunch getting the rental car and waiting for two more flights to arrive.  The board bags came in on the second flight from Seattle and we even got a 1000 bonus miles from Northwest for our trouble.  We spent a few hours in Anchorage shopping at REI and then Carrs.  Carrs was the most fun, just looking at all the food stuff was fun.  We spent about $100 dollars on food stocking up to cook stuff in the room.  So we made it to the hotel and now we are in the room loving everything.