Airplanes, airplanes, and more!!!

journey summary: SAN, USA->LAX, USA->Tokyo Narita, JP->Taipei, TW

SAN->LAX
so the flight from SAN to LAX was short and sweet, in a tiny little plane operated by American Eagle for Japan Airlines (JAL). The flight wasnt too bad, but dude, their check in counter is TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, AND TERRIBLE!!! they had only one guy running the counter and there was like 15 people in line waiting. He worked slower than a snail would walk. There were 5 people in front of me and I waited 40 minutes in line before I could check in. that's 8 minutes a person! Ridiculous!!! All the other airlines had 2+ people working in the counters and their lines was constantly only 2-3 people.

So I arrived at LAX and met up with CWong, who was wearing a mask... oh man, I bursted out laughing when she turned around. HAHAHAHA!!! anyways, she had to get her 2 other tickets issued at LAX because they didn't do it at SJC for some odd reason. MSiy walked backwards after going in through security because he didn't wait for us initially. kinda funny... afterall, security is a pain in the butt to go through. but good thing he did, cause it gave us a chance for some pictures =)

CWong made us walk all-the-way-across Tom Bradley International Terminal to take a picture with Lauren Conrad. haha. oh Chelsea xP

LAX->NRT
Japan airlines is awesome!!! you ask why? well, first of all, they don't serve you peanuts! their rice cracker snacks are amazing! and they have a special (non-alcoholic) drink called "Sky Time" which is really good... oh yea, alcohol is free too! During one of the meals, the flight attendant asked me if I wanted wine or beer with my meal. I told her red wine, so now I have a bottle of red wine sitting in my closet for souvenir purposes =D

before we got on, they told us that they would not have entertainment, we were so so so bummed. they gave us compensation cards in which we could redeem for JAL coupons or mileage. 45mins into the flight, the entertainment starting working!!! good 2-for-1 deal... BUT>>>MSiy and I soon learned that there is not much "entertainment" in their entertainment. I ended up watching bits and pieces of "He's Just Not that into You" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" over and over again. To this day, I still don't know what "He's Just Not that into You" is about, though I've probably watched it like 6 times.

here was our personal TV!
LoL
so yea, poor CWong was not able to switch seats so that she could sit with us. MSiy and I asked the person on the aisle in our row if they would switch with CWong, but he was like " no, ild prefer not to have a window seat"... but but but... he was sleeping almost the WHOLE time, which was very problematic for MSiy and JChoy's airplane exploration process/walking around cause we have nothing better to do. MSiy had previously looked up that there was a "snack box" on board, and during our second "bathroom trip" we found it. After that, we were like kangaroos, and stashed a whole bunch of snacks in the front pocket of the seat. teehee. other than that, I asked for a deck of JAL palying cards and we ended up playing "13" or "big2"as MSiy called it. He kicked my butt.... REAL bad :(

here's a picture of the two meals we had on board from LAX, US->Narita Tokyo, JP. their food is pretty good and its so cute!

i had halibut for the first meal...(this pic is stolen from CWong's fb cause MSiy and I forgot to take pics of our first meal. she doesn't know it yet, but thanks!)

and everyone had some sort of pasta for the second mealsome pics I took from inside the airplane... thanks MSiy for letting me steal his window seat!

huge wing... even bigger wing during taxi...so after getting swine flu from MSiy for about 12 hours, we finally arrive at Narita Airport and had a nice photo shoot before Cwong and MSiy had to take their next flight to Beijing. I wished we all went to the same location

some flight information...you must be seeing things if you think that this is in Japanese...hahamap of the airport

a Japanese fire extinguisher...and here's a series of bathroom pics... (let's be honest, you know you have an album as such too!)

all the girls standing in the line for the bathroom!!! (gotta love N.E.R.D!!)
take your pick...
i KNEW you would choose this one!
make sure you wash your hands!
and then dry them to prevent airbourne viruses *coughMSiy'sswineflucough*
anyways, here are some more pics from Narita Airport.

their walkway handrails are blue...

they have awesome illustrations on their trash cans...
this looked like a nice lounge, but I didn't go inside. I thought their sign was cool, so I took a pic by it =) CWong and I thought that the figure was cute...
and then we went through the Japanese security...
japanese security item bins. they are so ghetto, you have to put your stuff in, and then carry it to the scanner, instead of sliding it through like in US airports. (I had originally put my stuff into 3 "bins," but because I couldnt carry them, I just ditched the "bins" and carried my stuff. Needless to say, the table was left with empty bins)so after MSiy and CWong took off without me, I decided to wander around some more and took a few more pics!

i first took a pic of the floor...
would you like some plastic Japanese food?

they have cool looking soda machines!!
while walking to board the plain to Taipei...

NRT->TPE
the flight to Taoyuan airport was quite uneventful. I originally asked the flight attendant if I could have an aisle seat, but she said they weren't done boarding yet. This other guy asked another flight attendant right after I did and got the aisle seat I was aiming at. whateves. The flight attendant I origianlly asked came by and told me she could reseat me after take-off, but I didn't want to give her extra work, plus my backpack was huge and would be a pain in the butt to move if the flight was quite full. Turns out, the entire back section had no more than 10 people in it. We had a Boeing 747 Jet.

here's my final meal on JAL. this is the meal where I got my red wine souvenier. haha.
self explanatory...
the hallway was so long and cool looking, this pic is a bit blurry, but its a cool effect, i think
ahaha... its interesting being considered an "alien" or a "non-citizen" for once

台湾很热!
>.<