Japan: In transit

Saturday, March 9, 2002. 8:07PM EST.
Singapore Flight 11, Seat 39A.
Somewhere over the Gulf of Alaska.

Why don’t I just make my website into a travel site? My latest posts seem to be made from hotels, airports, or two seats in front of the crying baby on a westbound MD-80. As you may have guessed, I’m on the move again. While I was in San Francisco for IDF, my boss was booking my tickets to Tokyo.

Here’s what I have learned from travel today:

1. Seat 39A of a Boeing 747, despite being labeled as a “window seat”, has no window. It’s several feet ahead of the seat, attached to a large door marked “Emergency Exit”. This has no real efefct on my travel experience … all I can see from the left side of the aircraft is water. All of the land between Los Angeles and Narita is on the right side of the airplane.
2. I still hate the Los Angeles airport, especially the international terminal.
3. Singapore Airlines has one of the coolest in-flight entertainment systems in the air. Even economy class passengers get their own personal TV screen, along with access to Super Nintendo games. They even play Seeing Eye Theater from SciFi.com (which is some very weird shit).
4. Some Singapore Airlines fare codes get you Delta SkyMiles … some do not.
5. After taking advantage of the Super Nintendo entertainment system, I have started to form a blister on my left thumb. Plus I have rediscovered the fact that I suck at Street Fighter II.
6. I really need to stop in Alaska sometime. I fly over it so often, I think I need to actually hangout there for a while.
7. Tipping is an insult in Japan.
8. With the 140,000+ Delta SkyMiles in my account, Suzan and I can fly to Alaska and back in first class (sweet).
9. I listen to Poe’s Haunted on almost every trip I take.
10. I got ice cream as part of an in-flight meal (I hope somebody at Delta Airlines is reading this … the Asians give their passengers ice cream … just a subtle hint from a Gold Medallion flyer).
11. There’s still seven hours left on my flight to Tokyo.

Lesson over. Please study, there may be a quiz next time.