Days 1-2, Friday, September 25, Departure and Saturday, September 26, a Long Travel Day
After over a year of anticipation, today is the day that our 2026 Asian adventure begins. The two of us are headed to Japan and South Korea. The journey will take 17 days, but today is the first day.
Doug did not sleep well the night before the journey began. His brain was occupied with making a mental checklist of the final items that needed to be done before leaving: pack the toiletries, be sure to wear compression socks, add extra blood pressure pills for the carry-on luggage, in case the primary luggage was lost, etc., etc. He actually got out of bed for about two hours at 12:30am, and back in bed about 2:30am. Despite the lack of good sleep, the morning arrived and we excitedly got about the last minute preparations.
Bella was not sad to see us leave, since she was with Randi; Ubering to HJAIA; seated in the Delta Sky Lounge.
We were scheduled for an Uber pickup at 8am, but we were so organized – trust me, this is historic, especially for Mr. Hooker! – that we were ready by 7:30am and just waiting for our ride. We were picked up promptly at 8:00am by our Uber driver and taken to the International Terminal in Atlanta. In the most unique of circumstances, we were able to make it to the airport, through TSA and into the Delta Sky Lounge by 8:30am. Those of you who know Atlanta traffic and the airport know that this feat was remarkable, extraordinary no less!!
Our one-way flight to Tokyo left on time at 11:00am.. The flight was scheduled to take slightly over 14 hours, so we obtained seats in first class, to be able to stretch out, relax and sleep, if we felt the need to do so. Patrise did all three, but I could not go to sleep, although I tried on three separate occasions to do so. I even brought my portable CPAP machine to be able to sleep comfortably and to not keep other passengers awake with my snoring. Still, no matter how hard I tried, my body was equally determined not to sleep.
The flight path took us over North America at a northwesterly arch toward Alaska and Russia. We then traveled down past the Russian coast toward Japan. When you fly towards Asian countries often, you realize that US airplanes could be vulnerable to Russian attacks, if Russia was so inclined. Thankfully, DJT’s actions have not put us in a posture to be threatened by Mr. Putin! And so, the flight was relatively uneventful. We encountered a few rough patches of turbulence over Iowa, as we entered Alaska and further south of Russia along the Pacific Coast.
Seated in my seat; the menu for the next 14 hours; seat controls
Row 1: start of flight, flight path about mid journey, skirting the Russian coastline.
Row 2: walk through the airport, entering the main terminal space, gathering to leave for the hotel.
We arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport around 2:30pm. on Saturday, September 26th in Tokyo. Which was 1:30am, September 26th, in Atlanta. Tokyo’s time is thirteen hours ahead of Atlanta time. [If you’ve ever paid attention to an ABC's New Year’s Eve countdown program, they generally have a segment showing New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world, before they show our countdown occurs; these always start with Japan as the country farthest east on the international dateline.]
After we cleared customs and immigration, it took a long time, seemingly forever, for the tour guides to collect everyone at the airport and for us to get to the hotel. We are a large enough group – almost 60 of us – that has been split into two groups for the duration of the time of the Gate City Bar Association portion of the trip. By the time that we checked into our room it was 4:30pm and we were exhausted. We did not unpack anything! We both hit the bed and immediately fell asleep.
As usual, Patrise woke up before me around 7:30pm. and started to work on getting us a larger room. The hotel, Hotel Metropolitan Ikebukuro, is nice, but the room that we were assigned by the Travel Agency was a small, narrow room without a division between the sleeping and sitting areas. Furthermore, the bed was of a size that it was very difficult for the two of us to sleep. It was tiny! Those of you who know my wife know that she had to address this situation immediately. I was awakened by Patrise around 9:00pm. and told we were moving to a suite and that the hotel staff was coming to help us with our unpacked luggage. She pulled off a miracle in a crowded hotel, and as a result, we now have very spacious accommodations.
Welcome notice on our room tv screen; selfie in the living area; tonight's dinner of shrimp fried rice and spaghetti Bolognese
When we got into the new room, the next task was food. The restaurant in the hotel had already closed, but we had just a few minutes to order room service, before they closed as well. We ordered fried rice with shrimp (Doug) and spaghetti with Bolognese sauce (Patrise). The food was delicious. We both showered and went back to bed to hopefully rest for the upcoming day’s adventure that starts at 9:00am, after breakfast in the hotel.
Good night!
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