September 22, 2007

• I took these pictures at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.  I was not in the mood for taking pictures, because I had just been through a wringer getting on my flight.  I supposed that I had Internet reservations for the 5:00 plane to Kagoshima.  Grandma was getting out of the temporary nursing home and moving back into her house.  (She has people coming to help her.)  I got to the airport the mandatory one hour early.  I fly with a discounted "elderly care pass" which prevents me from checking in by machine.  I must be processed manually. 

  So I ask the wandering JAL lady where I should go and she directs me to a very long line.  I go to the end of the line and ask a different lady where I am to go, because there must be some misunderstanding.  I have never had to stand in such a long line for processing and stand a chance or missing my flight if I do.  I am directed to a counter with a much shorter line.  This looks more like it, except there is no lady manning the computer to process me or the other increasingly irate people standing there.  There is only a new girl who apparently doesn't know how to run the computer.  She doesn't tell us that, she just ignores us. 

  The clock is running and someone who knows how to check us in finally shows up to assist us increasing testy folks.  I am told that there is no record of me having a reservation for the 5:00 plane, and that I need to return to the llllooooonnnnngggggg line.  Panic sets in, but does no good, so I join the line and call our for HELP from yet another JAL lady passing by.  She is kind and takes me directly to a counter with ten minutes before takeoff. 

  I indeed had an Internet reservation which had been canceled for some inane reason like I didn't pay for it.  What?  I had intended to have paid for it!  I must have done something stupid like not paying for it.  Maybe a Freudian slip, considering how much I love making trips south.  Well, 5:00 came and went, but they got me on the next flight out, so there I was sitting at the gate, 200 hairs grayer.  The flights were taking off right in front of me, but again, I was in no mood for pictures until I saw Mt. Fuji, and then I was suddenly inspired.  The results are below.  I attempted to include planes taking off, which is no easy task.

  

  The takeoff in the background is too low and it is too dark by now to see it clearly. 

  

  Shutter snapped a bit late.

  

  I was satisfied with this one.  I can take or leave the reflections.  Better take them, because I can't leave them. 

  Hub suggested that I remember that I had found cheaper rates with another airline and had made a reservation there for which I did not show up.  Come to think of it, I had gotten confirmation mails from neither airline, but JAL stuck in my mind and since hub had posted a note for the 5:00 JAL flight on my bulleting board, I blitheringly assumed that I had that reservation and had mistakenly deleted the confirmation mails. My only hope is that since I did not get a confirmation mail for the no-show, maybe I didn't actually have the reservation and therefore didn't pay for it.  Does that make any sense?  Too much on my plate to keep it all straight, folks!! 

  • 11:21
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