Return trip

Comments later

(Tuesday, November 3.) From Dad’s home to the Narita Airport we took two trains. A Chuo Rapid from Ogikubo to Tokyo, and then the Narita Express (Limited Express) from Tokyo to Narita Airport Terminal. We had sent our three large pieces of luggage by courier the day before. At Tokyo we had about an hour to spend so we purchased different kinds of bread at a bakery and ate them at the station. We slowly proceeded down to the departing platform and at 12:03 p.m. we left for Narita.

The train trip was uneventful. We passed through city and farms at a rapid pace. About 50 minutes later we arrived at the airport platform. That’s when the less-than-desirable adventure began.

I thought two hours would be sufficient to unload from the train and get boarded on the plane. It was sufficient, but barely. It took some 10-15 minutes to get from the train platform, passing through a brief security inspection, to the fourth floor departure area. Then we had to go all the way across the North Wing to retrieve our luggage sent ahead. And then we had to go back across the North Wing to enter the long lines to check in and obtain boarding passes.

I had hoped to get some lunch at the airport prior to departure. After we checked in I had to return the rental mobile phone. I didn’t quite know where the return location was and that took a little more time. Finally we went to the central area where shops and restaurants are located. There wasn’t a restaurant that seemed right and the first one we entered, no one seemed to come up to seat us. So we went out and located another, sat down, and ordered; and then realized that we really didn’t have enough time for this.

Cancelling the order and apologizing we rushed out and walked briskly to the security clearance. Fortunately there was no wait there and got through quickly. We proceeded down to passport control and also made it through there without much waiting. We rushed over to our gate and saw that passengers were already boarding. We took a quick look around at the nearby gift shop but did not locate anything suitable to take on board as a snack.

We got in line, boarded and the long flight to Seattle finally commenced. There was a very brisk tailwind so the 8-1/2 hour flight turned out coming in at 7-1/2 hours.

We arrived in Seattle but could not immediately unload because the Border Patrol and Customs area were not staffed yet due to the early hour (6 a.m.) But it wasn’t too long (about 20 minutes) before they woke up and allowed us to deplane.

I’m not sure if it is the new policy for BCP or just in Seattle, but permanent residents have to join the same line as visitors. The way the lanes work in Seattle seemed very inefficient. The agents kept shuffling people around different lanes and as a result we waited a very long time. It’s a good thing we were early and we had plenty of transfer time.

We did finally make it out of the control area only to be greeted with another long line to re-enter the secured area… From there we took three short inter-terminal trains to get from the international arrival area to the North Satellite terminal. There we got some bagels and pastries to eat while we waited another hour or so prior to boarding our second to last leg from Seattle to Juneau.

The remaining flights were uneventful and we arrived safely in Petersburg.

View Full Album