Nice Little Travel Day For Ya

The 21+ hour flight from Tampa to Chicago to Tokyo to Incheon (Seoul) was expected to be a dreadfully exhausting day of travel but was surprisingly less stressful & tiring than expected, plus I was able to communicate with a few people before I shut off my cell service before boarding the plane to Tokyo at O'Hare Airport, my last stand on American soil for at least a year....

No more dirty south for awhile - smell ya later, Tampa!

Departing Tampa at 6:20 am (with an extra $309 for extra baggage & leg room), the realization hadn't really set in yet due to lack of sleep & ridiculous excitement about the impending journey half way across the world!  Honestly, I slept nearly the whole flight to Chi-town & upon landing, was anxious for the connecting flight to Tokyo, although the four hour lay over gave me an opportunity to catch up with a few more people (calls & text messages) before I called Sprint to officially cancel my service.  It was great talking to the rents & basking in the glow of the texts of encouragement & well wishes from so good friends!

Strollin' through O'Hare

At some point during my conversation with mom (as I had just passed through security) my ticket fell out of my back pocket....after a diligent search warranted nothing, I made my way to the ticket counter, explained my situation & was fortunate enough to have a new one printed without any hassle.

The Sprint rep was super bummed to 'lose my business' after 11 years with them but understood my situation and wished me well.  Whenever I decide to return to the states, I'll be sure to let everyone know my new digits but until then, feel free to delete my number from your contacts.

The flight to Tokyo was plenty of sleeping, a handful of movies/TV shows, a bit of casual reading & a few meals to fill the belly but I lifted the window shade a couple times to gauge our location in relation to the sweet flight tracker on the TV screens & was delighted to get a glimpse of some truly majestic mountain peaks over Alaska - pretty sure one was Mt. McKinley, which has been on my list of places to see/experience, now I just gotta do it in person rather than a fly-by!

We shall meet again, McKinley.

Knowing I was within in a few hours of my final destination, seeing the waves of the Pacific rolling into the shores of Japan was certainly a welcome sight but I was surprised at how industrial & agricultural the area leading into the Narita Airport was.  Guess I wasn't really sure what to expect, though, maybe hoping to get a glimpse of some fierce samurai warriors, majestic pagodas, stealthy ninjas, beefy sumo wrestlers or Godzilla were a little too much to hope for...either way, I was ecstatic to finally touch down in the Far East!  Needless to say, the experience working my way through customs & security was daunting, knowing there was little, if any way I would be able to communicate aside from lots of nods, smiles & thank yous.  Fortunately, it all worked out & I was able to relax for a couple hours before the final leg to Incheon.

Narita Int'l Airport is roughly 40 miles (65 km) directly east of the city of Tokyo, which probably explains the agriculture & industry rather the bustling city.

Japanese Coastline....sooo close!

I learned quickly, most Koreans are friendly & helpful....I wasn't able to find the name or number of the guy I was supposed to meet at the airport, the battery in my laptop was dead & the currency exchange places were closed so I couldn't use the Internet at the terminal as I needed Korean money (won).  Luckily a guy (likely a cabbie hoping I would be a fare) helped me out, gave me 1500 won (about $1.50) for the Internet & then called the number of the guy I was supposed to meet.  In hindsight, giving him $20 for his efforts might have been too much but you certainly can't stiff a guy for helping me out when he likely could have been making money on other fares.....not a bad way to get some good karma flowing, either.

By the time I met up with my 'guy' from the Global Guesthouse, it was nearly 10:30 Fri night (Seoul is 12 hours ahead of Tampa) and I was ready to crash.  It felt great to shower & hit the sack.

The next morning, Guesthouse guy dropped me back off at the airport & wound up checking on me about an hour later to make sure I was alright & understood which bus to get on & when. 

It was cold as shit & super windy, so I was certainly thrilled when my bus pulled up - I could kick back & relax until we made it to Gumi (about a 3 1/2 hour trip), where the director of my 'school' was going to take me to my new digs!  The ride immediately after leaving Incheon takes you across a kick ass bridge where you get some great views of the water as well as surrounding parts of Seoul. I also saw a golf course, however, it's the only one I've seen & I didn't bring my clubs.

Little did I know the bus makes a 20 minute stop about halfway there so people can pee, smoke, grab some fried pork on a stick, shop or play games....so I took a little stroll & shot some video:

 

Got a great view of the city from the bridge

All in all, it wound up being a pretty easy couple days of international 'galavanting.' Honestly, spending the extra $600 for first class from Chicago to Tokyo would have been awesome but not knowing when I'd be getting paid, figured it would be smarter to hang onto the cash, just in case I had to post bail or found a convenient 'massage parlor' near the apartment!

If you want to see more video clips, I am posting them on YouTube as well:

http://www.youtube.com/user/skibum4cy?feature=mhum