Nothing Quite Like Jet Lag

Listening to:
大塚愛
Love Letter

So on the journey from Hawaii back to Okinawa, I got tagged with a 4-hour layover in Taiwan. I’ve really got no problems with traveling alone, but there’s only so much that you can do when you’re stuck in an airport by yourself. Taiwan is actually a place that I would love to properly explore, so I guess I’ll just jot it down on my list of places to visit while I’m here in Japan. I’ve been thinking about visiting Thailand as well, but I guess the truth is that I’m just a little intimidated about the prospect of traveling alone to a country where I can’t speak the language.



Spending 17 hours straight in airports/airplanes is no joke, so I was both exasperated and exhausted by the time I got back to my apartment. Some pros and cons of flying the semi-infamous China Air:

The Good:

• The price is right.
  
• My flights were probably about 80% full, so I was lucky enough to be next to an empty seat twice. I’m not real keen on sitting next to a potentially large and unhygienic stranger(s) for 10 hours straight.
  
• Most of the flight attendants were quite beautiful.
  
• The Chinese Christmas carols. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Feliz Navidad in Chinese.
  
• The planes themselves may be old, but they still have those touch sensitive screens that let you watch movies on demand. I never thought I’d be catching up on flicks in the air. Appaloosa, Hellboy 2, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona made the flight a lot more endurable. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor? Not so much.
  

The Bad:

• Being in constant fear of the plane going down mid-flight. At one point the captain said that we were experiencing some “mild turbulence,” but the cabin was shaking so much that I thought that he had said “wild turbulence.” It was that bad.
  
• The weird sandwiches with the corn in them.
  
• People thinking I’m Chinese, and attempting to speak to me as such.

Inevitably, the fear of dying outweighs the attractive stewardesses, so logic suggests that dropping the extra few hundred to fly JAL is the way to go. On the other hand, I suppose I’m not above risking my life to save a few bills, so you never know.