Japan Adventure #1

Flight out of Dulles was diverted to Chicago, because one of our pilots called out sick. They need 4, we had 3, and apparently there were no acceptable backups at Dulles. Flight crew said 20 minutes. Ended up being more like 120, after refueling, swapping some food carts that apparently didn’t stay at correct storage temperature, and sitting on the tarmac waiting for departure clearance. Very glad I grabbed a Potbelly sandwich before I got on the plane, because this significantly delayed onboard meal service.

Food was, well airline food – sustenance, but little else. Chicken & rice or Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes, was the first meal. Later, a small cup of ramen noodles. While convenient for the flight crew, I’m just not keen about someone pouring boiling water on something sitting in my lap on a plane prone to sudden turbulence. Last meal was pasta, either Japanese noodles or rigatoni. Figured this was not a good time to try Japanese noodles, since I could find better examples elsewhere.

Flight arrived after 6pm local, or 3+ hours late. I was never so glad to have decided to stop my travels for the night – lots of folks missed connections and got put up at hotels, or had to run to try to make their connections.

Customs was a breeze, they have a machine that fingerprints both index fingers and then snaps a digital picture of you, in addition to the scan of your passport.

Hotel shuttle. It was a Hilton, nothing much to say. Late dinner of “Japanese curry beef” over rice, which was actually stir-fried beef with brown gravy made with soy sauce and a bit of spicy. Good, but by no means amazing.