New York, New York

The city so nice they had to name it twice.

I enjoyed my two weeks there. I didn’t have time (nor a laptop, i refuse to use Deen’s macbook for anything serious) to update my posts there, so all the paragraphs I scribbled on random receipts, pamphlets and other scraps during my trip are going to end up here in one big post. I’m not even sure how I ought to organise them, so just treat this post as something of a stream of consciousness.

I’m backdating this post to the day I departed Singapore. Look for other updates soon.

I flew into and out of New York on All Nippon Airways. Pretty decent setup, though the Boeing 777-200ER that I took from Narita to JFK had noticably less leg-room than the Boeing 767-300 that I took twixt Changi and Narita. Oh well, guess the longer flights are more worth the milking, so piling more bodies into the fuselage becomes inevitable.

I had the entire row to myself from Changi to Narita, something which happened to me on the return flight (and for which I’m very, very grateful. Thank you, ye almighty Airline Gods), but was sandwiched between the window and a lovely, lovely elderly Japanese couple who likely were making their first international trip ever.

For that matter, most of the passengers on the four flights I took were Japanese, or at least Asian, and this produced a very memorable flight experience for me; memorable for it’s sheer immemorability. I love flying with the Japanese. They’re all so disciplined, so painfully courteous. The lovely couple next to me would bob their heads to every stewardess who passed, and the stewardesses would do the same with great formality and aplomb before regarding them with brilliant smiles, the kind you bestow upon your grandparents.

The aircraft were all as quiet as tombs. You ought to know the usual cacophonies present on aircraft: babies, toddlers with too much sugar in their systems, pre-teens with too little neural tranquilizer in theirs (always bring a blow gun, parents!) and random assholes who think God gifted them with such amazing voices and towering intellects that they NEED to share it with anyone/everyone in earshot. Thank GOODNESS cell phones get no reception at 40,000 ft.

So yes, the flights were very very very peaceful and the old couple were so courteous when I had to clamber over them to use the washrooms, the only downside of a window seat. My bladder’s supposed to be stronger than theirs but I was quite happily making the most of my Carte Blanche housepour allowance. Hey, I paid good money for my ticket.

The upside of having a window seat (and a good camera) is that one can take all sorts of stunning sky shots. I’ll put some up in the gallery soon.

And so after a 8 hour flight, and for the first time in my flight, I set foot in Japan. More on that in the next update.

-Marc