The Lost LAX Entry

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It's almost 2:00 PM here at LAX as I'm writing these words, about an hour from boarding time on my flight on Singapore Airlines to Narita. I assumed with the length of layover I have here (over six hours) there would be plenty of time to update my travel blog. However, I haven't been able to access the Internet despite a tantalizing list of network names that seem to be some various of "LAX-WiFi."

The flight to LAX on Alaskan Airlines was very pleasant. I sat in a window seat in row 23, right behind the wing. There were some great views taking off and landing. The middle seat was empty and my neighbor at the aisle quietly alternated sleeping and reading. I read the entire in flight magazine and then finished reading a free YA fantasy novel that was provided free one month as part of the Kobo book club. I stored the cranberry snack pack away in my pack in case I need a snack later.

We arrived a few minutes early to Los Angeles. Finding the international terminal at LAX is an adventure that I know about, having heard stories from my parents. Genuinely the only way to reach it is to walk for a very long time to the baggage claim area and then go out to the street and walk for a few blocks to a different building. The trip all seems very counterintuitive as well as not very well marked, and even knowing what I did and asking questions of several people, I still couldn't help but feel I was heading in the wrong direction. Once I finally reached the building that is the international terminal, I asked around and found out that the third floor was where I was supposed to go to get my boarding pass. I arrived there at about 9:30 am only to find that my airline station wouldn't open up until 11:45 am. Later I found out they wouldn't check anyone in until 12:15 pm. Undeterred, I headed up another flight of stairs and settled myself in by a lounge window to play Hearts on my laptop. About an hour later I stretched my legs and checked out the limited food options, thinking I would likely eat lunch at one of them. I returned to find my great seat co-opted, so settled in at a different counter to read some more on my Kobo -- this time from an abridged translation of the famous Japanese literary work, The Tales of Genji.



Checking in to get my boarding pass at around 12:20 pm, the Singapore Airlines rep had my preference marked as an aisle seat. I told him I preferred window seats, but I would be happy wherever they placed me. The gentleman behind the counter, a peppy man styling purple glasses, was more than happy to place me in a window seat -- but which deck did I want, the upper or the lower deck? I was completely thrown by this unexpected question. If I have ever flown in an airplane with multiple floors, I certainly can't remember it. He seemed delighted at my confusion and asked if I had never flown in the upper deck before. When I replied that I hadn't he told me it was up to me which one I wanted, but as near as I could understand his explanation, the upper deck apparently is roomier. He said there was no price differece, so I agreed to try the upper deck for the flight to Japan.



It was back through another security checkpoint at this point, the place where I'm fairly certain my blue travel pillow went missing in action (although I didn't notice until later as all essentials were accounted for -- backpack, passport, laptop, hooded sweatshirt, coat, and dual time travel watch). Once I made it through security I realized my mistake -- all my lunch options, spendy as they were, were now out of my reach. I was left with the one cafe near my gate, where I bought the spendiest cold chicken pesto sandwich I have ever purchased -- $10.86 with tax. Since so many of you expressed excitement about the great food I am bound to eat on the trip, I took a photo of this incredibly expensive sandwich for you that I intend to share later.



Not much has happened since then. I played some more games of "Hearts" on my laptop while charging it from a blog outlet and then wrote this blog entry, which I will share the next time I have Internet access. It is currently Thursday, 2:26 Pacific Standard Time and according to my dual time watch it is Friday, 6:26 am in Japan the next day. Despite getting up at 3:50ish, I've only been up for about ten hours at this point and am only mildly tired.

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