Category: Random

My plane trip to the US has finally come to a conclusion. After a flight delay (I’m surprised it was the only delayed flight of my trip so far), I touched down at Austin-Bergstrom airport. One thing good about flying late is that there usually aren’t many people on it, and you have a higher chance of not having to sit next to a stranger. A big plus when you’re traveling alone, in my opinion. You don’t have to bother people when going to the toilet and vice versa, you don’t have to worry about your shit getting stolen when you’re sleeping (maybe I’m just paranoid). Also you won’t have to worry about intruding in each other’s personal spaces.

I slept during the whole flight – I guess the trick to not staying awake is to remove all entertainment (it was a small plane with no personal entertainment systems for each chair – there was a common display playing Bohemian Rhapsody (good movie btw). I put on a podcast and shut my eyes.

Most importantly, operation: migrate Snuggles has come to a conclusion. I have successfully brought her over to Austin where she will be spending the rest of her life. Like Jason said: she gets to be American before me. Heh.

She’s super attached to me right now, despite my sister being her favorite back when she was still in Malaysia. I guess she must have forgotten about her after all those years. Hopefully she warms up in the coming days – not like she has much of a choice. On the bright side, she’s going to have a nice backyard to run around and do dog stuff in. Not like back in KL where she’s cooped up in my tiny apartment.

I finally had my first shower. Also, my sister cooked me some instant ramen for supper. She also mentioned that there are some good ramen places here in Austin, so I think I’ll be having more tasty Japanese noodles in the coming week.

The weather is great, just right for me – not too cold or hot. What a great start to this trip.

(Bonus points for figuring out this title’s reference)

My flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles was uneventful. JAL food isn’t very good, in my opinion. I had three different meals and they were all meh desite them trying to be all fancy when it was unecessary. There was a flyer served with the dinner course, telling us about the airlines’ chef program and that the dishes we were eaten had been created by two rising stars.

I watched many films – not sure why I wasn’t sleepy, only slept about two hours out of the whole 10.5 hour journey. I watched – Tomb Raider (meh), Johnny English Strikes Again (aight), Thailand Only (pretty funny, though the last act with the ghost felt so out of place, Tag (was pretty bad, couldn’t bring myself to finish it), and The Shape of Water (meh, strange sex).

Landed in LAX this morning, I finally got to see Snuggles. She seemed alright, I let her run around the handicap toilet for a bit, where she took a leak (I cleaned up of course), and I fed her some snacks and water. Just one more flight and she’ll never have to get on a plane again (at least not anytime soon!). I checked her in early so I’m currently wasting time at the airport, waiting for the next flight. Not sure if I could have planned my flights better, but having two long-ass transits is a pretty big waste of time but I was constrained by my budget and travel-with-a-pet requirement. It would have meant an additional day not spent traveling. Oh well. I haven’t showered in over a day. Fortunately, I haven’t been sweating, thanks to the cold weather – if not I’d probably be reeking right now.

Nothing much to say, except that the lack of indoor smoking areas here is a bummer – it’s a real hassle to exit the airport for a smoke because you need to go pass security again to reenter. So I have been relying on Snus, which have been great. Getting a tobacco fix in the plane and airport without breaking the rules is a win in my book. Oh, I encountered my first all-gender toilet today. I was genuinely confused for a moment this afternoon heading to the toilet when I saw ‘all-gender’ signs on both sides. I had to walk further down one direction to find the male toilet. Was a first for me, I wonder if they are frequently used or as vacant as the handicap toilets in Malaysia.

One more flight til I reach my destination tonight, will write again if I haven’t passed out by then.

Landed in Japan safely! After being approached by the staff with a welcome sign – they wanted me to provide documentation for Snuggles. Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to go see her. Sad. I wonder what’s going through her mind right now.

Think about it – imagine if you were thrown into a cage, carted around in a large building with unfamiliar, then taken away from the only people you know and then stored in a waiting room for an unspecified amount of time (dogs don’t have watches, neither do they know the time for the flights – how long they need to wait for the flight or how long the flight is going to take). You get on a plane surrounded by other crates and maybe some pets (unlikely since I didn’t see anybody else checking in a pet at the counter). You don’t know where you’re going, or what the sensation of going up into the air means. It must be harrowing.

You land, you think it’s over – but no, you’re still in your cage and brought out to another area. You don’t get to see your master just yet. You wait for an unspecified amount of time until it’s time to fly again. It’s like a neverending nightmare. I hope she’s not too stressd out. Snuggles, if you somehow find a way to access my blog, read and understand English, stay strong. We love you, and we’ll be together soon!

Besides my incessant worrying about my dog, I did manage to enjoy myself a bit. Since I have ten hours here in Narita, I had breakfast at the airport. Tomita Ramen – yes, the very same one that was featured in the documentary, Ramen Head. Now I have no idea if this holds a candle up to the original restaurant, but for what it’s worth, the ramen was fucking great. Hands down the best Tsukemen I’ve ever had. I wish the broth was hotter to counteract how cold the noodles were, but maybe it was meant to be served this way. The fact that I didn’t have to queue up at 5am to get a bowl of noodles was a plus. Regardless, I enjoyed my meal a lot and hope to eat it again in the future.

It has started drizzling (typing this post outdoors right now, the weather is chilly/great – 12 degrees celcius. Good thing I have a hoodie. And a beanie. It’s been a while since I’ve worn it. Until my next update.