touching down old dominion

aboard United Airlines flight


i'm currently about 11km high up in the sky aboard united airlines flight heading towards tokyo narita. the cabin is all dark after breakfast just now. i'm sitting beside a lady who did her hair high and hard, like no storm would ever messed it up. we never talked, which mainly because i fell asleep after take off, woke up 10 minutes for breakfast while watching the end of journey to center of the earth movie, before falling asleep again. as a traveller, i'm blessed of having no problem at all sleeping along the journey.

i must say, i'm not at all impressed with united airlines so far. this boeing 777 looked old, thank god we have our personal screens but there are only movies and no game! and we couldn't even chose the timing of the movies. i mean, at the time when people start taking A380 with big screens and all, i ended up in this junk. it's sad really, when you realized that the company is trying very hard to find the cheapest deal when arranging the travel. made you think how much you are worth. this flight should be business class in the first place. to think that i have to spend 20 hours on this flight till it lands in washington dc, and then take the same flight back to singapore after 5 days just gives me shivers. well, serve me right for wanting to take this non-compulsory house-finding trip just because it was included in the transfer package.

at least i know i'm coming back to singapore after 5 days. i cannot imagine taking that final one-way flight after new year. the thought of leaving my current home for at least the next 2 years freaked me out sometimes. gosh, did i make the correct decision? i totally wrote and made peace about this last time, but the doubts keep coming back and i have to find reasons again.

ok this plane is a bit shaky. from the map on my tiny screen that i almost need a magnifying glass to look into, we are now just passing through taiwan, which means 2 more hours before the transit in tokyo. and that's not even half of the trip yet! oh gosh. you'd think with so many inventions in the world, someone could have invented time travel machines, or at least commercial sound-speed jets. but instead, those nobel prize winners got their recognitions for their work on some crap like world peace activities and stuff. i mean come on, we have beauty pageants for that.

somehow my laptop battery is draining fast. i'll write again after recharging at narita.

beautiful top of mt fuji while approaching tokyo



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ok. the transfer in narita was nothing great too. the first thing i did in the terminal was to find public phones since my mobile was unable to connect to any network. at that point, i wasn't sure if it was due to my mobile setting or the japanese network. the point is, i was so lost without connection to the outside world.

i changed 30 singapore dollars to japanese yen, and got only 1600 yen. hmm.. not as many as i had expected, but with some coins, i was able to make a short call to singapore. it was a relief actually, just like finally finding toilet after some frantic search. with the yen remnants in my pockets, i bought a box of sushi by the waiting terminal. was it good? hmm pretty decent, though frankly i think ichiban sushi in singapore tasted better heh heh...and much cheaper too!

apparently there was no free internet offered in the terminal, and i couldn't recharge my laptop because i left my plug adaptor in my checked-in luggage. damn it! good preparation huh? i almost wanted to hit my head on the wall. things like this made me miss changi airport so much. at last, i found my last 100 yen coin after rummaging my pockets, so i used that for a 10 minutes internet. which was freaking expensive but hey, it's japan, everything should be expensive here. and i got to drop mail to starhub complaining about non-connectable roaming network too (which might not be their fault but i got to release some steam).

then.. another flight to catch. oh god.

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my first look of washington DC shortly before landing at washington dulles


finally, i am now in man@ssas residence inn, virginia.

after a 12 hours flight from tokyo-narita to washington dulles, which involved 2 turbulences and a coca-cola-spilled-to-next-passenger incident, and a 3 hours lost on washington highways.

the roads here are so confusing, and me not knowing the area made it worse. it's like when you finally came to a junction, you have X town to the east and Y town to the west. and you wanted to go to Z town, so which way should you go? plus, i was not quite used to the car. it's a 6 seater mazda so it's bigger than sedan that i usually drive, and i somehow couldn't work out the view in the side mirrors, and here being left handed drive didn't help at all.

then while i was busy running down every roads there were in the east coast, the day got dark and it rained! so i was like, o god why? why??? one time, i managed to get into man@ssas, which i think was pure miracle, but then i accidentally went into another highway. when i finally got out off that highway after many miles, it was only to enter another highway and voila! i was lost again. at that time, i seriously considered finding a police station and ask the sheriff to send me home. anyway, after a few phone calls with the hotel personnel, i managed to get into the hotel.

here are the room photos (i better take this before i mess it up).



man@ssas residence inn, for $109/night, which i don't pay

not bad huh? but i can't help feeling lonely here. if only... hmm but i guess, nobody can have everything, so let's try to make the best of what we have currently, shall we?

tomorrow i'm gonna find a way to go to my new company and sign some letters, then maybe have a look around. and i must remember, to NOT enter any highways.

now i'm gonna watch heroes episode 13...



...ed