2012 US Trip Part II – Japan Photo blog

From what I recently shared here, my itinerary for my 2nd US visit last March was crazy. I had 2 lay-overs for a total of 20 hours going to Seattle. Nabaliw na ako kakaaliw sa sarili ko. lol. I will let the pictures show you how it went and how I managed to keep myself busy for 8 freakin’ hours at my first stop: Chūbu Centrair International Airport in Nagoya, Japan!

I don’t like Delta airlines that much because the plane is small and cramped compared to Hawaiian Airlines.

Window seat – not a good idea if you’re on a 3-seater. I had to wake these 2 pax up for like 3 times so I can go to the lavatory. Their eyes when they look at me shouts I hate you. haha

Breakfast – Mechado, Steamed bokchoy, mixed fruit and chocolate muffin. It was ok.

After 3 hours and 45 mins  ( ganun lang pala kabilis makarating ng Japan no? Parang Manila-Bataan lang? ).. Nagoya! It was my first time to step into Japanese grounds.

First stop at the Airport: The bathroom. It was clean but the interior look is old. Look at the 2 types of toilet. One is easy but I will never ever use and the other one is the “normal” toilet but gets complicated with all the buttons. I think it took me 2 mins to look for the “flush”.

The stores at the airport don’t accept US dollars or any other currency so you have to exchange it for yen.

All of the stores at the airport are too sosyal. So it was definitely a shopping-less stay.

Another hard part is choosing what to eat. Good thing they have pictures. I was doing a lot of hand gestures pointing to this and that.

Food! Walang kamatayang Starbucks when I got there then an Authentic Katsudon few hours before my next flight! It was truly delicious.

This is not a busy airport, that I can say. I didn’t mind and It was actually fun because I was camwhoring all day long. lol

Why do they have too many buttons on their machines???? Is it really that complicated?

Wi-fi kept me sane. Oh and also gazing at people and checking out how they dress.  

After 8 hours of walking back and forth ( it wasn’t a huge airport ) and constant update of my Facebook profile, We were finally ready to board for our next stop: Hawaii!!!!!

 

Coming up next!

Don't agonize. Organize.

 

This is my official entry to the Howard Storage World + Dainty Mom Wow Your Wardrobe Contest.

 

In the past, I was the kind of person who looks at the clutter I needed to organize then get too overwhelmed. I wasn’t always sure where to start and just ended up procrastinating. Or sometimes I get hung up on something specific, say my high school love letters, and spend hours and hours giggling like I was in junior high without getting too far in the overall organizing effort.

That happens over and over and over again until my mom would lecture me NON-STOP.  

Now that I’m a little bit older and have a 15-year old step daughter and 10-yr old step son, I’m now the one who does the NON-STOP blah blah blahing. My step-daughter who’s in senior high, would save all the bits and pieces, be it a Starbucks to-go cup, a bus ticket or even F-L-A-M-E-S scribbled on a scratch paper with her name and Robert Pattinson. lol. She’s the typical girly-girl who have these hundreds of earrings/friendship bracelets/headbands of all the possible colors you can think of.

While she’s busy being a teenager, my stepson is also busy being a usual 10-year old. School bag on top of the dining table, one shoe below the TV rack while the other one is MIA ( missing in action ), used socks on top of his bed and sweaty uniform inside his cabinet. Nice.

Sorry and thank you Mama for going through all that six times ( I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers). haha.

This is the reason why I deserve to win a Php10,000 wardrobe showcase from Howards Storage World. I definitely need to have these tools to teach these kids that organizing and having a place for everything is not just a must, it’s neat, it’s fun and it’s so wonderful to look at! This would be a great start to a normal life!

love, love, love!

Let’s go and stop the agony! Good luck to all!

2012 US Trip Part I– Prepping

I was invited by our client to attend this year’s Microsoft Hosting Summit at Bellevue, WA to present in front of the members of our Microsoft and SPLA Reseller team. Sosyal dba. Ang ganda sa pandinig – Cereer na career! lol

Prepping for the trip was actually CRAZY. The conference was a 3-day event from Mar-27-29 and my manager only asked me to go during the 2nd or 3rd week of Feb. Kalerki. Parang I only had like less than a month (minus weekends) to renew my Visa since my first one back in 2010 was valid for only 3 mos. Well I guess I was really meant to be on that trip because I was able to schedule an appointment one week before my supposed/target departure, got approved for a Visa on a Tuesday, got my passport back with 10 YEARs VISA validity on a Friday. Yep, I can go back and forth the US now for the next 10 years.. yun eh as long as company paid. So my manager immediately booked the flight on that same day. And since they wanted me to fly out on Sunday ( remember I got the Visa on Fri ) the flight were immensely expensive. As in. Almost 4 months worth of my salary na yata yun e. At eto ang pinakawinner jan… the itinerary my manager got me, he said was the cheapest !Take a look…

Sorry for the blurred pic. Here was the flight info: From Manila to Nagoya - 3hr 45mn flight with 8 1/1 hours of layover. Nagoya to Honolulu- 7hr 50mn flight with 12 hours and 10 mins of layover. Then finally from Honolulu to Seattle which is a 5hr 39mn flight.

SO ito na talaga ang pinakaCheap? Walang ibang choice? I was so pissed when I saw this itinerary because I will be travelling alone and I didn’t know what to do in the airport to kill time during those exagerrated long hours. Pero at the end.. naexcite na din ako. haha. I get to go to JAPAN! Kahit man lang ba hangin sa airport ng Japan, winner na! lol.

And since my new visa doesn’t have any annotation in it, I was confident to roam outside the Honolulu airport. As in sa paligid lang ito ha kasi baka kung san ako mapadpad. Para naman makasanghap din ng hangin sa Hawaii.

Up next: My 8-hour Japan experience! Watch out for it! Japan Japan!

Lhai