Made it

Well, I made it back to Japan safely this year. My flight on Air Canada over the ocean was great. The wonderful stewardesses gave me extra meals for both meal services (1 extra meal on the first meal service and 2 extra meals on the second) and were very friendly. Would definitely recommend that airline if you have the chance to fly with them.
Even the though the flight over was nice the trip didn't go without a hiccup. When I got to Tokyo I went to get my bag from the baggage claim, but instead of my blue suitcase coming around on the carousel I was greeted with a green plastic bin that said "Joseph Werner please see an airline employee." Well, because I am smart I knew I probably hadn't won $5 or something really cool like that and something, probably no good, was up. I was right. I was informed that my bag hadn't made the trip. I guess it wanted to spend some more time in Vancouver, where I flew from, and didn't make it to Tokyo......................fantastic (sarcastic). Its not that big of deal, only that I have pretty much everything I need in there. But I guess I can always cut two holes in a garbage bag and put it on if I need some more undies, so no big deal.
Other than that though alls well and it is nice to be here.

This year we will be in Toyama, Japan.

The past 2 seasons we have been in Chiba (on the east side of Tokyo) and Kyoto (right next to Osaka). This year we are pretty much right in the middle of those two places, only to the north. This team has been pretty successful the past couple of years and we are hoping to have another successful season again. Katy and the girls will be coming over in a couple weeks once I can get the apartment situated and set up (and I am already excited for them to come).

According to wikipedia:
Toyama Prefecture (富山県 Toyama-ken^?) is a prefecture (state) of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island (main Island of Japan). The capital is the city of Toyama.
Toyama is the leading industrial prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, and has the industrial advantage of cheap electricity from abundant hydroelectric resources. It also contains East Asia’s only glaciers outside Russia, first recognized in 2012.
<sup>The city we will live in, Toyama city, has about 417,000 people.

View the rest of the blog here: http://katyandjoey.blogspot.jp/ and thanks for reading</sup>

Back to the land of the rising sun

Well I made it back to Japan, and safely. Although it wasn't without a hiccup. This year to fly over to Japan I flew out of Milwaukee.

My flight went Milwaukee - Chicago - Tokyo - Osaka
When I got to the airport in Milwaukee everything was set on on time and I was good to go. When I got to Chicago though it was a different story. Instead of being on time the flight I had was delayed over 3.5 hours..... Fantastic. Not cool when you have a connection to make. So, I waited. Finally after some time and promise form the United Airlines workers in Chicago that the company employees in Tokyo would help either get me a different flight to Osaka or a hotel room I was ready to go. So we all got on the plane and.....more delay..... Excellent.
The flight was a good flight but I should have enjoyed something nice while I had the chance because things weren't so rosy in Tokyo.
When we got in, they had different lines that you had to go to depending on which kind of connecting flight you missed. If you had an international connection you had two different lines you could go to, or if you had a domestic flight that you missed you had a different line to go to. Since I missed my domestic connecting flight I moseyed into that line. The guy behind the makeshift table they had set up told me that there were no more flights to Osaka that evening and that I would have to wait until the morning to be able to fly. I had kind of guessed this much was going to happen as we got to the baggage claim (where the United people were waiting to help) at 8:30pm. I was a little disappointed but told the guy no problem as I would just hop on the flight in the morning.
But until then I needed somewhere to go. Because I missed my flight United should have paid for my hotel room right? Ha.

The United guy asked me where I was going to stay the night. I saw all the other people in the line being handed red and white vouchers for hotel rooms and said wherever you guys are going to have me stay. He left for a minute and came back. I thought it was going to be to hand me a voucher for the hotel room, instead he handed me some great advice. He told me that because my ticket was booked in two different parts: from Milwaukee to Tokyo and then from Tokyo to Osaka (I think the team did it this way to save a little money) they wouldn't give me a hotel room because their part of the ticket ended in Tokyo. My attempts to explain that if it wasn't for United's mistake I would have made my flight and there wouldn't be a need for us to be talking, fell on deaf ears. He graciously let me know though, that if I needed a place to sleep I could find myself some space out in the arrivals hall and sleep in the airport :) Thanks guy!
But, thats not all. After he told me that they wouldn't get me a hotel room, he went to switch my flight (luckily he didnt tell me I had to buy a whole new airplane ticket). He did however tell me that I would not be able to leave from the same airport I flew into. Instead I would have the privilege of flying out from the other Tokyo airport on the whole other side of Tokyo. How long does it take to get there you ask? A 1.5 hour bus ride..... Super!

I managed to talk the guy into paying for my bus ticket, and dog-tired made it to the other airport (almost slept through my stop). Once I got to the there I checked into the $140 hotel room I found, and got some sleep. The last leg of the trip from the other Tokyo airport to Osaka, and then the car ride from Osaka airport to my place in Kyoto went well, but my goodness what a disaster...... and feat of customer service.
I guess though, I did make it here safely and that's the most important thing.