My terrible, awful, no good, very bad flight!

As most of you know, I was back in good ol' MN for my Winter break. It was wonderful! Two weeks of seeing friends and family, shopping in stores where clothes FIT, ordering at restaurants where I was understood, the list goes on. Needless to say, I enjoyed every minute of it and I didn't want to leave, but Japan called so back I went. Unfortunately, the trip back to my little appato turned out to be THE WORST traveling experience of my life thus far. Here is a summary of my own series of unfortunate events, enjoy! :P
I knew it was going to be a rough trip when I got to my gate over an hour early and it was already packed. No seats, nothing. I decided to go get some last minute American food, (Caribou cooler and Subway) before heading back, taking a seat on the floor and reading my book until it was time to get on the plane. This weird little guy came to sit down next to me about 10 mins later but I ignored him because I didn't want to talk to anybody. Alas! I was thwarted both because the line to get on the plane was so damn long and this guy really REALLY wanted to talk. A lot. Nonstop. He's from Manila in the Philippines, he was visiting his family here in the States, he's in college, he likes hockey, let's talk hockey, I should visit Manila, he'd show me around blah blah blah blah. Plus he had this weird not quite lisp, not quite accent that made him really hard to understand... especially when he was talking a mile a minute. I was hoping and praying that he would not be sitting anywhere near me on the plane and, luckily, I was saved that experience. He was on the same side of the plane but farther back, thank goodness. (For my sanity AND his life!)
When I got to my seat I was hoping that, by some miracle, no one would be sitting in the two middle seats but that didn't happen. This brother and sister sat in the middle seats, and the sister spread her big jacket and sweaters on top of her and taking up the arm rest and part of my seat. (The seats are small enough already without that annoyance!) Anyway, I still didn't want to talk to anybody so, after we took off, I plugged in my headphones, listened to some music and read my book. I passed the time that way quite happily for about the first 3-4 hours, but my ears were getting sore from the headphones so I decided to let them rest. That's when the brother of the girl sitting next to me decided it was ok to talk to me, even though I was obviously reading a book. At first I didn't realize he was walking to me because I was reading. (I heard someone say, "So, where are you headed?" but I assumed that question wasn't for me since I was bent over my book not looking around wanting to talk. BUUU! Wrong!) Where was I going, what was I doing in Japan, what was I going in America, blah blah blah. Nothing too bad until I asked why he was going to Korea. Apparently he's a member of the too-much-information crowd and promptly told me that his mother had died in a car accident in Korea so his family was flying there. Gee, thanks dude. What the hell am I supposed to say to that!? I said, "Oh. I'm so sorry." paused, and started talking rapidly about wanting to visit Korea at some point before making my escape to the ladies room. In my hurry, I didn't notice that the stupid, annoying, Manila boy, Antonio, was also there until it was too late. Luckily a stall was open, so I muttered hello and dove in.
I decided to just chill in there for a while in the hopes that he would leave. No such luck, he was actually waiting outside of the bathroom for me! GAH! I wanted to scream. I talked to him as briefly as I good, discovered that he was traveling by himself for the first time and didn't know what to do but kinda liked it, (A LIE! If he'd liked it he wouldn't be talking to everyone in sight and stalking me into the bathroom!) and thought that we should exchange email addresses so that we could chat and I could tell him when I was coming to the Philippines. (I never told him I was going; I mentioned every Asian country BUT that one, actually.) I finally made my escape, saying that I really wanted to get back to my book, gave a non-committal answer to the email question, ran back to my seat, thru on my headphones before the Korea guy could talk to me more, and buried my nose in the book.
The rest of the flight was uneventful, people wise. The food was awful, awful, AWFUl... so gross that I couldn't finish anything that they gave me. We kept running into turbulence and getting jostled every which way. The movies they played were TERRIBLE and I just wanted to get the hell off that plane. They thwarted me there, too, as we were forced to circle outside of Tokyo for 25-30 mins waiting to get clearance to land... usually I'm fine on planes but even I was feeling queasy! I was hoping that when we landed I'd be able to make a quick escape to avoid the chatty and oh-so annoying Antonio, but that was not to be. I'd just stood up to start getting my luggage and he was already there. I mean, he must have gotten up and raced up the aisle while we were still moving because people stand up really quickly on a flight once that seatbelt sign goes off. To make matters worse, he was then right next to me the entire time we were waiting to get off the plane, which takes forever on an International flight especially! He'd written down his email and wanted mine, so I lied and told him I didn't have an email. He then decided to also give me his myspace address, yammering all the while, and generally made those 5-10 mins some of the worst of my life. I was being downright rude, giving one word responses, ignoring him blatantly, etc but he didn't get the drift. (I could see the people around me pointing at him and rolling their eyes. Everyone but little Antonio could tell that I really DID NOT want to talk to him!) Finally we started moving, thank goodness, and I booked it off that plane.... with that f***ing Antonio at my heels. He followed my almost all the way to customs. I thought I was going to hit him, instead I just walked as fast as I could in an attempt to oupace him. (I am about 4 inches taller, but I was also hampered down by laptop and carry-on, so I wasn't very successful goddammit!) I raced through customs, grabbed my luggage, and ran as fast as I could to find the bus to Haneda... with visions of that freaking guy following me the entire time. It was terrible!
I found the bus to Haneda easily, almost cried when I found out it cost 3000 yen, cheered up when I found out there was an ATM only to be crash back down when I discovered it wouldn't accept any of my cards. I was starting to panic, because if either the hotel or the bus station didn't accept VISA I was going to be stranded in Fukuoka with no money. A scary thought because that's one BIG city, (1.2 million, I think) and people aren't as friendly there are they are in a small town. I crossed my fingers the entire way to Haneda airport, made it to my gate in plently of time, and braced myself to call the hotel and ask about credit cards. HALLELUJAH!!!! One thing went right on my trip, they took cards!!! My good feeling didn't last very long, however, as we soon discovered that we'd be taking off 20 mins late due to an earlier flights late arrival. Goddammit all! By this point I was struggling to even stay awake because I hadn't really slept on the plane. I dozed for about an hour or so, and that was it. The plane ride from Tokyo to Fukouka is a blur of sleepiness, all I remember is curling up in my chair and trying to stay awake. We arrived in good time, I got my luggage quickly, found a taxi quickly, made it to my hotel and didn't even bother to shower before climbing into bed and passing out at about midnight.
The next morning I woke up at 6-ish, for some reason, though I refused to get out of bed until 7:30. Everything was still kinda blurry for me, I had only slept for a total of about 6-8 hours for the past two days afterall, but I managed to get downstairs and quickly find a taxi to take me to the station. My train from Hakata to Kumamoto was easy easy and I had no problems except for being really really tired. The train from Kumamoto to Misumi, where my car was parked, was a different story. I got to Kumamoto at about 10am and thus just missed the train that left at 10. Luckily, there was another train at 11 so I only had to wait an hour outside. (Thank goodness because it was COOOLD!) Unfortunately, partly because of stupidity and partly because of tiredness, I managed to miss the 11am train even though I was standing right there. The problem was that the train looked different from the one I'd previously taken to and from Kumamoto. Also, the sign on the train didn't say Misumi, (I DO know how to read that in kanji!) and there were no station employees around to ask. So the train took off and I kept waiting for the 11 am train until 11:15 when I realized that I'd been an idiot. Thus I had to stand around outside, freezing, tired, and very annoyed until 12:19 when the next train came. Luckily I got that one ok, make it to Misumi. Found my car stilll there, (much to my relief!) loaded up and headed home.
At home I unpacked, took out my contacts, laid out my futon and watched the family movies that my Dad burned for me. Then I got ready for bed, watched Akeelah and the Bee, (AWESOME movie!) and passed out. It was a long, long, and not fun traveling experience!
This has definitely put me off International travel for a while... I need a few months to recover! Luckily I have only domestic travel plans for the next few months, so I'm at least saved the general aggravation caused by customs! :) Osaka and Kyoto, here I come!