Thoughts from up high

My flight went to Tokyo from Toronto through Detroit. I took Northwest Airlines to get there and I have to say that although the service was polite and quite nice, something in my mind seems to put my experience with Air Canada back in 2006 in better standing. I think it’s partly because the I remember the food being nicer, and the fact that they offered free beer and wine on the trip. On today’s flight each alcoholic drink was US$5. Now, I seriously don’t want to sound like a drunk, because I’m not, but free booze is a nice perk isn’t it? Somehow it makes it seem like better service. I also noticed that one this flight there weren’t that many Japanese speaking attendants. On the other flight there were a lot that had a good grasp of the language. Even those that didn’t made an effort: “washoku desu ka, omelette desu ka?” (do you want the Japanese breakfast or the omelette?) Mind you, on the flight from Vancouver to Tokyo there really was a big majority of Japanese on the flight. This time…decidedly American and Chinese, mostly because there was an ongoing connection to Shanghai. So, I suppose that if I was to return here again for some reason, I’d choose Air Canada–I’d be willing to pay a small premium for the better service. Of course, will I really have a need to return? Ha.

Anyway, besides service there were some really cool things that I saw out the window. Since we were coming from Detroit, the route actually took a nice arc over parts of Canada that I haven’t seen before. Early on, I looked out the window and saw some really weird land patterns. I could make out rivers but it looked like there was something like an oil slick layer floating on top of it all. It took me a while before I realized that I was actually looking at a thinly frozen layer of ice, with rivers of flowing water running underneath. I was intrigued. When I looked at the on-board map it was revealed that we were flying over Hudson Bay. As I watched, I saw the border between the thin ice areas and the snowy area. It may seem like nothing, but seriously my Canadian self was geeked out over that. Alas, no one around me would have been able to share my awe at staring at the big body of water that I only knew from atlases. We flew over Nunavut and the Northwest Territories as well, but at that point everyone had the windows shut to get some sleep. I couldn’t just open up the windows to look lest I draw the ire of my fellow passengers. Pity that–I was sort of sad that I didn’t get to see it.

As we closed in on Tokyo, I opened the window and was able to see the border between the Pacific and the northeast edge of Hokkaido. Again, I was unreasonably excited at seeing it, but alas, who would I share with?

So, that’s my flight in. A little bit later I’ll talk about my first night here. It involved ABBA, seeing some places shun foreigners, and using my “dumb foreigner” currency to do something rude but necessary.

Possibly related posts:

1. Flight day
2. High tide
3. From simple roots through high vision