Monday, October 10, 2011

Far East Movement...

At the beginning of October, I set out on a new 18 - 24 month adventure living and working in Tokyo, Japan. I really enjoyed my semester abroad in Sydney back in grad school, so having international travel opportunities always seemed like a great perk at work. Little did I know I'd be moving half way around the world to a place I had never been!

The last week of September, the movers came to our apartment, packed up all my things, and within four hours all of my worldly possessions were placed in a shipping container to go via sea freight to Tokyo. The whole shipping process to Japan takes about 40 days on average. In the mean time, the company puts you up in a serviced apartment until your belongings arrive.

After the move, a great bon voyage weekend in St. Louis, and resolving many other things in Houston, it was time to travel! One of the nicest things about traveling on the company dime is Business First Class. Before I started working, the extent of my elite-status travel has been getting in the "A" boarding group on Southwest Airlines. If you can relate to this, I thought it would be fun to show you what you are missing out on beyond that thin blue curtain...


Here I am waiting to take off. Plenty of leg room and my own 15" entertainment center.



















This is the remote to the entertainment center, flight attendant call button, controls the lights, etc.


















One of the seat pockets has the in-flight menu you can check out before they come around to take orders.





















Some of the menu options, I went with the chicken.

























Some mixed nuts, champagne, and watching Bridesmaids post take-off.








































Here are the other courses. I forgot to snap a pic of the delish Blue Bell ice cream sundae at the end.







































After all that food, it was time to throw back the Ambien and settle in for bed, afterall, there are still about 11 hours of the flight left at this point. Forget to bring you toothbrush or chapstick on board? No worries, you are provided this handy little travel pouch filled with all kinds of amenities you may need.

I slept about seven hours on the flight. Oh did I mentions the seats turn into flat beds? Nbd. After waking up, I watched a few more tv shows and a movie and prepared my customs card to get through immigration at the Tokyo airport. My co-worker met me at the airport to make sure I didn't get lost my first day in the country. We had a big taxi van pick us up from the airport. It was about an hour long, $280 cab ride...yikes! Good thing that was expensed too.

Arriving at Midtown Tokyo, I was really excited to check out my serviced apartment and start getting settled.

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