In Narita

The Japanese are so cute.  All of their announcements are in Japanese and then English.  Until it becomes time to board...  Lots of Japanese, everyone but me stands up, and a woman walks around with a patchwork colored placard there is no chance I could read even if I was wearing my glasses.

I get in line with everyone else and wonder where my preferred boarding went.  The placard lady gets in arms reach and  I figure out that the words on the patches are the colors of the patches in a variety of attractive scripts (Sapphire, for example).  Not so useful as they obviously think.  Perhaps they are classes of service?  My ticket is ticket-color (green and white).  In hope (long line), I wave her down and point to my ticket and her sign.

She waved me through.

I never did hear an English boarding announcement.  Perhaps I just missed it.

Pleasant thoughts

One of the rare perks of this traveling test of my endurance (30+ hours) is the chance to have two real Japanese meals.  The one on AmAir was pretty recognizable as things I have eaten at Japanese restaurants in the US.  The one on JAL....

It had:

• pleasant warm brownish rice
• hot miso in a paper cup
• a small bowl of noodles that I was to pour the mysterious bottle of "noodle sauce" over.  It was very Alice.  Too late, I discovered the wasabi on the edge. ("too late" = I had already swallowed a big lump of it)
  
• Four vegetable lumps.  One was carrot.  One was soy beans.  The other two were shades of brown in strange shapes.  I tasted them, but could not identify.  They tasted like a dull cross between a potato, an overcooked carrot, a turnip, and raw bread dough.  One of them bore a strong resemblance to a small egg.  It was kinda creepy.
  
• A section of fish on its own mini butchers block.  I was very proud of my chopstick technique that allowed me to cut it up.  ... *rueful grin* My hand now aches.
• A bowl of brownish liquid, with something white floating in the center.  Discretely watching my seatmate, I figured out that the brown stuff was clearish noodles.  I carefully tasted them -- cold, the broth more astringent than I like.  I even tried the white thing (mush?).  Unlike my seatmate, I did not finish that bowl.

Where am I?

Malaysia.  Really.  The view out my window is moist, islandy, and mountainous.  Oh, yes, and there are some colorful buildings.  My plan for the day includes copious amounts of walking, taking of pictures, and pretending I am really on my new time zone.