The Trip Back...

Our trip back to Sakhalin started out being uneventful and smooth....just how we like it.  We were all flying business class on the Continental flight (Adam and I upgraded), so we were looking forward to a nice trip.  And it was a nice trip...until we we arrived at Narita airport.

There were several (I would say at least 30) people on our flight from Houston that were continuing on to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk via Vlad Air.  They had a table set up right where you exit the aircraft with all of our boarding passes....well, everyone's but Shane's.  They told us to continue to the gate (which was a nice 30 minute walk) to find out what the problem was.  When we got to the gate, they clicked away on their keyboards and chatted on phones for what seemed like forever, and then they finally told us the bad news:  Shane didn't have a ticket.  We still don't exactly know why...our only guess is that the seat was reserved and not paid for, so no e-ticket was issued.  They wouldn't let us buy a ticket (even though the flight wasn't full) because it was less than 1 hour before the flight was scheduled to leave.  As you can imagine, we were less than thrilled to be a mere 2 hours from being home and able to go.  Adam and I had tickets, but we didn't have any Rubles to give the customs agent that was sure to be waiting on me since I would be traveling without my husband.  With Shane traveling with us, we don't have to pay anything.

So now comes the task of retrieving our luggage from the plane, a process that for some reason took 2 hours.  During that time we called the travel company that tickets Vlad Air and spoke to a very confused woman who tried to sell us a ticket on that day's flight - that had already left!  So I guess if we had found a phone that worked before the flight took off, Shane could have gone with us?  Who knows.  We decided not to wait around Tokyo until the next flight, which was two days later.  We took a bus to Haneda airport, checked into a hotel that was connected to terminal 2, and booked seats on an ANA flight to Sapporo and the company charter for the next day.  Whew!  But our fun wasn't over....

The next morning we woke up to Adam having some sort of stomach bug.  He threw up all over himself, the restaurant where we were having breakfast, the elevator, the hallway to our room...you get the picture.  We get back up to the room and I get him changed and cleaned up and than realized that we had left his favorite sleep toy.  Shane had gone back to the ANA counter to inquire about luggage fees vs. business class tickets (he opted for the latter...it was cheaper!), and Adam told me that he took Buzz Buzz (the toy's name).  Well, he didn't.  After interrogating everyone in the dining room about this toy, someone finally directs me to the lost and found box in the reception area of the hotel.  Sure enough, they had found it at our table and put it away.  Okay, crisis avoided.  Now we just had to hope and pray that Adam wouldn't get sick anymore, as our flight was in less than 2 hours.  I had visions of him puking all over the check in counter and being told that we couldn't fly.  The Japanese are scared to death of sickness, but they are even more afraid of the H1N1 virus.  Adam didn't have fever or any other symptoms.  I think it was a combination of being over-tired, over-hungry, and possibly some dodgy food on the airplane.  Well, fortunately that didn't happen and we made the rest of our flights without any more trouble.

We are now back in Yuzhno and getting back into our routines.  It's good to be home!