tanithryudo: (Dimension Guide)
Well, actually, I've been back for two days now. But I've been spending the last two days catching up on stuff.

My trip to China's been a blast, except when I got sick and the flight back. I've put up backdated entries for the entire experience up on my journal. Here's a menu for easy access (and bookmarking):

12/20 Day 0 - SF to Shanghai
12/21 Day 1 - In Shanghai
12/21 Day 1 - In Nanjing
12/22 Day 2 - Stayed In
12/24 Day 4 - Shopping
12/25 Day 5 - More Shopping
12/26 Day 6 - Family Lunch
12/27 Day 7 - Shopping for Bootleg
12/30 Day 10 - Another Lunch
01/01 Day 12 - More Family Time & Lunch
01/02 Day 13 - Family Visit
01/03 Day 14 - Another Family Visit
01/04 Day 15 - Shopping Again
01/05 Day 16 - Bad Karma
01/06 Day 17 - Sick
01/07 Day 18 - Still Sick
01/08 Day 19 - Nanjing to Shanghai
01/09 Day 20 - Leaving Shanghai
01/09 Day 20 - Stop at Japan
01/09 Day 20 - Stop at LA
01/09 Day 20 - Back Home Again
tanithryudo: (Foreign Relations)
So my flight plan this time is: Pudong (Shanghai) --> Narita (Tokyo) --> LA --> SF

Interesting enough, I actually arrive at LA slightly "before" I leave Shanghai by crossing the international date line. If everything went on time, I should be home in CA by 3 p.m. the same as I left Shanghai at 10 a.m., despite the fact that I'd certainly have to spend way more than 7 hours in the air.

Anyways, the layouver at Narita was about 4 hours as planned, which means about 3 hours of idle time once all the paperwork/check-in stuff was done. I used this time to check out the gift shops and they let me buy stuff with US dollars at a rate of $1 = 102¥. Not sure if that's a fiar rate, but I bought a few souvenirs anyways - a compact mirror for ¥1000 and a swordset keychain that reminds me of a certain hitokiri for ¥350, for about $13.50 total.

Also, since the flight to LA was pretty full, the nice man who checked us in at Narita bumped Mom and me up to the Business class, with all its superior service and stuff.

The flight itself had an American pilot and mostly American crew. AA once again proved itself the sluggard by being late by about an hour or so. They blamed the weather, as it was foggy with small rain in LA at the time. But still, that was one of the worst plane landings I've sat through. Honestly, it felt like a roller coaster and I actually got *cramps* over it, and I almost never get cramps after the first day of my period.
tanithryudo: (Autumn)
My flight plan: San Francisco --> Narita Airport (Tokyo) --> Pudong (Shanghai)

The flight to Tokyo was a long and boring 13 or so hours. I slept through most of it. I did watch the in-flight TV/Movie channel with 2 CSI episodes. AA (American Airlines) has a strong tendency to be late, so everyone had to rush to make their connection flights at Narita. The delay did give me the seredipitious (dubious?) chance to meet my mom on the terminal transfer bus instead of having to look for each other at the departure point/after boarding.

The japanese aircraft going from Tokyo to Shanghai sucked though, b/c it had no fluffy pillows or in-flight TV for the 3-hour flight. But at least it arrived at Shanghai on time despite having left a little late.

After arriving in Shanghai (the next day, technically), we checked into a relatively cheap hotel near the train station (mostly because their ad people ambushed us coming off the bus near the station). It had dim lighting and we couldn't figure out how to work the shower. Mom decided to actually sleep, but my diurnal cycle was still odd, so I only slept from like 3-8 a.m. local time.
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