Dozo, Fukatsu champan-o mo kudasai (two more champagnes, please!)

Just spent the best 12 hours of our lives on a plane ever!!!!  We love Japan just from how awesome the flight attendants and the airplane food was!!!! 

The second we entered the first class lounge (player style!!!) Jeff regained his enthusiasm for Japanese and we haven't looked back once!!!  We nibbled some inari (fried bean curd) and rice patty with a salmon suprise inside while we waited for the plane to get ready.  Once we boarded, all of the mythic first class stories started coming true... champagne- CHECK!  warm towel- CHECK!  slippers- CHECK a very high teck chair that reclines all the way in to sleeper position- CHECK  warm nuts- KIND OF (a Japanese version at least).  Jeff and I made a pact that we were going to speak as much Japanese as we could, which actually turned out to be quite a lot, and instantly we became the favorites in business class!  We didn't have much competition- most of the other passengers were Japanese men who slept the entire way!!!  We were given a menu of a set meal we were going to get, along with a page of about 6 other meal options we could order at any time after that.

  Jeff and I obviously chose the Japanese meal (interestingly enough all of the Japanese people ordered the western meal- I guess the grass is always greener).  Our first course was eight little bowls of yumminess- Conger Eel Terriyaki in Jelly, Cold Egg Custard, Sea breem sashimi, Fried pumpkin, Seared scallop with spicy cod roe, inari sushi with salmon roe, poached crabmeat and seaweed and finally simmered chicken and vegetables.  Jeff and I paired this course with two different types of sake and we took pictures all along the way!!!  All of it was delicious!!  What was really cool was that there was this little plastic crane on the tray- it took us a while to figure out but realized that it was a chop stick holder!!! Two other courses followed- sweet!!!  Jeff waited a couple of hours before he started into the next round and ended up ordering four out of the six other meal options!  He compared the flight with a cat's life, doing nothing except eating, sleeping and going to the bathroom.   (I would add drinking a lot of free booze to that list)!

While he was passed out, my hands and feet started to swell- and I got a bit panicked (nothing like having an allergic reaction at 40,000 feet).  After explaining to the hostess what was happening, she assured me that it was normal and invited me to try a traditional bamboo massage.  She put a rod of bamboo on the flower and towels over and I was hanging out stepping on the bamboo trying to increase blood flow to my feet. (Yes there was that much room and we could get up and roam around).  Our flight attendant loved our butchered attempts at Japanese, and we bonded over bamboo massages, but it really hit the fan when she found out that we were on our honeymoon.  We were immediately surrounded by other stewardesses, giggling, bowing, congratulating us.

  Soon they returned with a hand written note of congratulations, then two origami tops (dare I say dreidels), then playing cards, then Tokyo tourist books.  Hell, they even brought us two kiddy packs- with sippy cups and children's toothbrushes!!!  When we landed, we asked to take a picture with our stewardess, she got so excited, grabbed the other girl who had folded our origami presents and sneaked us into the crazy futuristic first class cabin (we were only business class) to take the pic.  A two minute round of smiles, bows and arrigatos gozaimas-es followed, and Jeff and I left the plane ready to pack our bags and move to Japan!!!  I hope the rest of the country is as cool as the flight over here!!!!

It is now six in the evening of Thursday, and we're getting ready to board our third flight of the day (or two days).

  That didn't stop us from hitting the first class lounge again and getting more free drinks!!!  Woo hoo!!!  On to Bangkok!