Part 1, Surprise, surprise, surprise…..

 

So its Wednesday 20th June 2012, 7:30pm eastern time and in about 30 minutes time I’m about to cross the international date line for the 1st time in my life! Yes you read that right, I will be crossing the international date line!  how is this possible when I’m in the USA to see Rogers’s shows ? Well at this moment in time I’m actually on a flight to Tokyo, Japan!!

As some of you may know, Kami and her dad are in Seoul, Korea at the moment, they’ve been there for 5 days and in 2 days time they fly to Tokyo for a week, and who’s gonna be there to surprise them ? yup, me!

Ever since Mark told me about 4 months ago that he was planning to go to Asia and Kami would be with him I’ve planned to meet them in Tokyo and surprise Kami. Mark has been in on it from the start and was overjoyed when i told him of my plan. She’s surprised me enough times so this is payback and I’ve had to keep it a secret for weeks! A few of my close friends have known about this for a while, Wendy, Chris, Jackie, Dave K,  Beth, Bob, Gail, Paula and a few others, however Kami has always thought (and been told) that I’m going to Canada for the shows in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal which are on the same time as she is away.

Its pretty hard to surprise her due to her being…. well……. er…… honestly, very clever and always suspicious! I’ve even had to convince myself that I’m going to the shows in Canada just so as not to slip up when talking to her, especially the last couple of days when I’ve been talking and skyping with her while she is in Seoul. She had problems with her camera the first couple of days in Korea and i almost said to her on skype “don't worry we’ll have my camera in Tokyo”

There's been a couple of other occasions where I’ve nearly slipped up too but Marks been great on Skype and kept asking me about my trip to “Toronto”. Just last week I even got my Tokyo e flight ticket, copied and pasted it into a Word document and then changed all the flight numbers, flight times, cities etc to make it look like i was flying to Toronto. I called Kami over to the kitchen table when I’d done this and asked her if she wanted my flight details and we both then started trying to work out what time it would be in Korea when i landed in Toronto!!! Kami, darling,  I’m ever so sorry but these things had to be done and a few white lies had to be told, I love you.

(its now 7:55pm eastern time and I’ve just taken the picture of us crossing the international date line)

The last couple of days while Kami has been away I’ve been helping Beth move things in the house as they got all new carpet through the upstairs yesterday. I know Greg and Col are staying with Beth next Monday and Tuesday and I’m ever so sorry i couldn't be there guys, the above is the reason why and i hope it all makes sense now as to how non committal I’ve been about saying whether or not i would be there when you guys are, hope you both have a fantastic time.

Beth dropped me off at IAD airport in Washington DC around 11am this morning,  with huge thanks to my friend James i was booked on the 1pm direct flight to Narita, Tokyo. As much as i was looking forward to the flight i wasn’t looking forward to sitting on the plane for just under 14 hours! At the moment I’ve been sat here 7 hours, so I’m nearly half way there, i managed to sleep for the first couple of hours and have been watching Dexter season 1 on my laptop for the last 3 hours. I’ve got 2 hours left on my laptop battery and after that I’m gonna be twiddling my thumbs and getting agitated for a few hours until we arrive!

I decided to try to arrive in Tokyo the day before Kami and Mark get there, couple of reasons, i wasn’t confirmed on the flight and was hoping there would be seats free and I’d get on as i was 3rd on the standby list and the flight was already oversold!  If for some reason i didn’t get on the flight I’d be trying to get on the flight tomorrow and would still arrive the same time they did. Second, i wanted to catch up on some sleep before Kami and Mark arrived, its a long flight and I’ve been travelling a lot this last few weeks but wanted to be all fresh and relaxed for my time in Tokyo, plus i wanted to be there when Mark and Kami actually arrived.

Beth and a few other people had said to me to make sure i got some pictures of Kami’s face when i actually surprised her, i wasn’t sure how to do this really as id have my bags and would want to give her a hug etc so i decided I’d have my digital camera on video and just video her as i walk up to her.

Id been wondering how to actually surprise her and approach her, the best idea i came up with would have been great but not really possible. As they were waiting for their baggage to arrive on the carousel i would have loved to have been sat on the carousel with all the bags  going round and have come through the hole in the wall with all the luggage, just sat there, legs crossed, arms folded and video running, however i don’t want to be arrested on my first trip to Japan but it would have been classic to have been able to pull that off!

At the moment I’m thinking of finding a place in the baggage hall where i can see them arrive to claim there bags but they cant really see me, I’ll wait till Kami has her back to me and then approach her from behind and maybe just say something like, “ excuse me, can you tell me the way to Toronto ?”,  i don’t know, I’m still not sure yet and i think I’ll have to play things by ear and see what happens when i get there.

I do want to say thanks to everyone for keeping quiet about this for the last few weeks and thanks to everyone that’s helped out and kept the “secret” a secret!

I guess I’ll sign off for now and will add more below when i arrive in Tokyo.

Just got to my hotel, i booked a hotel at the airport that has a shuttle bus and is only 5 minutes away from the terminals. Kami and Mark arrive tomorrow at around 3pm. Its 3am Thursday eastern time here and 5pm Thursday Tokyo time! I’m gonna go have a dip in the hotel pool and then hit the bed, i don’t have to check out till 2pm tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be able to get a good nights sleep tonight.

Crossing for men with hats only                   Narita airport, it was cloudy but 75`           Like you wouldn’t know where you were ?

 

Ok its 10pm, i had a shower watched some TV and went to sleep about 8pm Tokyo time, i feel like I’ve been sleeping for the last 12 hours but its only been 2 hours! I’m now wide awake and that's because its 9am in eastern US, time to get up! so I’ve just put the kettle on and I’m having a nice cup of Earl Grey tea and gonna watch an episode or two of Dexter:)

Mark just sent me a couple of e mails so he and Kami are awake, i sent Kami a message on Facebook last night when i got here but then realised it was 3am eastern time so told her i was awake as i couldn't sleep! she just messaged me 10 minutes ago to say she was shattered after her day at the DMZ in North Korea and is going to bed which is great as i replied and said we’ll chat tomorrow, which of course is her day of arrival here, D Day!

My hotel for tonight                                         My toilet              with buttons!        and instructions!

   

To be continued…..