Today we woke up with the intention of exploring Tokyo, specifically the Imperial Palace. After a delightful breakfast at our hotel, we packed up our cameras and headed to the metro station. We bought a train ticket to downtown Tokyo which is about an hour and a half from Narita International Airport. The train ride was fun; we got to see many rice paddies, apartments, and Japanese signs. At the Tokyo station, we got off the train and headed for the Imperial Palace. Twenty minutes of walking later, we arrived at a “closed” sign. Apparently, the gardens are not open on Mondays. Thanks Guide Book Mom. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to do anything else but go back to the hotel and prepare for our flight. In the airport we did a bit of souvenir shopping and ate McDonald’s. At 3:00 my mother went up to the Air Tahiti Nui desk to check us in for our 4:25 flight. The woman told us to come back at 3:15 since we were stand-by customers and she wanted to get all of the revenue passengers checked in first. At 3:15 on the dot we returned to the counter. No one acknowledged us until 3:35 and even then they only said to hold on while they figured out if they had seats. We still had all of our checked bags, we still had to go through security, and we still had no piece of paper that showed that we were on the priority list. We also had a back-up plan that if we could not make the flight to Tahiti we would head for Honolulu at 7:00. Finally, at 3:55, the women working for Air Tahiti Nui begin taking our checked bags. We are trying to ask them if they are sure we have seats on the plane before they send the bags to Tahiti without us (the next flight isn’t for a few days), but none of them speak enough English to understand what we’re asking. At 3:57 five tickets are handed to Mom and we are provided an escort who runs us through the crew security line and sprints with us to the gate. At last we are aboard the flight and on our way to Tahiti. Ten hours later, our flight lands in Papeete (PPT) and 8am Monday morning. We get to start August 9, 2010 all over again. We grab a taxi to the ferry port and take a ferry to Moorea, rent a car, and drive to the home we are renting. Kevin immediately starts pressuring us all to quickly get ready to go to the beach. Korey insists on sleeping since she got little sleep on the flight, so the other four of us head to a nearby public beach and do a bit of snorkeling. Later in the evening we pick up some groceries, eat some pizza, and play some Hand and Foot (Mom and I beat Kevin and Dad). Just now I got to check my Facebook messages; thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday :)
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