The remainder of the story

One of my sons asked me at lunch today if I'd already written up our travel story (part of the dialogue we kept up in the midst of it yesterday was "this is going to be a good story we'll be telling in the future"). They're getting used to my speed, I guess!

In our upgraded seats at 9.35 last night.

The English explanation of our cancelled flight on the
top line there is "Due to ship shortage" which seemed
just a little out of place in an airport.

What I posted last night here was not the end of the story. We waited an hour in the line pictured in yesterday's post. When we finally got to the start of the line an airline employee offered us an upgrade to a non-budget airline and a flight leaving 1 1/2 hrs earlier than what we'd been promised five hours earlier. In fact we were onboard only 40 minutes later in slightly better than our usual Ecomony seats. All five of us were upgraded for our 90 min flight. Including a footrest, which was delightful for this short lady!

We arrived in Tokyo at 11.40 and then had to figure our how to get home. By the time we'd collected our bags we were out of time to take the train route across Tokyo (trains stop between midnight and five am). So, armed with money given to us by the airline just before we boarded in Sapporo, we approached the taxi rank. The person in charge there appeared to only represent one company, however, and couldn't find a taxi big enough for five passengers. He pointed us at a public phone and basically said, "Find one yourself." There were more than a dozen companies listed. 

During our five hours of waiting, we hung out at Starbucks, investigated
a chocolate mini museum and shop, did some Christmas and other shopping,
and ate dinner. I saw these and wondered if I really wanted a "Mint Face"!

It was midnight and the task of ringing around in Japanese just seemed like the last straw. So we did some quick research. We investigated rental cars: no cars available. We briefly thought about a capsule hotel but couldn't quickly find info (my phone had 10% battery power and David's had no service). So we went back to taxis and took two. 

It turned out to be a good move. They drove together and we got home in just 60 minutes. It was expensive but we had the money from the aeroplane company plus we had saved money in Sapporo because we had vouchers for meals there. So it all worked out in the end. In fact the Sapporo-Tokyo airport and airport to home legs were very comfortable, more so than if we'd gone economy class and trains.

We arrived home just after 1 and all were in bed within minutes. An 11 ½ hour journey! But we had great attitudes and behaviour from everyone the majority of time. A much nicer trip than Monday's. 

Thankfully today was fairly free. I'm the only one with something scheduled (the last photography school time), and that was only half a day. 

So it will be one of those stories in our family: "Remember that time our flight home from conference got cancelled because of a ship shortage..."