lailoken ([personal profile] lailoken) wrote2012-01-13 10:23 am
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Nagoya, leaving

I am now at the NGO airport, and it was the easiest, fastest, most pleasant airport experience I've ever had. That might be an exaggeration, but at the moment I can't think of a better airport.  Basically, I arrived at about 9:35, and walked forward, and the international departures appeared before me. They had a map of where the Finnair desk was, so I went over there; and the person asked me 1) whether I wanted to pick up my bags in Helsinki or wait for RDU, and 2) whether I wanted a vegetarian meal on the plane. I'm not sure how she knew I was vegetarian, but I'm not complaining.

After that, I went through security, which took about five minutes. They had to rescan my backpack, but evidently I didn't look dangerous enough to actually search my bag. Then I had to go through customs, sort of (?), which was a little confusing; but I just had to show my boarding pass and passport. From there, my gate was less than a five minute walk (including two moving walkways!) from the central area. I stopped, got my last matcha frappuccino, and then found my gate. From start to finish, I was at my gate by 10:07, which included stopping at Starbucks, exchanging money because they didn't take American dollars, attempting to count out enough coinage to pay, failing and using a $1000 instead, and then buying the frappuccino.

If only the US had airports like this, flying would be so much less stressful.

I think I have missed talking about the last couple of days, so I will do that in a separate post after I figure out what I've left out.  But be prepared:  science museums and vegetable buns!  Also, fish!