The beautiful stewardess in a blue uniform with a flower in her right ear looked the youngest….Also the prettiest. Her smile was also the happiest. Short brown hair along the shoulders but a little longer on the left side and of course, an oriental look was completing her beauty.
Her name is Maeda….
I don’t know, if traced, she is positioning in the lineage with Tadashi Maeda, a Rear Admiral who played an important role in Indonesia independence.
The name Maeda is historically known as a Samurai Clan in Japan. Having honest, brave, loyal and upholding commitment to the truth.
That morning, she was the busiest over the East China Sea. A Chinese family was too stubborn to acquire a row of seats for a small family to sit together on this Vanilla Air flight. “The Beauty” Maeda continued to persuade them to sit according to number listed on the boarding pass. It turned out that her soft voice had never succeeded in persuading that family to part until half the flight. Even Maeda seduced them with squat in front of the passenger.
I didn’t know why until now I still remember Maeda,
Maeda was a bonus for choosing an airline I didn’t really know well before. My search time on a flight filter site based on several categories, settled me on this Air Asia Japan acquirer. At a later date, tickets which cost about 6.780 Yen finally flew me from Kaohsiung in Taiwan to Tokyo.
Even my times before I met Maeda weren’tt as beautiful as I imagined. I forced myself to sleep in whole night at Kaohiung International Airport in a lobby of Departure Hall.
Waking up early….Even still sleepy, because I was carried away by talking with other passengers until after midnight, I grumbled to the check-in desk after exchanging the remain of my New Taiwan Dollars into Yen. The check-in counter numbered D18 with an LCD with the airline’s name on it quickly completed my check-in process.
Another problem arose,
At the immigration desk, there was an agenda to clarify everything that made me separated from the queue and seated on a seat at the end of counter row.
“Why do your visa look like this?”, my Visa Waiver was suspected.
“It’s a new waiver visa for Indonesian e-passport holder, Mam”
“Wait, let me check to my boss!”.
The young woman hastily left me into a room. I was still calm waiting for her to come back, up to 15 minutes.
“Ahh … I will pass this process”, I thought.
“Ok, Sir, It’s valid”, her chatter broke my frozen face who was observing a corner of terminal building.
After that, she let me go into a corridor with arched ceilings with artificial trees on left leading to gate number thirty.
Then what about the Chinese family who had been persuaded by “The Beauty” Maeda?
Thankfully, the lead flight attendant stepped in to help her and managed to separate that small family according to flight procedures.
Impressive! Vanilla Air is number fourteen of twenty-eight airlines I have rode. Grateful of course to be able to enjoying flight services of this subsidiary of ANA (All Nippon Airways).
That morning the pilot explained there was a slight storm coming from Philippine Sea, but thankfully, the turbulence didn’t last long on the way. The flight using an Airbus A320, as far as 2,500 Km, three hours later at an altitude of 37,000 feet was really fun. Maybe, because this was my culmination point in exploring Asia. Who doesn’t want to visit the Land of Samurai?
On eleven more minutes, I finally arrived at Narita International Airport.
Let’s have an adventure in Tokyo!
Alternatives for airline tickets from Kaohsiung to Tokyo can be found on 12Go or the following link: https://12go.asia/?z=3283832
