Paying 1,000 Yen to the driver with tie, receiving a receipt, ending with taking a back seat, I was now ready to explore the Higashi Kanto Expressway. This was the same street I passed by for the first time after arriving in Tokyo a few days ago.
Taking 70 kilometer asphalt road and within an hour, I felt asleep along the two prefectures passed by JR Kanto Bus, namely Tokyo and Chiba. I woke up when the bus had arrived at Narita International Airport and stopped for a while at Terminal 2 to dropping off some of its passengers. Now I was stricken with worries when the bus had passed Terminal 1. But I was trying to stay calm and go with the flow of bus.
I was lucky when I saw Terminal 1 nameboard far ahead. Yups, it turned out that my stop point hadn’t been missed.
On 4:41 p.m., I was dropped off at the drop-off zone by JR Kanto Bus driver, then rushed into one of Narita’s entrances. I was increasingly confident with the presence of Peach Aviation logo on logos board of airline which operating in Terminal 1.
“I’m at the right terminal”, I cheerfully thought.
But another challenge came, I was still five hours away from scheduled departure. The self-check-in counter hadn’t let me print my boarding pass yet.
“Okay, I would just wait”, I patient myself.
Two and a half hours of waiting at a departure hall seat, I finally managed to do self-check-in process on 19:25 hours. I grabbed a boarding pass and steadily stepped towards the gate. Upon arrival, it turned out that the gate was still not ready.
Until finally, I decided to look for a minimarket to hunt for dinner. I found Lawson in one of the corridors and entered without a second thought. I quickly took a pack of onigiri for 248 yen and the cheapest mineral water for 103 yen and took it to the cashier.
After paying, I continued to walk to the observation deck, then sat in one of its chairs to enjoy the plane traffic of various airlines which were busy going back and forth at Narita International Airport. The outdoor observation deck was blown by a cold winter wind that consistently chilled the body.
Even though it was uncomfortable because it was cold, I still tried to enjoy dinner, still sat on one of the observation deck benches and continued to be fascinated by the pair of take-off and landing activities of large planes.
I kept trying to show my best smile while chewing onigiri, not wanting to be outdone by happy expressions of passangers around me when they were enjoying restaurant foods with nice aroma which inhabited along the side of observation deck.
The last piece of onigiri was complete. I then opened my bottled mineral water. I opened its lid and without hesitation drank it like a thirsty person. A mouthful of water finally smoothly glided down in my throat. But my eyes bulged because my nose was stung by a foreign smell. A warm sensation enveloped along my throat. And finally, automatically, I profusely coughed.
Not pure mineral water!…A clear drink clearly contained alcohol in it. Finally I could feel the sensation of alcohol even though it was accidentally….I didn’t drink alcohol before.
I still didn’t want to throw away the alcoholic bottled water and put it in my backpack. If later it wasn’t confiscated at the screening gate, let it be a memory while in Osaka.
Finally, after enjoying the airport traffic, I immediately headed to the gate and prepared myself to fly. HHmmhh… As soon as I entered the gate, the delay information immediately approached. Out of curiosity, I directly asked the female ground staff about the validity of this delay. She confirmed that Peach Aviation flight number MM6320 did experience a delay in arriving at Narita and I would have to wait another hour later.
I spent the next hour extra with closing my eyes in the waiting room. I sat next to Kids Park near Terminal 1 gate….