In transit to Nikko

Sidebar: So ALL of Asia is like Singapore in the summer, eh? Guess I deal better with cold than with hot humid heat…
I spent 18 hours in transit yesterday. First it was a 10 hour flight on SQ11 from LAX to NRT. Can I tell you I’m in luuurve with SQ all over again?
Even in steerage, I mean “economy”, I got 70+ movies ON DEMAND on my own vid screen, I couldn’t finish my meals, they fed us soooo much and I would have proposed to at least two of the Stewardesses on the spot if common sense and community property laws weren’t hovering around my head.
The flight left an hour late out of LAX but strangely enough, we made up the time enroute and landed NRT 15 minutes early. Glad that happened because even with fudge time, I was still on a tight clock because…
They redid Terminal 1 at Narita! The South wing is all new and is where all the Star Alliance airlines are at (I’ll write more about that when I fly on to SIN). I spent 20 minutes hunting for the Citibank ATM that used to be at arrivals after being misdirected. The person I asked probably presumed that I wanted to stay in the South Terminal when she told me to go up to 4th Floor departures.
I went up there. Got my cash. And won an American Express pen!
Then when I got back down to the arrivals floor and walked from South to North, I found my old trustworthy ATM, right where I left it. D’OH! *palmforeheadslap*
I got to the JR East ticket office with 6 minutes to spare (they close at 1900). Got my pass and my tickets. Even with all the delays and getting in early and losing the time I gained hunting for that bloody ATM, guess what? I still made my schedule! And JR being JR, all the trains arrived and departed on time.
Here’s how the schedule went:
NRT to Tokyo Station via N’Ex.
Tokyo to Utsunomiya via MAX Shinkansen
Utsunomiya to Nikko via JR Nikko Line.
Then, when I arrived at 2238 (on da nose, btw), it was raining Singapore style. That means, hot steamy heavy rain. Real rain.
I forgot, it’s August, ain’t it? Thought rainy season was done….
I had one night at the Narusawa Lodge booked.

This is OBVIOUSLY after the rain passed the next morning
Wada-San, one of the owners, came out to fetch me in her Mini Cooper in the driving rain. That was fortunate because Nikko shuts down after 1800 or so.

At that moment, the most comfortable room in the universe…
Tomorrow: Nikko.