stranded in Narita with the typhoon - the plane was so late that the last bus that goes to the tiny town of Mito in Ibaraki was gone. After like $50 worth of phone calls, I decided to stay in Narita. Tried to get in to a hotel, all of which were booked as a result of all the stranded passengers - even volunteered to share a hotel room with a stranger (yes, you got it, a good looking guy), but at the last moment, called it off... Tiny airport officials ever so guiltily distributed food water and sleeping bags. You could tell they thought the typhoon was their fault... So since I got a sleeping bag, I decided to stay in the airport... And now I don't mind sleeping in airports, but I hate to do so when I am travelling for work. Was I ever so glad I had a smartphone and that I could use Google Translate to communicate with a police officer - when I also learned, Japanese people, like Sri Lankans, don't like to say 'no, I don't know how to help you', so they will just 'ummmm' and 'hmmmm' until you go away by yourself. But since I wasn't leaving his side until I got answers, he ended up taking me to where the sleeping bags etc were distributed.
By the next morning, I was truly in tears. Maybe more also because I learned that the my colleagues who got stranded in the typhoon had their plane diverted to Osaka and they all decided to stay in a hotel there.
So this picture I took, of the view through blurry eyes, sitting near an airport coffee shop.
