The Journey: Japan and Singapore
posted at 5:25 am
on Sep. 16, 2005
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Hey, I’m in Singapore
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First Thoughts: Kuala Lumpur
We flew on Japan Airlines, and boy, whoever is in charge of Japanese stereotypes, well, they ought to get a raise—they delivered absolutely to our expectations.
Little egg sushi with ginger for dinner on the plane, staffed by extremely tiny, extremely hard-to-hear Japanese girls (not in school girl uniform exactly, but close). Extremely long announcements in Japanese, followed by English translations that were always something brief like “Please fasten your seatbelts. Than-ka-you.”
The Narita (Tokyo) airport had a limited but still satisfying collection of odd vending machine—my favorite was a (drink?) called Palmari Sweat. Yum!
We were only in the transit area of the airport, waiting a few hours for the second leg of our flight, but we did manage to have a plate of chicken curry, a bowl of noodle tempura soup, and some fried squid.
And let me tell you, the Greeks are complete wusses when it comes to squid, hiding it in thick batter and chopping it up into inoffensive rings. The Japanese version is an X-Games Extreme Calamari Attack! Just enough batter to give it a sheen, it’s tentacles and suckers all the way ‘round. Chewy and delicious.
It’s now 1:30 in the morning and we’re in Changi Village in Singapore, “near” the airport. Note to fellow travelers—there’s a hotel IN the transit lounge in Singapore, so save yourself the shuttle ride if you’re just returning to the airport the next day. This time-saving tip brought to you by the now-we-know-better duo, Travis and Susie.
As they say in Singapore, “Good night, sir!”
