AutoMotorPlex Car Show

A couple weeks ago I visited the Chanhassen AutoMotorPlex for the monthly Cars & Coffee car show. I heard about show via a newspaper at work. The location was designed by a guy who wanted a place to live and store all of his toys. He couldn't find anything like this in the area, so he developed his own. The monthly car show gives tenants and others in the area to bring their cars out and talk shop while they show off their rides. Being a valet and car aficionado, I found this to be a very enjoyable Saturday morning. You can see some puddles in most of the pictures, but let me assure you that these are what remain from an early morning shower and not collections of drool from gawking car guys. Enjoy a sampling here or view the entire album from Facebook.

Tokyo

I know it looks a little goofy jumping from December of last year to September of this year, but there have been some updates between now and then, just not in blog form. This entry needed to be done because I want to be able to
remember this trip years from now.

My trip began on Friday with a flight from MSP to AZO for a family reunion. I got in to the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek airport around 5:15p and had just started connecting my ipod to the airport's free wireless to update my location and check all of my apps when my grandparent's flight from SFB arrived. After renting a car from Avis, we made the short drive to Barbie and Lanny's where my parents we're waiting for us. We had dinner,watched some baseball, and called it a night. The next day at the reunion I got to catch up with cousin Michelle and some other aunts and uncles. It was a fairly small group and the rain showers cut the afternoon short. The food was good as always and I got my olie bollen.

Sunday morning, we got up before the rest of the clan and my parent's dropped me off at the airport. I took the first flight to DTW even though my flight to Tokyo didn't leave until 3pm. I got online again with my ipod to let a few friends know that I was in the airport in case they were flying through. I met up with a former co-worker who worked the ramp in Minneapolis and transferred to Detroit to take a performance supervisor position. (sidebar- he attended Western Michigan for flight school) We chatted briefly about work and flying before he had to go load a flight.

Sometime between 1p and 2p the big planes started arriving and parking on the A concourse. So I went over to snap a few pictures. It's hard to get good pictures at DTW because the windows have tiny dots on the glass to reduce the amount of sunlight that shines through. My flight started boarding about an hour before departure. When I got my boarding pass, I was excited to see that I would be sitting in the upper deck in business class. While we were taxing, it felt weird to be sitting so high off the ground. I think I may have nodded off a couple times while taxing because it took so long and I was still exhausted, but when crew put the coals to the four engines, I was wide awake.

I watched a couple movies when the on demand entertainment system became available. After dinner, I got a few hours of sleep in my eggshell pod seat. These were the same seats used on the A330 that I flew to CDG and AMS so everything was very familiar. I woke up for the pre-arrival meal and watched another movie. It was about 5:30p when we landed.

I went through customs and found the train that would take me downtown. (there are quite a few lines and companies that run service in Tokyo.)It was a little difficult finding an ATM, but after taking out 10,000¥ I bought a ticket at the counter and hustled downstairs to the platform to board. When we got away from the airport, the sun had already set and it was hard to see much out of the windows. I could see buildings in the distance and a few cars when we passed through small towns on our way to Tokyo. The buildings looked very uniform in that there weren't really any flashy lighting schemes. There were lights in the stairwells or at the doors and each was in the same location so from the first floor to the top floor everything was aligned.

I made one train change at Shinagawa Station after the one hour ride on the Narita Express (NEX). I only had to go one more stop on the local train to get close to my hostel. When I got off at the Kita-Shinagawa station, I realized I didn't have directions from that station to the hostel, nor did I have a map. So I took my itinerary with the address and the Japanese translation to a gentleman at a nearby gas station. He didn't really speak English, but he signaled that it was about 3 blocks over. So I headed in that direction about 3 blocks and looked for another person to ask. He took me about half a block up the street right to the door of the hostel.

I checked in and found my room. It was so hot and muggy outside, I was relieved to find a air conditioning unit in my 5'x8' room. The front desk person showed me which buttons to push on the remote because the symbols were all Japanese. Since I only planned to stay one night, they were curious what my plans were. They informed me that the Tsukiji fish market would be closed for a holiday. I was a little disappointed, but wasn't going to let it spoil my trip. I headed back to the Shinagawa Station and then north to

Shibuya to do some sight seeing. The main attraction for me was the busy intersection that was featured in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift". At this intersection, the lights from multiple directions stop traffic and pedestrians are allowed to cross all at once.

After taking this in, I walked around to look at some of the shops and find something to eat. I stopped at a nearby sushi bar and had dinner, not because I like sushi, but for the experience. It wasn't bad and I couldn't complain about the price for fresh, authentic sushi. I did a little more walking around before heading back to my hostel to call it a night.

I could only force myself to sleep for about 4 or 5 more hours. It was only about 5am, but the sun was already up. I took a shower and packed my things before checking out around 7. This time I walked to the Shinagawa station to see a little bit more what was around the area. I'm glad I did, but it was about a 10-15 minute walk and it was hotter and more humid than the night before. I took the train north to Tokyo station.

My only plans for the day now were to see the Imperial Palace and find some souvenirs. I needed an ATM again because I was running low on cash. Most places in Tokyo don't take credit or debit cards, especially not US cards. I found a Citibank, but like most stores in the area, they didn't open til 10am. So I went to the Palace first to take pictures. The palace isn't open to the public, but it is still cool to see the gates and the buildings from the outside.

It was still early, but I headed back towards the train station. I wanted to make sure I left myself plenty of time to get to the airport in case I got lost or had any other delays. I just missed the 11am departure so I had to wait for the 12p train. I could see a lot more this time on the train, including the Tokyo Sky Tree. This large telecommunications tower will replace the Tokyo Tower in February 2012. It is already the largest structure in Japan.

When I got to the airport I did most of my souvenir shopping in the airport mall. I went through security and headed to my gate for what I thought would be a pretty routine flight back to MSP. However, it as it got closer and closer to departure time, I still didn't have a seat assignment and the gate agents were working furiously to get as many passengers boarded as possible. When the boarding door closed, I still did not have a boarding pass. I was left behind in disbelief.

The flight to MSP was one of the last of the day so there weren't many options left. I hurried over the the other terminal on the shuttle bus to try getting on an American Airlines flight headed for DFW, but there wasn't time to make a reservation. In my rushed and flustered state, I left behind my wallet on the bus, but didn't realize it until I was nearly through customs with one of the gate agents who was helping me bypass the normal arrival customs processing. So the two of us had to walk all the way back upstairs and wait for the bus driver to come back. Luckily it was returned to me, and I made it back out the front check in area with the help of the Delta gate agent with no further issues.

I went to the Delta counter to purchase some ZED passes for other airlines because the Delta flights to the US were oversold for next couple days also. My first option was a flight at 10:45am to ORD on All Nippon Airways (ANA). The second was an American Airlines flight to DFW that left at 1pm. I took my tickets and found a place to settle for the night in the airport. I was moved around a couple times by the airport police because they didn't want passengers hanging out all over the airport. We were "gently corralled" into a spot down stairs by the arrival meeting area. There were maybe 30 other passengers (not all Delta) who joined me for an evening in the airport. The police/security came around to check every one's passports and make sure we weren't just bums. They kept an eye on us all night, which in a way was somewhat comforting. I didn't sleep great on the marble floor, but it didn't cost me anything. It's all part of the non-rev experience. I had done this only one other time in Toronto.

In the morning I had to wait a while for the ticket counter to open. When I went to check in I realized that I had forgotten a step in the ZED ticketing process. I had paid the fare to Delta, but I hadn't actually created a reservation for the flight with All Nippon yet. Fortunately, the agent was happy to oblige and in about 10 minutes I had a reservation and a seat assignment! No waiting around at the gate! I went through security and found something to eat since I wasn't sure what kind of meal I would receive in coach. I found a Rammen restaurant and got a some noodles and soup. I was surprised to find that the noodles were served cold so I dumped the soup on top and ate the two together. I kind of felt like the tourist at Tulip Time several years back who I saw put the sour kraut meant for the brats on top of his poffertjies. What a doofus!

I was pleased to find that the Boeing 777 that I would be taking to ORD had on demand entertainment in the headrests even in economy class. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive an ample inflight lunch and breakfast. I watched one movie before taking an extended nap.

Shortly after I woke up and ate breakfast, I opened my shade to see numerous Minnesota lakes barely illuminated by the rising sun. About 45 minutes later I was on the ground at O'Hare. I made my way quickly through the customs checkpoint and hopped on the tram to terminal 2. I realized that I would have a chance to make an earlier flight back to MSP than I had planned, so I hurried through security and ran to the gate. I made the change to my flight on my ipod through the non-rev website and boarded soon after. I made it back to MSP around 11am on Wednesday and had the rest of the day to relax. I didn't miss any work because I already had the day covered as a buffer. I didn't feel too jet lagged because I planned my naps accordingly.

The rest of my pictures can be viewed in this album.