Stuck In Japan                                                                          Back
    When my plane landed at Narita Airport, I was thinking. "Ah! the last layover, in less then an hour I'll be on my to way Singapore." After all, the only thing I had to do was to see that my courier packet got to the airline representative and that everything cleared customs. I had plenty of time, my flight didn't leave for 55 minutes. Wrong, by the time the airline representative showed & we cleared customs (there ended up being 22 large crates) my connecting flight had already taken off. (This is not unusual when flying as a courier.) The airline made arrangements for me to fly out the next day but I was responsible for my hotel for the night & even though I was thinking "I'm in Japan, this is going to cost me a fortune." I didn't feel like hanging around the airport for 18 hours.
   So I cleared customs myself, grabbed a cab and asked the driver to take me to a decent hotel not to far from the airport. When we pulled up to the hotel I really got anxious. The place was absolutely gorgeous and looked very expensive. (Remember I was going to be in Singapore for 10 days plus Indonesia for 20, plus I had to pay for three connecting flights; from Singapore to Yogya, Yogya to Bali & Bali back to Singapore.) I really didn't have money to burn. I had paid U.S.$118. for my room in N.Y. and the place was nothing like this. It was like comparing a bird cage to an aviary.
   The Narita View Hotel was all stone. It had two swimming pools; one that you could swim from the inside of the hotel, under a glass partition, to the outside & another large pool inside, three dinning areas, two bars, tennis courts, an a large Japanese garden. The rooms all had television Plus V.C.R.s. Breakfast came with the room and even the breakfast was amazing; Eggs, Bacon, sausage, ham, potatoes, fish, rice, fruit, fruit juice, tea, coffee, milk, Danish, I really don't know if this was all but it was served as a buffet. The people were very friendly and as usual in Asia, since they like to practice their English, talkative.
   I spent a great evening and a nice morning at that hotel and it only cost me U.S.$39.00: $8.00 for dinner $22.00 for the room & $9.00 for a bottle of Coors. Needless to say I only had one beer. anyway on to Singapore. (Oh! if you ever get stuck in Japan remember the Narita View Hotel.  Al