Our last ATX meal? Salt Lick breakfast tacos, of course. 

Excited but sleepy, we got on the plane only to be told the plane’s battery wouldn’t hold a charge. It might be a quick fix or they might have to fly parts in. (Which seems inefficient? But maybe that’s just me.) The grumbling out loud to herself lady next to me was very upset about it, but also sleepy – so she kept trying to sleep then would sit up to shout at nobody and then curl back up again.

We got off the plane and everybody got in line to have their connecting flights rescheduled. I gave the ol’ 1-800 number a try because no time to wait! We ended up with a rerouted flight, a seven hour delay, some food vouchers AND six extra inches of leg room on our new flight to Chicago (as opposed to SF). That extra room might not sound like much but it was delightful!

Our plane to Tokyo was a huge, nine seat per row bus that was basically empty. Our dinner was lots of little containers:

• Prawn and vegetable tempura over rice
• Smoked salmon, mustardy potato salad, lettuce, a lemon slice, an olive, and radish slaw all in one dish
• Edamame and a half slice of ham in together in another
• Soba noodles served cold, with a (too?) fishy sauce packet to pour over
• Packet of horseradish and tiny envelope of seaweed flakes
• Topped off with Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream for dessert and green tea, of course!

It was a strange meal, but our other version was Hungarian goulash. On the way to Japan, a hearty Eastern European stew was not exactly on my mind (er, stomach).