The final entry of this trilogy of me attempting to fly from Ottawa to Tokyo, being stopped by weather. Resulting in some rather unique situations I had never had to deal with. Going through plenty of hardships to get there, being stuck in Toronto for 2 days. If you haven't already please consider reading parts 1 & 2.
That night at the hotel I stayed at; I didn't get much sleep. I stayed awake to form out a plan on what I could do to arrive on time at Shibuya REX, the venue where Miho's birthday event was being held. If there were no delays for the flight. I was expected to land in Tokyo at 15:35 Tokyo time. The doors open at 18:30 and the show starts at 19:00. So I had roughly 3-3.5 hours to get off the plane, which would likely take a decently long time. Retrieve my luggage, where it's luck of the draw if your bag shows up early or late. Go through security and customs, which honestly in Japan; goes so much quicker and effectively than Canada or USA (friendlier people too). Retrieve my wifi rental, because without it I can't use Google Maps to find my way around effectively. Get to my hotel, which was roughly a 40 minute ride on the subway. Check myself into my hotel and drop off my luggage. Then finally take a train to get to the venue. Which would be about another 20-30 minutes.
With it all laid out in my head if everything went perfectly. I could make it on time, but just barely. Likely miss the opening, but it all looked good. I thought about the idea of taking a taxi to my hotel, to save time. But that sounded like an expensive decision. Only do it, if I was desperate or my flight was going to get delayed.
Back in November, I got in contact with the birthday committee. A group of fans that tasked themselves to help set up the event. Being so new to idol culture. I still don't know how much of the planning they do. But I had contacted them to ask if there was anywhere I could help out. As we got into January, they had something for me to do. The committee member that was in charge of the Twitter account asked if I could be at the venue for 12:00 to help decorate and etc. I was excited to help out and speak with other attendees. But because of my 2 missed flights. I, unfortunately, had to inform them I was no longer able to assist.
I make my way to the hotel lobby to check out. They inform me that there is a shuttle that will take me to the airport. I noticed that the snow plows didn't take the hotel parking lots as a priority place for snow removal. It was several inches high. I was hoping this shuttle was going to be a pickup truck in order to get out of here. Instead, it was this rather tiny minivan. I and several others load up into the shuttle. The vehicle barely gets moving with this much snow on the ground, but it somehow manages. But the exit onto the main road is up a rather steep hill inside the parking lot. As long as the shuttle maintains a good speed, it will get up the hill. Unfortunately, someone backed their car out of a parking space and stopped in the middle of the road, in order to clean snow off his car. No reason for this person to have done that, but it now halted us halfway up the hill. The guy spends the next few minutes cleaning the snow off and then leaves. Our driver attempts to get up the hill with no momentum and fails. Reverses a few feet and continues to fail. I counted 16 attempts that the driver tried. Increasingly annoyed, I tell the driver to go back to the beginning of the hill and get as much speed as possible, or the shuttle won't make it to the top. Success on the first attempt. It took us over 20 minutes just to simply leave the parking lot.
The rest of the drive was uneventful as we reach the airport. I check my luggage again. And once again I go through security. I didn't think about it when I woke up that day, but it was smart that I went to the airport as early as I did. Many flights were canceled the previous day. The lineups were enormous. Reach the international terminal and have my breakfast. Still rather clear skies, but my flight is delayed by 1 hour and changed gates, forcing me to move and wait elsewhere. About 20 minutes pass and an announcement comes on to say my flight has changed gates a 2nd time. As I wait at my new location. I can hear the music, very clearly. It was "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne. A fitting song to be playing during my current situation. The song that comes on immediately after was "Snow" by Red Hot Chili Peppers. An awesome song that I enjoy listening to, but hearing that song come on made me feel a sense of foreboding. Something unpleasant was about to happen. Surely enough about 10 minutes later, my flight is delayed an hour for the 2nd time and changed gates a 3rd time. My newest location gives me a good view of outside and I notice that it is starting to snow and begin to get worried. I chat with a few other people that are on the same flight as me one Japanese woman on her way home. She was on the same flight that got canceled as me. Has 2 kids with her, she has to make a connecting flight in Haneda to get to her home in Kagoshima. A group of 7 people from Winnipeg going to Japan for the first time. Rather bizarre for these people to have to travel East to Toronto, to then go West to Japan. Would have made more sense for them to go to Vancouver instead.
Because of the delays we are still several hours from getting onto our plane. The Japanese woman giver her kid's lunch, one of them makes a mess, so she takes the one child to the bathroom to clean up. She entrusts me to watch her 1-year-old toddler. I can be good with small kids, but I don't trust myself should they actually need something. I'm much better with children that can speak. So I'm a bit nervous. Even more so, I'm handling a complete strangers child. To my surprise, the kid was very mellow. Didn't fuss about the mom walking away. Barely moved while he sat on my lap. Even smiled at me. Japanese children are the cutest.
The snow started to fall much harder as we finally got called to line up to board our plane. I was tired, angry, excited and worried all at the same time. It wasn't snowing as hard as when the last flight was canceled. That was my only saving grace at that moment. As I wait in line a thought had crossed my mind that I should have tried to see if I could get an upgrade to a better seat. Missing two flights, 1 being the airline's fault and the other understandably out of their control. But still... 2 whole days I've been stuck, because of their mistake. When I got to my seat, I really should have attempted. I prefer an aisle seat, because of my long legs. I can stick them out to stretch. But when my flight got re-booked, I wasn't given an option. I was just given a window seat. Even worse, I got stuck beside a very loud teenager who couldn't sit still, jumping in his seat and beside him was his friend who was equally loud. Across the aisle, another loud teen and directly behind me, a child already kicking my seat. I could already tell, this 14-hour flight was not going to be pleasant.
A view of some of Toronto from the sky.
Before take off, you always go through the safety protocols and explain everything to the passengers. And because it's an international flight. It's repeated in Japanese. But also it's Canada. That is already being done in English and French, making that already long. With that going on and all the loud people around me. I try to shut my brain off. I can't even look out the window, because it's not directly lined up with my seat, so I couldn't even do that as I wait. Close to an hour of waiting on the plane, but we actually do take off!
After we were finally steady in the air; passengers were given control of the screens in front of them. Watch movies, TV shows, play games, look at a map of the flight, order drinks, etc. Seemingly everyone, except me... My screen was frozen. A 14-hour flight across the world and I couldn't even watch a movie. I became very depressed and annoyed. The flight overall was uneventful. I had my iPod with me to listen to podcasts to keep myself occupied. I slept for maybe 3 or 4 hours for 20 to 40 minutes at a time. It was not a comfy flight. The rest of the time in between all that, I would periodically look at my phone that had a clock where I had a clock to tell me what time it was in Tokyo. So that I could gauge the time I had remaining to reach the birthday event. As we got closer to Japan, I made the decision to simply delay my hotel check-in and take a taxi to Shibuya and bring my luggage with me to the venue first. The plane was beginning to lower down to the ground for our arrival, I took note of the clock. It was about 18:40 in Tokyo, so the doors for the event were letting people in. I could see the city lights by this point, but there was a lot I had to go through first before I could get to the venue. I was running out of time. We make a successful landing, but they will not let us off the plane just yet.
Not the actual screen I was stuck with, but this was all I saw on the plane ride to Tokyo 
We spend another 10-15 minutes before they allow us to stand up and collect out items overhead. Normally I would be patient and let others ahead me go get their things, but I was racing the clock. I don't push anyone, but I do force my way around people who are taking their time. I get to the exit to find not a tunnel connected to the terminal, but a staircase leading to the ground where there are 2 buses waiting nearby. I never learned the reasons why, but all I could do was sit in the bus and wait for it to drive us all to the terminal. Spent another 5-10 minutes waiting on the bus and driving to the terminal. I follow the signs and rush my way to security and immigration. I filled out my visitation for on the plane and make my way to the security checkpoint. One thing I appreciate about the staff at Haneda vs Toronto. Haneda can be just as thorough in their questions and searches, but are also more efficient and friendly. The first checkpoint is clear, I make my way now to the baggage claim and to my surprise; my luggage was one of the first to show up on the carousel. Luck seemed to be on my side. I make my way to the final security checkpoint, but a security dog becomes suspicious of my luggage and the guard asks me to open it up. He makes a quick check and sends me on my way. I only walk a few more metres to the actual checkpoint where they open up my luggage again. Ask about my reasons for being here and all the candy I had brought. Mentioned I'm here for tourism and to see friends I made during my previous visit. The candy and desserts were all simply gifts I had brought. He accepted the answers and let me through. I was finally inside the international terminal.
My next course of action was to get my portable wifi device I was renting. Luckily I remembered where I needed to go. Collected my wifi rental, opened it up. I was going to need it if I was to navigate my way to Shibuya. Unfortunately, because I was delayed for 2 days, the battery on the device was dead. I step aside and plug it into my portable charger. Get it running again and connect my phone to the device. Next, I had to find out where I could get to a road so that I could get a taxi. This was where I wasted my own time. I went to every possible wrong location. I found the ground level for the bus terminal and could see the taxis across the road behind a large fence. At this point in my frustration, I nearly decided to climb the fence and cross the road. But elected not to, because I knew I would likely get in trouble and there was no way I would have easily gotten my luggage over the fence too. I go back inside the terminal and the very last possible location I could have gone to, I found the taxis. By this point, it was about 19:45 when I got into the taxi. Gave the driver the address of Shibuya REX and I was finally on my way! I wasn't sure how long the drive would be or how much time I actually had remaining. I messaged the committee member on LINE that I was on my way.
When I left Toronto the temperature was around -16°C. Tokyo was close to 10°C. A big change in temperature for me. I found myself very warm and sweating a lot. First time I had ever been in a car while in Japan. Very warm and very quiet. There was a tv screen hanging on the back of the seat in front of me, which was very surprising to me. It mostly played advertisements. I didn't pay much attention to the screen. More interested in seeing how the highways looked and any other sites I could see from my window. At some point during the ride, the screen actually fell off the seat and just hung down from its wires. I became shocked and looked at the driver, but he hadn't noticed. I quietly attempted to place it back into its spot. I became worried that if the driver noticed, he would think I damaged it. After a little while, I got the screen back into place without the driver noticing. I calmed myself down a little after that.
One thing I noticed For around 20:00 in the evening. The roads were pretty empty, city streets and highways. As we approached the destination. The roads became much more packed. The taxi ride only took a little over 10 minutes. I was very surprised by how quick it felt. We stopped at a major intersection and pointed with his hand where the location was. I didn't know what the building looked like, but from inside the car, I saw what looked like a large red "X". I had assumed the that was the place. The price of the taxi ride was JP¥7744. I thanked my driver has he retrieved my luggage from the trunk. I make my way across the intersection and approach the building. And realised it wasn't the correct place. I became worried that I was in the wrong area. I pull out my phone and Google Maps to see where I am compared to the location of Shibuya REX. A severe problem I ran into was that the GPS couldn't figure out exactly where I was. It had a large circle of where I potentially was. I'm now standing in Shibuya with all my luggage and no clue exactly where on the map I was. I ask some men having a cigarette on the corner if they knew where the venue might be, but they say they didn't know. Looking closer at the map, it looked like the venue was down a small side street. I decide to take what looked like the correct path and make my way down. But with the GPS failing me I become less confident that I am going the right way. I make my way back to the main street and pick another path, then another. I head back to the main road again each time, feeling very defeated.
Pulled this picture of the intersection from Google Street View. It's from August 2018. I swear I saw a big red "X" where the 2 arrows are pointing.
The time is now 20:20. Worried that the show is either nearing the end or has ended completely. I message my contact from the birthday committee to inform him that I am nearby, but have become lost and can't find the correct building. I stand at the corner of the road and wait a little longer, but I get no response. GPS still not working correctly. But observing the map more closely, I figured out my location from the shape of the 5 entrances to the side streets and the pedestrian island on one of the corners. I believed I had figured out where to go. I grit my teeth and make my way back down my initial path. Instead of continuing down the street I initially did. I made a left. It made sense to me now why the taxi let me off where he did because it was a one-way street he could not take from that direction.
I make my way down the street, trying to find what could look like a concert venue. Eventually, I notice a small staircase with a few balloons. It's a large floral display all decked out in blue. I unintentionally found the right place. The actual sign for the venue was not lit up and the surrounding area was also quite dark that I never noticed them. If that flower and balloon display wasn't partially visible from the street; I would have continued walking past it. I was very lucky to have noticed when I did, glancing upwards occasionally going back to my phone to view the map.
If I didn't see this poking over the staircase. I probably would have walked past it.
I make my way downstairs, into the building. Greeted by 2 people at a desk. I'm very exhausted by this point, breathing heavily and sweating a lot. I go through my phone to show them the QR code on my digital ticket. I don't hear music in the other room, but I hear someone talking on the microphone. I open the doors to see where I can go and make my way to the back of the room to place my luggage. A very crowded room was waiting on the other side of the doors. A much more packed room than I had anticipated. Everyone looking towards the stage. I didn't look at the stage to see what was going on, I think the view may have been blocked by the door that I opened, a few others notice me. I look towards the back of the room and I begin to think that there was no way I was going to easily make my way to the back with this luggage. I close the doors and turn back to the people at the entrance desk and I ask them if I can leave my large luggage here in the back of this room.
(Here's the part where some of my memory is blurry. I was tired and many things started happening one after another very quickly). As soon as I finish my question and before they can answer, the doors burst open behind me. A young man gestures for me to come in. As I walk closer he then grabs me by the wrist and starts pulling me into the crowd. To this day, I still don't know who this person was. Whether he was a staff member of READY TO KISS or just an attendee. The voice that plays in my head about this memory is of one of the staff members. I believe I remember hearing him shout "ちょっと待ってください!" ("please wait a minute!") and "Brian-san" and "Toronto". Which I've guess he was announcing to everyone that I had arrived from Toronto. At some point when going through the crowd, someone else grabbed my larger piece of luggage from my hand, all the while, I still had my backpack with me over my shoulder. This might have been my most embarrassing moment at that point. I was intending to quietly make my way to the back of the room, but this guy loudly dragged me towards the front of the stage. The crowd parted to let him continue to pull me front and centre.
I'm pulled right to the front of the stage all the READY TO KISS members have their backs turned. Miho and the others turn around to now see a foreigner standing front row centre. The last thing I remember telling Miho, was that I was sorry that I was going to miss her birthday event. After I had promised her that I would show up. Lo and behold, I made it. Very late, but I was there. I don't remember the reactions to seeing me, but I remember the man who pulled me and one other person at the front was making a sort of "go ahead" gesture to me. I glance around me, the attendees staring at me. Glance back to the stage, Miho and the other members also staring at me. I did not know what they were expecting from me. Leading up to all this felt like something out of a movie. I still remember breathing heavily and sweating due to the weather shift and still wearing a winter vest and a heavy backpack over my shoulder. I think I did a small wave of my hand and said, "Hey, I'm here", to then have the members laugh and say something to each other. I don't know what was said. Just before I was coming through the doors, the group was about to take a picture with the crowd to commemorate the event. Someone in the crowd had noticed that I poked my head in and was aware that I traveled a very long way to see Miho for her birthday and wanted to make sure I was visible for the picture. I was very embarrassed about it, but am also very thankful for it too.
It was a little embarrassing, but I'm glad they pulled me to the front.
After the picture, they sang 1 or 2 more songs for an encore. I was invited by a group of attendees to take part in ヲタ芸 or "mixing". I politely refused, due to embarrassment and exhaustion. The music ended as did the show. I managed to be there in time to see the final 10 minutes or so. Lights come back on and I immediately turn around to find out what happened to my luggage. Whoever took it from me placed it nicely with the rest of the bags.
I make my way towards the merch booth to see if I can get a few birthday shirts. One for myself and 2 others that I told a couple of friends that I would try to get one for each of them. Miho had mentioned she designed the shirts herself. Not knowing what the design was yet, I buy what I thought at the time was the shirts, but it turned out to be 3 hoodies. I didn't want to create a scene in attempting to return them and just accepted my mistake. They ended up being good gifts later on. I do go back to the merch booth to ask if any birthday shirts were available. They told me they were sold out. I was very late for the event and understood the situation. I struggle to fit the hoodies into my already full luggage, but I manage it.
As I got in line to meet Miho; along the wall was the man I have always assumed to be the manager of READY TO KISS. He recognizes me and greets me and has a small chat with me. I mention in passing that it was a shame the birthday shirts were sold out, I would have loved to buy one. He then pulls me back to the booth and says something to the woman at the desk and she pulls out 2 shirts with a piece of paper attached to them. It had my name written on them. Miho had made sure to keep 2 shirts hidden away for me. That was incredibly kind of her.
I got back into line and finally got to speak with Miho. She had a special birthday outfit where she looked like Cinderella. Very beautiful! It was so great to see her again and tell her happy birthday. I originally brought her some Nanaimo bars, a Canadian dessert. But they had been inside my luggage for so long and not kept cold the entire time, I was worried they were spoiled. I would have to test them myself when I finally got back to my hotel to see if they were safe to eat. I did buy some maple cookies and a pair of Canada themed mittens while I was still stuck in Toronto. They turned out to very useful gifts. I even got to speak with a few other members of READY TO KISS for the first time. I was happy to finally meet some of them.
Brian Burns@Burnzie79
A rough couple days and a 14 hour flight. Ended up being worth to see Miho on her birthday. Chatted with manageme… https://t.co/HhmdcsJpcP
2019年01月30日 10:31
佐々木美帆☁︎READY TO KISS☻@mih0_s2
昨日スピッツさんの大好きな 『空も飛べるはず』をソロで歌いました🐥 よく中学校のとき合唱で歌っててそれからすごく好きになったの🧸🎶 ちょっとだけおすそ分け☺︎︎︎︎⸜❤︎⸝ https://t.co/yaRcamOC9Q
2019年01月31日 10:02
I wish I was there in time to hear her solo.
Back when I visited in Japan, back in September. There was an attendee that noticed that I was always going to Miho. During 2 different shows that I went to; he handed me a small bag filled with pictures of Miho. He was back again and handed me another bag of pictures. I had anticipated him showing up again, and I wanted to give him a gift in return, but on that day I was ill prepared and didn't expect him to show up with them. I spoke with a few other attendees. When it was time to leave, the manager and a few staff members briefly stopped me to thank me for coming and ask me a few more questions.
I left the venue dragged my luggage with me to the train station to finally go to my hotel. Where I finally got a pleasant sleep. For a trip from Ottawa to Toronto, then to Tokyo. It was supposed to last about 16 hours, adding travel and the time waiting in between flights. It turned into about 2.5 days of frustration and exhaustion.
After such a long day, it was nice to finally get to a bed.
Thank very much for reading. I'm also sorry for it being such a ridiculously long story.