Of Greens & Birds

Approaching the beautiful islands of Hawai’i, I figured it will technically be my third timezone for the week. And although I wasn’t assigned to the seat I preferred with a nice window view (help from SeatGuru for aircraft seat maps), as luck would have it, my Tokyo-Honolulu flight wasn’t peak season. Meaning there were a lot of vacant seats, ergo Economy turns Business hahah. So upon crusing at an altitude above the Hawaiian archipelago, I braved the shameful act of transferring from one seat to another just to get a decent shot and a sufficiently fine photo to post on social media. #doitforthegram

Bask in the marvelous beauty of the island of O'ahu.

E Komo Mai! In Hawaiian, it means 'Welcome'. It was the phrase that greeted me to the Aloha State the very time I stepped down the plane, into the jet bridge and at the arrivals bay.

Walking down the very long arrival hall of Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) refined and polished, I noticed people hurriedly striding to an entryway. When I proceeded to the escalator, that's when I realized that there were three other flights that arrived as mine. Too late, I'm already far behind the line for customs and my scheduled pickup shuttle was exactly 10:00 am. The immigration process was fast though, filled out an arrival form, had my passport and fingerprints scanned to a machine which appears to resemble an ATM. As luck would have it again, the CBP officer (U.S. Customs and Board Protection) only asked one question and immediately granted a 6-month stay validity. I owe it to my outfit, it does count I suppose.