hmmm.... so according to the plan, this day would have been rather easy and straightforward. getting up, having breakfast, bidding farewell to the lovely staff of the hotel, taking pictures of them[1-2], getting on the train to the airport, checking in, getting on the airplane, watching movies, eating, sleeping, doing stretching and stuff because my feet will hurt after some time, then about fourteen hours later and having a stop in moscow, getting of the plane and going to bed to be at work the next morning. yop, that was the plan. but somehow it did not work out that way. seems we lost a few minutes here, a few minutes there, and already got late to the train station. there we also found out we had a ticket for a very slow train, not the "N'EX" as we had it on our first day to get from narita airport to tokyo central station. but not only was it a slow train, we also missed that one by one minute. so our idea was to upgrade our ticket to a "N'EX" ticket, but it turned out we lacked about 1.000 yen (that is f****ing 7 EUR). oh damn... looks like for the first time in my live i will miss my plane. and that's just what we did. we arrived at the airport ten minutes prior to the departure of our aircraft. a grumpy guy at the check-in counter of aeroflot said it costs 100 euro each to rebook our flight. hm... did i mention we were broke? ah, i think i did. ok, so we explained to the guy that we would basically have some money, it's just we cannot access it, and also my credit card limit was reached, and blablabla. turns out, that made the guy even more grumpy. he offered we can call someone and charge someone else's credit card. good idea. it's just... it was 04:00 o'clock in the morning back home. so we tried to phone nina's parents. no one picked up. then nina's brother. luckily he answered the phone and gave us his credit card information. puh, lucky us. thanks to nina's brother for helping us out here. happily we returned to the grumpy guy, told him we can buy the new ticket. that was the good news. bad news was, the next plane was in about 24 hours. there's only one plane a day. oh great, that means staying at the airport. having no money, and not much left to eat. there were basins with drinking water everywhere, so at least we would have something to drink. although the water from the tap had this intense chlorine taste and scent. ok, so we strolled around the airport, and hours later we decided to camp at a nice couch with power outlets right next to it to charge our electronic devices. next to us was an old woman with two kids sleeping. soon she came over to us and asked if we know french. in french. well, i understood that much, so i said that i understand french a bit but i'm very rusty at talking. the lady told me a story i did not fully understand, but it seems like she was stranded at the airport with her two grand children and she needed to get somewhere. or someone would come. or... i don't know, it was hard to get the full story for me, as she was very talkative and i could not really sort out the important parts of her story. so i asked at an information desk if there is a french airline check-in around here, so she can talk to someone who actually speaks french. the lady said yes, but they will be here in a few hours. i tried to explain that to the old lady. it seemed she understood, yet she was not happy with that. so she told me more stuff i did not fully understand until i finally thought i got what she wanted. a single phone call to someone in her hometown in new caledonia. she showed me a number in her notebook that also had some comments next to it. according to the notes, it seemed like it was a number you dial, then the receiver can take over the costs for the long distance call, so the caller does not pay for it. as the lady at the information desk refused to do such call with the telephone provided at the information desk, i took our last coins and went to the nearby public telephone. i dialed the number, but it somehow was the wrong one. in the meantime the lady at the information desk had found out this number was only valid for calls from australia to new caledonia. by now the french staff had already arrived, and the family went there, accompanied by the information desk lady. the family was totally happy and the old lady thanked us over and over again, smothering us with kisses, and inviting us to visit her. hehe, well, maybe one day we will do that. after all this excitement, it was only 21 hours to go. thank you lady from new caledonia for keeping us busy for a few hours. after informing our bosses that we will not make it to the office on monday morning, writing emails to our beloved ones, and killing time with reading, and listening to music, we both took a nap. another few hours later, the shops were closing, and it was time for us to find a nice spot to sleep. so we loaded our luggage trolley again, and kept exploring the airport. soon we found a nice and quiet place where not many people came by. we had a bathroom right around the corner, and power outlets right next to our bench, and massage chairs for which we had no money. that would be our perfect place to sleep. or so we thought. around 22:00 o'clock a watchman came and said we cannot stay here. the only place to stay over night was the main entrance hall. oh crap. we also noticed other people being forced to leave their places. so all the people at the airport were herded and had to stay in one small area. arriving at the main hall we found what we had expected. around 50 people, and only benches with armrests, so you cannot really sleep on them. the only ones that were suitable for sleeping were of course already taken. oh man... this will be a long night, with not a lot of sleep. then came the police, asking everyone why they wanted to stay here, what their flight was, and checking if it was legitimate reason to stay, taking notes of the passport numbers, etc. also they almost panicked when people tried to leave the area. people were forced to stay in the area of the main entrance hall. every time someone went to the toilet a guard followed them. we found that rather disturbing. when later i brushed my teeth at the bathroom it seems it took too long, so one of the guys even came into the bathroom looking if i was still there. very very very disturbing. things got better once the policemen left, then the guards got more relaxed too. walking around freely was possible again, as they had already taken all the information of everyone. also a girl that was sitting on our bench left the area, so we even got some place to sleep. two seats for nina, then an armrest, and three seats for me. not really very comfortable, but at least we could sleep. lights were put out at around 23:00 o'clock... ...just to be put on again at 05:30. five thirty - what a madness. also they put on a tv screen and some other machines that made a lot of noise. yop, bye bye good night sleep. by now it was only another four hours left until we could get on our plane. yuhu. at a bakery we spent our last coins for my last japanese hotto cohi and a muffin, a tea and a bagel for nina. at the check-in we met the grumpy guy again, who was remarkably turned into a quite friendly guy within 24 hours. and then we finally were able to go home. missing a plane is not fun and staying at the airport for 24 hours neither - at least not when you don't have any money. a capsule hotel would have been nice, for example. i think next time i will try to catch the plane. makes things easier. ah, and remind me to bring traveler checks next time. anyhow, besides a really bad beginning, and an even worse end, this trip was still wonderful. so still thank you, nina.