Thursday, January 03, 2008
I left Europe on December 29. While I had a somewhat bad running nose, I did not think much about it. However, on my first flight, my ears really started hurting after departure. It seems like I came down with a condition known simply as airplane ear, which is a condition of discomfort associated with your middle ear. You will always experience this when taking a flight, in other words that there is some pain and that sounds are somewhat muffled.
However, if you fly with a cold, the pressure in your middle ear can't be equalized as something called the eustachian tube is blocked. Trust me, I looked this up searching Google. Anyway, after landing in Amsterdam, I was able to get my ears back to normal in about 30 minutes after landing. While I had bought special ear plugs, ate candy during landing, and used all the other available methods (including blowing air with my mouth and nose shut), the problem occurred again when I landed in Tokyo on December 30. This time around, it did not get better until the following morning, in other words 24 hours after landing.
Unfortunately, I was due to get on another flight on December 31, this time a relatively short domestic flight from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa. After getting off the plane in Okinawa, I realized that the same problem had happenend again. This time around, the problem consisted for three days, and it was a bit of nightmare. I went to an ear doctor in Tokyo on December 30 and got some medicine against the cold, apparently there is not much they can do directly to fix a blocked eustachian tube. Anyway, now my ears have been back to normal for approximately 24 hours, and I am glad I will not have to get on another flight for another three days.
About my trip to Europe, I flew regular economy class to Europe with Air France. The food was surprisingly good, I actually enjoyed dinner and the cheese/wine was great. Going back to Japan, I flew business (using airline miles), but Air France business class really is not worth it if you have to pay the cash. While you obviously get a bigger personal TV screen in business class, the entertainment system is not on demand and worse than even the economy version on most Asian airlines. As normal on European airlines, there are no cute stewardesses. How come European and American airlines will not hire attractive women? There must be a conspiracy somewhere.
Yuka and I have mainly been visiting northern Okinawa during our stay. Today we went canoing, which was actually a very nice experience. We got to see some mangrove and other rather exotic plants (for someone living in Tokyo), and I have been surprised to find that most of northern Okinawa is rather empty. Anyway, I will try to write more about this later and hopefully also post some pictures from our stay. I am just glad that I do not have an airplane ear condition any longer, and hopefully the problem will not reoccur when I return to Tokyo later this week.
However, if you fly with a cold, the pressure in your middle ear can't be equalized as something called the eustachian tube is blocked. Trust me, I looked this up searching Google. Anyway, after landing in Amsterdam, I was able to get my ears back to normal in about 30 minutes after landing. While I had bought special ear plugs, ate candy during landing, and used all the other available methods (including blowing air with my mouth and nose shut), the problem occurred again when I landed in Tokyo on December 30. This time around, it did not get better until the following morning, in other words 24 hours after landing.
Unfortunately, I was due to get on another flight on December 31, this time a relatively short domestic flight from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa. After getting off the plane in Okinawa, I realized that the same problem had happenend again. This time around, the problem consisted for three days, and it was a bit of nightmare. I went to an ear doctor in Tokyo on December 30 and got some medicine against the cold, apparently there is not much they can do directly to fix a blocked eustachian tube. Anyway, now my ears have been back to normal for approximately 24 hours, and I am glad I will not have to get on another flight for another three days.
About my trip to Europe, I flew regular economy class to Europe with Air France. The food was surprisingly good, I actually enjoyed dinner and the cheese/wine was great. Going back to Japan, I flew business (using airline miles), but Air France business class really is not worth it if you have to pay the cash. While you obviously get a bigger personal TV screen in business class, the entertainment system is not on demand and worse than even the economy version on most Asian airlines. As normal on European airlines, there are no cute stewardesses. How come European and American airlines will not hire attractive women? There must be a conspiracy somewhere.
Yuka and I have mainly been visiting northern Okinawa during our stay. Today we went canoing, which was actually a very nice experience. We got to see some mangrove and other rather exotic plants (for someone living in Tokyo), and I have been surprised to find that most of northern Okinawa is rather empty. Anyway, I will try to write more about this later and hopefully also post some pictures from our stay. I am just glad that I do not have an airplane ear condition any longer, and hopefully the problem will not reoccur when I return to Tokyo later this week.
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