Never start an International flight through a small airport like Muskegon

Just got to the Muskegon Airport needing to connect to Chicago ready to head back to Japan. As soon as I get there, I look at the wall and their flight to Chicago has been cancelled. Of course, my mom brings a two year old with so I can't even shout the expletives I wanted to when I found out. With only two flights that day, they really just crapped out their business for the day. There was no warning a head of time or anything. Because I lose a day in travel, I really cant afford to miss another day. On top of that, all of my tickets from the airport in Japan to Sendai are contingent on me getting there tomorrow afternoon Japanese time.

Since Muskegon Airport is the size of my Japanese apartment, there is no way to try to reroute anywhere else to get to Japan on time. There are two flights that leave period. If you can't make it you're just screwed. On top of that, the travel agents there can't even figure out the 13 hour difference between here and Japan. I tried to explain to him how I needed to make it there tomorrow Japanese time and he looks at the ticket thinking I'm just fine. It says I leave at 12:30 and get there at 3:30. I'd love to have a 3 hour flight to Japan. In looking, he found a flight that would get me there two hours earlier. Trying to explain to this Doc Brown about how its impossible was like explaining to my 3rd grade students the intricacies of transcendentalism... or how to spell inconvenienced. 

By missing my flight, I miss my bullet train (Shinkansen) tickets back to Sendai which were about $130. Now I have to try to find someone who speaks enough English in Japan to get me there/exchange them hopefully without paying too much. I already had no clue how to figure out the Shinkansen in the first place, now I have to figure it out and figure out how to say "reschedule for free" in Japanese. If it doesn't work out I'm out the money and have to pay more to find a new mode of transportation to Sendai.Also, this means I need to take another day off from work which I was already missing for this trip. That's a couple hundred dollars I wont make and since it is a work day, it means I have even less time to get things I need to get done.

One of these days I would like a perfect flight to and from my destination and zero headaches maybe even a complimentary first class upgrade. For now, I will just add it to the growing list of  travel pains.