Well, I have to say things have certainly gotten off to a less than smooth start. I've forgotten to pack a number of non-essential things like the Lonely Planet that I borrowed, which I was to return to Amelia and Jules once in Japan.
I also forgot my Panda Bear hat, which means a less than comical affair for future happy snaps. No doubt I'll be able to procure one of equal photobombesque stature while in Japan. Thursday night saw my stomach try and (successfully) prevent me from getting a wink of sleep. Waking up at 3:30am on Friday morning was made even more confusing when we emerged from the house to find not one, not two, not three..wait, actually it was three. Three maxi taxi vans. Eventually we figured out what was going on. We proceeded to pick up Dwayne, Sana and Estelle and hauled ourselves to the airport.
At the check in desk, all the seating arrangements appeared to have been stuffed as they had changed the plane size on us. Sneaky bastardos. Although for some reason they called us to the gate desk because they didn't know we had already changed our tickets over to the new seats.
The seats we got were the ones right at the back of the plane and thank goodness none of the other seats had the ability to recline or we were in big trouble. On the plus side, once the plane was airborne we were able to move to more accommodating seats.
This still didn't improve the sleep situation though. I think at this point it's been 24 hours and I still haven't come close to nodding off.
The landing was quite noteworthy. Very smooth. I thanked the pilot on the way out.
For the domestic flight we made great time getting to Cairns early. Too bad this doesn't make a difference as we needed to get out bags and check in for the international leg. The line is huge.
We sit here for about an hour. I take a quick glance to see if more people have joined the line. Sweet Jesus, the line behind us is longer than the line in front. In hindsight, getting there early was a godsend.
(hmmm...maybe too many religeus references in that paragraph.
The stint through Cairns security is uneventful (in a good way) and we find ourselves at the food court. From the prices on the menu, it's obvious to us now that the whole flights and tourism thing are just a loss leader for the ridiculous killing they make on these tiny pastries.
There also doesn't seem to be any waiting facilities at the gate. Another mechanism to get us to sit in the foot court and spend more money. I eat a muesli bar, quietly sticking it to the man.
I use this time to visit the TRS counter and claim back the GST on my Sony Action cam. Sweet. Once again, take that The Man.
Since there's no point in getting on the plane first and waiting for the rest of the schlubs to board we wait for everyone else to get on first. Now we only have to wait a few minutes. Genius. That is, until they realise some passengers have issues with their passport and we have to wait another 20 minutes for their bags to be removed from the cargo hold.
Oooh, first time I've been in a plane with a screen in the seat in front.
We takeoff and hit cruising altitude before too long.
At this point I still haven't been able to get any sleep.
Maybe this in-flight entertainment will help.
No.
Flight to Narita is smooth with no issues.
Everything in Japan is smooth. Even the carts that you use to wheel your luggage has no squeaks. Amazing!
We get on our private mini bus to Hakuba House in Nagano with 2 stops for dinner and break along the way.
We arrive at Hakuba House around midnight and proceed to crash.
Day 1 coming soon.
- Simon.
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