別の外人

Adapted from an email sent to Tori:

So, the boat... well, getting to it was the first problem xD After I stopped talking to Tori on msn while in the youth hostel on Thursday evening, I ended up staying up til 2am writing the backlog of blog entries, oops :P The French guys were still lurking around, giving me booze from some of the stash they had (Japanese beer isn't great but meh I wasn't complaining, plus one can is hardly gonna do any harm), which helped me to stay awake til it was all written. Went to bed, the hostel was nice, my room was basically empty except for one Taiwanese girl, only problem was that the lights in each bed didn't seem to work, and I could hardly turn on the main overhead light and wake her up, so I ended up fumbling around in the dark to make sure I had everything ready for the next day, packing my bag and so forth. Woke up on Friday at like 7am which was nastyyyyyyyyy but loads of people were already up faffing about, and I figured if I got up early enough then the communal showers would be empty (and they were THANK GOD you know I don't like communalness and baring my NEKKID self to strangers isn't my idea of fun EUGH NOOOOO) even though they're as weird as all hell. Managed to swipe some rice from the counter which was my breakfast... so much rice... I miss potatoes. And CHEESE. AND MILK. Three portions of rice a day... not so fun.

Left the hostel at like 8.30, braved a Japanese commuter train (well actually three) with my 10kg backpack, 4kg handbag and 30kg holdall, which was interesting to say the least. I kept getting stared at, it's so weird, coz Osaka is like Manchester in size and international-ness, but yet from the way I was stared at you'd think it was bloody Biddestone haha. There was a massive gap between one of the trains and the platform, and all these commuters just pushed past me Sad times. Eventually I got to Bentencho, which is a station on the Osaka loop-line (I had to go from Shin-Osaka to Osaka, Osaka to Bentencho and Bentencho to Cosmo Square) and I discovered that
a) THERE WERE NO ESCALATORS OR LIFTS: IT WAS TOTAL HELLLLLLLLL
b) the subway platforms were somewhere completely different, not in the same station, and of course there were no signs telling me where to go, so I had to ask the station manager in Japanese, who looked puzzled (coz it was actually /that/ far, but of course the maps don't give any such indication) before giving me vague directions of 'cross the road, go straight for a bit then turn left'

I wandered along, discovered the only way to cross this busy city road was via an overpass, again with what do you know but NO FRIGGING LIFT AAAAAGH so I dragged the suitcase up about 30 steps, so much pain, then down the other side (there were about 8 exits, thank god I ended up picking the correct one in the end xD), got to the other side, wandered on down left and there was still no indication on a subway being anywhere nearby, so I ended up asking more random Japanese people where it was. Eventually found it, wandered on through, found a weird ticket machine; I needed a ticket for 240 yen, but I only had a 1000 note with me, and I couldn't see any option indicating that you didn't need exact change... Eventually some woman came past and I did the old 'TASUKETE' (help meeeeeeeeee) on her, and it worked, thank God xD Found the platform... and what do you know but there was only a 30 STEP FLIGHT OF STAIRS

I got half way up, and physically couldn't go further, fortunately some kind Japanese guy saw me struggling and helped me lift it up the remaining steps. He looked very shocked when I told him how heavy it was... I think he was also proud he could carry that much weight xD Subway itself was fine, packed with commuters fun fun, got to the terminus station and tried to find this bus stop with a free shuttle bus to the ferry... except there were 4 exits, obv just north, south, east and west. Ridiculous. I chose East, came out and saw a bus stop, except it said chocolate something on it (in my mind's eye I pictured a Japanese chocolate factory xD), and so got very confused... that was until an English looking guy (who later turned out to be from Nottingham) came wandering up behind me with a massive backpack on. Then out of nowhere some very excitable Chinese guy ran up to us at top speed and told us to wait while he brought the bus. The bus turned out to be like a Faresaver minibus, with like 5 steps to get onto the bus with xD Bad times... but the bus guy excitably again grabbed my bag and hoisted it onto the bus before I could say anything.

Got onto the bus, arrived at the port, which was a bit shit to be honest, it made me think that I'd be travelling to Shanghai on just some old fishing tug, gave the suitcase to them to put in the hold, and went through security. Despite the customs problem in Japan, I reported it in Japanese to the customs guy, and thank GOD he ripped the paper out of my passport. I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeee...

The ferry itself is really cool, pretty big, three decks, it's more like a boat than a ferry. I am staying in a Japanese style tatami mat room with 6 others... that might not sound great, but it's a fairly big room which is built to hold 16 people so you know Actually the entire passenger contingent of the ferry is very under-booked, I reckon they must make a large amount of their money through freight transportation. There are probably about 50 passengers and there are supposed to be 350... so yeah, very empty. It's nice though

First day and night, pottered around, ate various meals in the restaurant, chatted to the English guy I met who is going round the world for a year and has just started, and to two Australian girls who are travelling for 4 months round Asia. In my room there is also a Japanese/Chinese joint national lady and her 3 year old daughter (cute but annoying when she keeps running over your bed, as we're only sleeping on thin futon mattresses on the floor), a Japanese lady who just wanted to see how far it was to China (good a reason as any xD) and a French girl who's travelling with her boyfriend for a year and a half, after having worked 2 jobs for 3 years to save up enough money. The room itself is like... well, have you seen Spirited Away recently? The room where Chihiro/Sen sleeps is very similar to this.

Second day and night, this is when it got interesting. I am now writing this on Sunday morning my time, and I am now 7 hours ahead of you. At breakfast, chatted to the first English guy and the Australian girls, we looked over my guidebook to Shanghai. Lunch, got chatting to another British guy who's from Kent, and an Australian guy from Perth. We ended up all going up onto the top deck to watch the sunrise and drink beer (I'm having to force myself to drink beer, as they don't really have much else, and what they do have is either baijiu which tastes like a mix of liquorice and nail polish remover, or really really expensive wine) together The French girl and her boyfriend joined us, and for a while an elderly French couple also joined us, who are cycling round the world for 2 years. We ended up having a massive 'gaijin' (foreigner) gathering out on deck, with every non-Chinese/Japanese person joining us there. We then all counted our remaining yen, which only had to cover one more meal, and I had the equivalent of 9 quid left, and a 500ml can of beer was £1.30 in the vending machine...

Went and had seared beef with rice for tea which was tasty, then went back up on deck with more beer. We all got through a can or two, chatting about random things like Australians always saying 'eyyyy' or serial killers in Tasmania, before someone decided we should go liven up the karaoke going on in the posh bar downstairs. It was pretty much empty, with about 5 Chinese guys there singing Chinese love songs... until the Australian guy decided to sing 'Golddigger' followed by 'Sexual Healing' and it went downhill from there. During the Marvin Gaye song, some Chinese couples came in and danced... so bizarre xD We then all sang 'Livin on a Prayer', well the Australian guy, Andy, screamed it. Hilarious xD As the last song, we did 'Let it Be' as the Chinese guys seemed to know some of the lyrics, and we were all swaying together xD There was one very creepy Chinese guy though, who wore a red t-shirt and kept videoing us and trying to get really close to us, aghhhh. Karaoke shut, we were kicked out, and we all went back up out on the top deck to continue with the drinking.

We all pooled together our last few yen and wiped the vending machine completely out of beer, ended up taking off our slippers so the soles of our feet got stained green, and had Andy teach us 'Soulja Boy' under the light of the full moon xD

It got to about 1am, and we all decided to call it a night except for one British guy and the Aussie, so I went to bed and fell asleep so quickly.

Right now it is 8am Chinese time, 9am Japanese time (I have just put back the clock) and we're bout 3 hours away from arriving, so I have started to pack up everything. I was originally so nervous about this boat, but now I'm so glad I did it xD On board, there is no time pressure, you have as long as you want to do whatever you want, so it's quite surreal when you can think 'Hmm, shall I go put some socks on? Meh, I've got 2 hours to decide...' and if we had more yen, all the British and the Aussies agreed that we'd have stayed for a few more days in the No Man's Land of the Sea of Japan.

~At the time of posting I am in Shanghai, will post that tomorrow :)

Leaving Utsunomiya and travelling

Today was my last day with Mayumi. Last night, I said goodbye and thank you to Mr. Toyoda, and Kotaro came to see me, he really hasn't changed a bit, except a tad taller and facial hair now, since 2002. I woke up fairly late as Tuesday involved a lot of walking around Nikkou, and the others were awake by the time I came downstairs. Mayumi was doing her work at the table, making fuses, and Kotaro was slouched across the very low sofa watching the television. I had yaki-onigiri with something mysterious for breakfast, which was still tasty :) I chatted with Mayumi for about 2 hours about my experiences in Japan, when she told me that I would always be welcome to come back to see her and stay with her, a room would always be available for me, and she now considers me like an honourary daughter :) She said that if I had time at Christmas, I could come and stay and we could go to Disneyland Tokyo together, which was very sweet :) I was pleased my Japanese was sufficient to be able to communicate with her without too many problems. I then showed her an old Japanese song that a TV gameshow about recognising song artists/titles had reminded me of: Kawa no nagare no youni. It's a beautiful song :) She then showed me her favourite song, a Kyushu folk song, from the area which she comes from. We then somehow go onto the topic of X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, as there apparently isn't anything like that in Japan. I showed her Susan Boyle, a few really awful auditions from this year's X Factor, Danyl from this year's X Factor, Diversity from BGT and George Sampson. I think she was impressed, she certainly seemed to like it.

Kotaro then came downstairs, and we all went to dinner at a small local restaurant around the corner from them. I'm still in shock at the fact that people are still allowed to smoke indoors here, even on public transport :O

After dinner, which was sashimi bento, and delicious to boot, we chatted to the chef and the hostess who had never had a gaijin in their restaurant before. Wahay.

Kotaro then drove me and Mayumi to the station, where we said some sad goodbyes before I got on the Shinkansen.

In the youth hostel today, I have had a very strange multilingual experience, where there was a Japanese girl who only spoke Japanese, Japanese who were learning French, a Japanese guy who spoke English, a French guy who spoke some Japanese, a French guy who only spoke French, and me. I seemed to be the only person capable of acting as interpreter if needed... it was so surreally amusing xD

I will not have internet again now until I arrive in Shanghai. Thank you Japan for treating me so well, ja ne :D <3 <3

Nikkou (Nihon no hikari ha Nikkou)

Japan is not just trying to hold the olympics, you know 日本だから、できる：　あたらしいオリンピック
But also is Japan's sunlight:　日光 - amazing pun :P I actually laughed out loud on the train.

On Tuesday, Mayumi and I went to Nikkou-san, which is a Shinto holy site, and also a World Heritage Site. You could sense the spirituality from the moment you entered the park. We saw a lot of shrines and statues of gods and stone lanterns... apparently part of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi is based off this site, and I could see that. We also saw Ieyasu Tokugawa's grave... I really seem to be doing a Tokugawa related tour atm xD

We got the bus to the station again, this time discovering that it was a JR bus and I could use my pass (result :D) and then got on a teeny tiny touristy train (yay alliteration) to the actual place. For once, I wasn't the only gaijin, there were many others on this train; a lot of Italians, some Irish and some people I think were Russian. Yay. The train was fairly slow but meant we got to see lots of rural Japanese villages from the train, and we also went through a bamboo forest :D Which was pretty damn awesome.

Upon arriving, there was a fairly long walk to be done to get to the actual site, then you had to walk up some very steep stone steps before arriving in the old heart of Nikkou. People even now live around the shrine, which I thought was amazing.

As for what is actually there, words do not suffice, I'll add some pictures...



later :P

We went to a tiny local restaurant for dinner, there were two other tables occupied, and three empty... it was definitely a Japanese restaurant, not like one of the many 'gaijin-friendly' ones around. It reminded me of how different it was here to the Katsudonya in Tokyo, coz there they tried to foist the more expensive gaijin menu on us.

After food, we got the bus down to the station, which was definitely overpriced, and when we arrived, we discovered we'd missed the train by 5 minutes, so there was a 55minute wait. Me and Mayumi chatted in the station, I showed her some fun videos I had on my camera of my mum singing along to Abba's Dancing Queen in the kitchen, but of course changing all the lyrics :P She was very amused by 'Mrs Chris'' behaviour.

When we got back, Mayumi informed me that she had told Kotaro that I was staying and he had expressed an interest in coming to visit, so he came around 6pm. We ate ebi tempura together, as well as renkon tempura and 'okura' which was a bizarre vegetable:

Mr Toyoda, Mayumi, Kotaro and I chatted for hours, before it was time to go to bed. I would leave them tomorrow, very sad :( I packed my bag, sorted out my belongings, then went to sleep.

Right, this is ever so slightly late but better late than never...

On Monday, I went into Tokyo. Woke up fairly early, breakfast was good, well yaki onigiri, some random really bony fish, and some stuff in some mysterious brown liquid. Chatted to Mayumi over breakfast, in very slow, stilting Japanese, and then we got ready to leave the house. It was amazing to leave my massive suitcase at her house xD I slept really well, even though I had to wake at about 8am. We caught a bus at about 9am from Ishi-Machi (just down the road from where she lives) to Utsunomiya-eki. The bus itself was rather epic, as it was pretty damn small, had several floors, the driver had the world's largest moustache, and I'm not even kidding, and you took a ticket from the bus machine which had a number on it, but you didn't pay. The number was meant to signify a zone, and then there was an electronic automatically updating LED display which told you how many yen a ticket from that zone would be at any particular point. The ticket we picked was a 6, though it could have been a 9, we just weren't sure, and after we had decided that indeed it was a 6, you got the correct amount of money and dropped it through a hole onto a little conveyor belt with a clear plastic covering surrounding it. There was a thing at the end of the conveyor belt that ate you money... Dunno if it even counted the correct amount of money, but regardless we were allowed off the bus and we were at the station. Me and Mayumi wandered around the shops (98000yen kimono anyone?) and I've never seen so many shops in a station, even more than Paddington :O Eventually we arranged where to meet in the evening when I returned (I would get collected by car from the pick-up/drop-off point) and off I went, through the Shinkansen barrier.

Went up the escalator, onto the platform number 4, and caught a Tohoku Shinkansen, a Kodoma, to Tokyo. The journey took just over an hour and a quarter, and when I arrived, I was 5 minutes earlier than the time I had stated to arrange to meet Miles, Katy and Rob on the platform. Too late, I realised that not only was the platform stupidly long (16 cars, each of which was double the length and wider than your average FGW carriage) but also that to be able to get onto the Shinkansen platform, you have to have a ticket. I ran down the stairs to the Shinkansen gate, only to find that for some reason, there are two. I went to the other one, still no Leeds-tachi. I then went to a phone booth in the station and tried to ring Miles' mobile number, but it must have been wrong, as I ended up speaking to some random Japanese dude on the other end of the line who definitely wasn't Miles. I then went to the gate and asked them if they could do an announcement, midway through and who should tap me on my shoulder but them lot. Here I was, thinking it was my fault, and it turns out Katy was just late. She actually is turning into Peter, along with her new favourite phrase (hahaha)...

We left the station and went outside into the boiling hot humidity to see the Imperial Palace. It was majestic, and I swear I must've gabbled on about it for a good 10 minutes, though in my defence I hadn't been able to speak English for a while :P The sky was beautifully clear, the trees and the moat around the palace gave it a feeling of completely serenity and tranquility, even though we were in Tokyo. We then realised we were far too hot, so after getting lots of photos, including one of Rob (now Nob) the giant with the midget, some disgusting dead bug on a wall we tried to shock Miles with when he came out of the loo (such a woman) and a cicada on the floor, not to mention numerous other cicadas being very loud, and koi swimming around in the moat, we went into a station to buy some water from a vending machine and then the others bought a subway ticket to go to Akihabara. There, we ate katsudon which was delicious (me and Katy saw a picture and then dragged the guys around until we found somewhere that did oishii looking katsudon. Katsudon katsudon katsudon.), then went into a MAHOOOOOOSIVE technology shop to buy Katy a new camera. We also played with the foot massage machines and the shakey-plate thing and the thrust-o-matic. Hahahaha. After about an hour of accidental tax evasion related problems... /that'll teach us/

DUTY FREE JYA NAIIIIIII

Oh and there was also an

ELECTRIC ROMANCE

between me and Katy. Much RUB ga arimashita. Rub rub rub.

We got back on the subway and went to Shinjuku, where we went to the Muncipal Police Headquarters and went up to the 51st floor from where you are supposed to be able to see Mount Fuji, but it was too overcast. Still a nice view, even if Rob couldn't get a cheap milkshake like he wanted. Outside were some street entertainers who had attracted a fairly large crowd, there was a magician and a juggler (crusty jugglers... 20 points if you get the reference), and then a teeeeeny ginger cat appeared, with a collar on. It was very cute, and the first ginger thing I'd seen in Japan xD Then it was back on the train, towards Harajuku.

Upon getting off the train, what struck me was how busy it was, but yet the majority of people seemed very normal... then a whole gang of gyaru went past, closely followed by several loli. Oh Japan... Lots of overpriced loli outfits, weird looking dresses, guys that look like girls... and one guy with pink underwear and his jeans round his knees; was like being in Chippenham haha. Lots of fun Engrish, Rob was telling us about the amount of African-Americans street sellers around who picked on him, and he was proven correct. There were so many of them, all selling crappy hats and t-shirts... suffice it to say we didn't buy anything there. At one end of Harajuku was the most bizarre shop ever, Condomania. I have some photos of it... we were told afterwards we shouldn't take photos inside, but I got one :D We were gonna go to a large shrine in Tokyo, but it was shut. Boo.

After that, we did our second to last subway ride, this time to Shibuya, where we did the famous road crossing, went through the crowds of schoolgirls towards Shibuya 109 :D Inside was pretty damn awesome, loads of cool, chic clothes and stuff, I want some, but I am vair poor. Katy said it wasn't her style, but I can see her in it. Actually, I can see Miles in it more... haha. It became dark, and since I had to catch the train back at 7.30, we did the famous crossing at night one last time, tried to get on the rush hour subway, because we hoped we'd get pushed onto it but sadly not, our carriage was actually empty, and then I got waved off at the Shinkansen gate. When I got back to Utsunomiya, it was about 9pm, and I actually went to bed early.

Thanks guys for an awesome day and a fantastic whistlestop tour of Tokyo :D

I made it to Utsunomiya, safe and sound :D Woke up on the 30th at 7am, as that's when the shower/bathroom opened, had a quick shower (was in awe of the fact that the entrance to the room was covered by a big curtain saying ゆ on it) and then went for breakfast with some of my roommates, ie a Japanese girl from Yokohama and a Chinese lady from Taipei. We ate breakfast together, talking in a weird mixture of Japanese, Chinese and English, talking about how Taiwanese people eat vegetables and how the Japanese girl fancied Gordon Brown o_0, while eating the interesting Japanese style breakfast which consisted of fish, rice, tofu, egg roll, seaweed and miso soup with bits of tofu floating in it... and I swear it had exactly the same acidy nasty taste that vomit has. Eugh.

Went back to the room, packed up my stuff, checked out of the hostel (and was given a cute little memento keyring, aww) and walked back towards the train station, pulling along with me my giant suitcase. Found the Nagoya Shinkansen, and went to Nagoya. Chika greeted me at the platform, although she told me to meet her by the West Exit from the platform, and there wasn't one xD Went down the escalator, met up with James and Hugo, Marie and Mari also joined us, and we tried to find a coin locker to put my massive suitcase in, but since there were no lockers left, Chika found out we could leave it in the cloakroom of a department store for free. We then went to a ramen-ya for lunch. I had a really good ebi tempura ramen dish :D

We then all went on the bus (on which we discussed Marie's devil smile) through Nagoya to the Tokugawa museum and the Tokugawaen, and looked at the exhibits of Edo period armour and saw copies of the Genji Monogatari. We were amazed by the swords, but even more amazed when me and Marie watched some of the others get scolded by a information lady for walking across a map too much, as it seemed like they were children again xD Hugo was desperate to get back to studying, and since the rest of us had all had enough of Genji Monogatari, we went to the gift shop, where we taught Chika how to pronounce 'hubba hubba'. We then went outside, into and around the gardens, which were truly beautiful, but we weren't out there long before the heat (must've been above the 100 mark) and humidity got to us, so we sat on some benches in the shade and ate milk sweets.

Before long, it was time for me to leave Nagoya, leave the others, and get on the Shinkansen again and go to Utsunomiya. I swear I have now mastered the Japanese train system, as at the time of writing I have been on 3 Shinkansen, a local train and a limited express train, and even understand all the overhead announcements! We said a sad goodbye on the platform, the others surprising me with a little gift which was so sweet, and hopefully I'll see them again if I can come back to Japan in my holiday. I then got on a Hikari train going to Tokyo, lugged my suitcase onto it, and departed. I kept dozing off on the train, which really was not a good idea as upon arriving in Tokyo, I had 10 minutes to find my train to Utsunomiya, and obviously I needed all the time as the signs for the destinations were all in Japanese. I had to actually ask a security guard where the Tohoku line departed from, and with 2 mins to spare, got on the train and did the last leg of my journey.

On the train, a torrential downpour started, cooling me down considerably. I arrived at about 9.15pm, called Mayumi on a payphone, who was obviously expecting my call, and told me she'd meet me by the Shinkansen gate in 20 minutes. I sat down, just to the side of it, and tried to keep an eye out for her coming in through one of the 4 different exits. It reached 20 minutes, and I hadn't seen her so was getting slightly worried, when I heard an announcer ask for 'Georgina Kura-ku sama' to come to the Shinkansen gate. Since I was sitting just next to it, I got up, started to walk towards it, then saw Mayumi running towards me xD She seemed much smaller in height than I remembered, but obviously I was only 11 last time I saw her. We walked out through the rain to her car, loaded my suitcase into it with some difficulty, and then stopped off at a supermarket to get me something small to eat.

We arrived at hers at about 10.15pm, I met her husband, was shown where everything was in the house (and it is so Japanese xD), and it feels a lot like a homestay experience would. I tried some of Mr Toyoda's curry rice, which was really tasty! I went on Skype, and then got into bed about midnight. While dozing off, I suddenly could feel the entire ground moving, the house moving, the bed moving... There was an earthquake!!!! My first 'proper' night in Japan, where I didn't have to worry about my bags, and there was an earthquake! I wondered what I should do, whether I should do the earthquake procedure of standing in a doorway, but since I didn't hear Mayumi or her husband moving in the room next to mine, I presumed that it was simply a light earthquake and just carried on lying in bed. It earthquake and just carried on lying in bed. It lasted about 20 seconds, and was quite weird.

Today, I woke up fairly late, but Mayumi had told me I was allowed, and I should have, a lie-in to recover from the amount of solo travelling I had done since arriving, which is true xD I gave her the Biddestone apron, the Twinings tea and the Lacock fudge, she liked the fudge and loved the tea, (I told her she should have it with milk) was amazed that the Queen drinks the same stuff, and is now wearing the apron. I still can't believe I actually survived the most difficult part of my week in Japan! I have about 9000￥ left, which should be fine as all that is only for food really. Mayumi had a friend round for a crossstitch related conversation (haha) so I have retreated upstairs... this computer is like my sanctuary of Englishness! It's weird being here though... Again I am pretty damn far away from everyone and everything, I can get the gist of a sentence spoken in fairly fast Japanese, if not the words, but I really do have to think hard and carefully to be able to understand it. Hard work T_T

Still, I am lucky to be here, even if there is an epic time difference! Ja, mata!

Wow, I can't actually believe it, but I am now here. Currently sitting in a youth hostel in Shin Osaka (which I would coincidentally really recommend to anyone thinking of travelling this way...) with a load of mad children running around and Japanese game shows playing. Oh and there is the largest amount of manga I think I have ever seen... an entire wall is covered. Think of the size of Michael Sadler LG 17, take a wall and cover it in bookshelves. Yeah... too much kanji for one girl to handle ^^;;

Been enjoying the Engrish as well so far, had a little 2 year old Japanese boy with a t-shirt on that read 'D is for dreamy. O is for openness. G is for gentle. LABRA' ... Dunno why they missed the DOR off LABRADOR or maybe there's a secret meaning... Who knows.

Saw an epic vending machine in the train station at Kansai International Airport:

"Drinks packed in paper carton
are kind to the environment.
They will surely put you
who drinks them in a kind mood
Won't you too refresh
with a delicious soft drink?"

... It was not just juice cartons of date juice, but also icecream cones. Wow.





Back to the actual journey to get here...
Before we left my house, I had a minor stress attack about the weight of my luggage and my hand luggage. Turns out all that worry was for nothing, as my luggage weighted 30.3 (I think the guy ignored me being over the limit by 0.3) and hand luggage I think was 7kg, but they never even weighed it. Thank god :D Weird though, coz people who flew from Birmingham had their hand luggage weighed...

I didn't set the security alarm off, yay :D Wandered around Heathrow, ate a carrot cake and a sandwich, went to the boarding gate but couldn't board straight away as the luggage guy had put both mine and Laura's luggage receipt on my boarding pass, and this really confused the check in lady, who made us see the supervisor (who blatantly didn't actually care xD)

The plane was SO big and it had STAIRS though we couldn't go up them sadly enough coz there was a velvet rope barring the way... SO many films and tv shows we could watch and music we could listen to, even multiplayer games on every screen on the back of every seat haha. Took 7 hours, we were tired by arrival, though the airplane food helped to perk us up a bit. Arrived in Dubai in the middle of the night, had the problem of some places only accepting UED when we had every other currency, but met up with Juni, Anna and Camilla which was nice :D Found Jamie eventually down the steps after we had checked in, though we had temporarily lost Peter at that point :P Dubai arrivals security was so much more laidback than Heathrow was, my liquids could stay in my bag, all I had to do was take off my jumper. Result. But yeah was pretty good. Though I did manage to get moaned at by a scary looking Dubai police officer in his army-esque uniform for loitering... least I presume it was loitering, the command was in Arabic.

The plane to KIX took soooooooo long, from 3am Dubai time to 5pm Japan time, so you've no idea if you should be awake or asleep. We all tried to sleep, but, with the exception of Peter, none of us really managed it that well. I napped on and off throughout the journey, but kept getting too uncomfortable, or getting woken up by a really annoying child who kept doing this throat clearing sound, but which was about 5 seconds long each time. And then he'd scream. Grr.

Arrived at about 5pm, had the massive queue for security (with the fun woman who allocated you to your queue and was very abrupt: 'Dozo' and then you /had/ to leave. Also loved the massive sign saying FOREIGNERS THIS WAY xD the Japanese people got a lot more staff as well... We handed in our disembarkation forms, and I got my temporary visitor visa :D Then luggage reclaim, Jamie's luggage appeared near to the end as we came through, so he had to quickly grab it. I had forgotten just how heavy mine is... Finally was customs, nothing to declare for me though the security guy did ask suspiciously 'What are you doing in Japan?' which apparently nobody else got asked.

Everyone else got collected by Kansai Gaidai, I wandered upstairs to try and find the JR ticket office, found it, only spoke to the guy at the counter in Japanese, and now I have my railpass :D The ticket guy told me which train to get in Japanese, and I understood that too :) Pleasing times.

Waited for the train, was amazed by the many staff CLEANING IT (seriously, hoovers, hand hoovers, everything. Looked like new) when it arrived, had a random Ugandan guy try and start a convo with me but I wouldn't let him, watched the staff keep on rotating the chairs, and then got on the train. The guy in front of me in the queue who was Japanese helped me with my suitcase, then asked me questions about London and Stonehenge as he's apparently going on a business trip there next week. He helped me get my luggage off the train, and even though he only had '6 minutes until my Shinkansen train' it was 'plenty of time' so he first directed me to the gate out I needed. Walked down the road at about 8pm with my big suitcase, there were no signs for the hostel but eventually found it, and it's really nice :) On the 10th floor, but with the bedrooms on the 9th, and the view from my room is amazing, will take pictures.

Right now, writing this from the lobby area of the hostel, it's pretty amazing :D

Will write next from Utsunomiya, most likely :)

Today is a good day: I have sorted out everything. Well, the stupid Shanghai accom guy hasn't gotten back to me yet, but I'm not too worried, there are many things on Craigslist if this doesn't pan out. But otherwise, I have booked a night in a capsule hotel:


Doesn't it just look funky.

Best bit is, I'm gonna have a frigging massive holdall.

...

I think I'm gonna have to sleep on it.

Still, it's gonna be such an experience ^_^






I also purchased a Japan Rail Pass for 7 days from a place in Bristol that does it. I calculated, and to get from Osaka to Utsunomiya one way, it normally costs about £100, so the unlimited travel on JR trains for 7 days for about £170 is a great deal. Hopefully gonna also go to Nagoya with it too: thank god for the tourist visa!! Should probably check though that I don't need to get that in advance...

Also, now have a hand luggage bag/backpack type thing. It's pretty good, is designed to hold a laptop, and as long as it doesn't go over Emirates 7kg limit, all will be well... :P

Tomorrow going into Bath to get a few more yen (Have 30000 atm, but 21000 of that is going towards paying for a ferry, so another £50's worth is probably needed), padlocks, medicines and bras. Then, hopefully, that's it. GASP.

OMG THE BOAT IS SO EPIC

A LONG TIME WILL BE SPENT ON THIS BOAT

IT WILL FEEL EVEN LONGER AS IT'S A BOAT

I'M ON A BOAT

I'M ON A BOAT

TAKE A GOOD HARD LOOK... ok I'm done

THE BOAT IS SO EPIC. THIS IS THE ROOM WHERE I WILL ok enough capitals be with 15 other random women. If I survive the journey, I will be proud and have gone on a frigging multinational BOAT. Wahay.

(Best bit is, before I even get on the ferry, have to get from Utsunomiya to Osaka, get metro to where I'm staying the night and then get metro to port)

On another note, today I booked a youth hostel in Shin-Osaka, booked the ferry (waiting for confirmation) and ordered an external hard drive to back up all my shiz on. Got a night in a ryokan to book yet, hopefully tomorrow :)

Buttttt once I arrive, I get this for a few days :)

The sexy hotel

... I've stopped spazzing out for now. Yay ^_^

ONE MONTH TO GO

Well, it is now the 25th July, and it is safe to say that my preparations are pretty much underway. I have purchased my plane tickets (yay) from Emirates, flying out from Heathrow on the 28th August at 14.15, changing at Dubai. It is only a single ticket, as I am going to fly later from Osaka to Shanghai, and then goodness knows what. :P I have also sent off my application for my University of Leeds insurance.

But at least we get to fly on the world's largest plane :D

HOWEVER, currently there is a spanner in the works for me. I have to resit Basic Japanese 2, as I failed the module by one mark, and I can't get my Certificate of Eligibility (necessary to obtain a Japanese visa) until it has been confirmed that I have passed. My flight has been paid for regardless, as I don't intend to fail again :P

Time is really ticking away, and I have said goodbye to one of my friends for the year, which is a bit frightening. I have got my farewell party coming up in a few weeks, and I know that is going to be terribly sad. Still, I am going to Japan with friends, and hoping I'll make more when I'm over there :)

The confusing thing now is figuring out how much to pack; I have a 30kg weight limit on luggage with Emirates, but I was intending on taking a large rucksack; now I am wondering whether a large holdall with wheels might work better... We'll see.

My checklist so far:
Studying In progress
Passport Yes
Certificate of Eligibility No
Visa No
Flight Yes
Insurance In progress
Rucksack/Holdall No