(Tired traveller - 12 hours into the journey! - not there yet!)こんばんわ ロオマ 四
Kombanwa Rooma Yon!
(View to Osaka - can you make out the giant ferris wheel through the haze?)
(View from Gate 19 at Kansai Airport - Osaka across the sea)Wow! I don't even really know where to start! Today has been a day of excitement - a very long day!
Very brief overview:
Flew out of Auckland on Air NZ at 12midnight 20th March
Watched The Proposal on the plane - heaps to do on big planes - movies and games and music videos - was well looked after by friends of my mum's friend :)
Ate beef and potatoes and green soba noodles and sushi for 'dinner' at midnight
Got a few hours sleep
Woke up at 5am Japan time
Had breakfast - scrambled egg and sausage and tomatoes and fruit and yoghurt
Flew into Kansai airport in Osaka and got straight on a rail train that took me to another part of the airport
Got fingerprinted at customs and had my 'mugshot' taken - this is a precaution that everyone must obey - no fingerprint, no entering Japan
Slept in a cubicle in the lounge in Kansai for a few hours - was about 1.5m by 2m with a computer and chair - photos of that soon!
Got on another plane to Fukuoka
Arrived late - was meant to have someone from AFS meet us but they never showed up
Got in a taxi - after being waved away by a few who didn't want to bother with our english (!!)
Taxi driver had noooooo idea where to take us!
Travelled down these tiny lanes barely wide enough for our taxi and eventually go to the right place
Got lost trying to find the station and convenience store
Found our way home and then to the convenience store where we bought noodles and this sponge cake stuff for dinner!
Bought HOT coffee from a vending machine on the way home - it comes in a can like a coke can only smaller!
Have finally had a shower and food and made my bed - more on that later - and am really ready for sleep - jetlag is making me feel like I'm experiencing vertigo - like dizziness and the floor feels like it's on a lean!
Strange things I've encountered today:
Japanese books open from what we call the back, and read from the back to the front!
Japanese toilets flush automatically when you stand up! Which is a great thing because there are so many buttons on them you wouldn't want to try to work them on your own!
Heated toilet seats - feel a bit strange - like someone's already been sitting there :)
Taps levers push down to turn on and soap dispensers are automatic - soap squirts into your hand when you put it under the dispenser - and it's like foam, not liquid soap
The fact that lots and lots and lots of Japanese food is sweet and in packages, not like rice and fresh veges at all! They have heaps of lollies
We have a $2 shop - Japanese people have a Y100 shop
Anyway, I'm busy trying to upload a movie of the takeoff from Kansai for you, but I'm not sure it's working.... I can hear the train from here... the station is quite close by.
Have a great Monday and enjoy your 'new' teacher!
Signing off.... from a very small room in a very busy country
Williams-Sensei
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