We awoke yesterday morning with basically everything done aside from activating the roaming sim on the phone, which the Officeworks people has said I should leave until the last minute before we go (poorer advice had never been given, I'm sure!). Apparently I did not complete the unlocking process with Telstra by doing a system retore on my iPhone, but even after my handy teenager had this sorted, and we even managed to access a different roaming Australian network, I am still not enjoying my iPhone data package here in Japan. I guess this can be a project for us tonight (we need to get up soon and get rugged up for the day).
After Steve had dropped us off at Cairns Airport, we finally got to make our way through the mysterious customs gates (we had visited the airport so the kids could scope out the place beforehand) we did the whole baggage check thing etc. As I have had the delightful experience of having me arrive at my destination and my luggage not before, I packed in our handluggage all the things we might need on arrival in case this was all we had for a while...unfortunately we sacrificed some moisturisers and facewash to the stupid 100ml liquids rule (which, by the way, will be changing next year). ...still kicking myself!
The flight itself wasn't so bad. Although I had researched all the flights etc, prior to booking, I ended up going with an agent for just our flights and travel insurance. We had a pleasant surprise when we were handed a little comfort pack for free and had also apparently pre-paid for our meals and snacks. I know airline food is airline food, but it was not expected!!!
Here are the kids relaxing for their first long journey:
Btw, I have a little game to play...what's this vegetable???? With our beef and mushroom/rice dish, the kids and I had each a piece of the strangest little vegetable I ever saw - I am pretty certain it is not cauiflower: any guesses what it is???
Once we had gone through the scrutiny of Japanese customs and passport control (fingerprints and smile for the camera please) we had a most eventful journey to our accommodation. After all my painstaking research, Pheonix informed me that we should really take the train, not the stupid boring bus...so this is what we did! All was fine as far as buying the tickets and the station announcements were in English and Japanese untill we got to Tennoji station. Then we had to change trains.
I must say that Japanese transport is a real trip. Nobody talks to anyone else!!! or even looks at anybody! Very quiet compared to the raucous interaction we are constantly bombarded with in Aussie land. We were on one train and not totally confident we were on the right one, so at one of the stations we saw another train on the adjacent platform that said Oji and Nara, and looked nicer, so we made a mad dash to that one, which ended up going much faster and once we worked out that the Japanese Symbols matched our map, we relaxed (but still madly praying the train wouldn't just race past our intended station) and enjoyed the journey. Much hi-fiving was employed when we were finally standing on the right station and were only minutes from our Guesthouse.
Yayy, we made it!!!!
Our accommodation is lovely! This is our futons all set up for our blissful slumber. Fortunately the room is nicely heated, so we all enjoyed a good night's rest before we set off for our first day of exploring.
Sequoia and I took a trip over to the supermarket before we went to bed and that was bizarre. I got the makings for coffee, (the milk had a picture of a cow on it so I thought I was on the right track), but alas, when we got it back with some coffee satchels we finally located it didn't smell like any milk I've ever drank.
I will post some more pictures of Yougendo (our guesthouse) tonight, as I must go - it is time for the adventure that I am sure that breakfast will be....
Sayanara for now
xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment