For a Life Less Ordinary.
Despite my initial plans to go to the fish market today, I was a bit too tired so decided to leave it until tomorrow. Dorm was a bit noisy so i’ve learned a valuable lesson in travelling: always have earplugs!
So the time had came for me to head off on my own. First stop..Tokyo! I navigated my way to Sannomiya station, and easily exchanged my Japan Rail Pass Exchange Order for a real rail pass! This gives me unlimited travel on ALL Japan Rail trains for 2 weeks – that includes the Shinkansen (bullet train).
So I’ve been here almost a week now and it’s been a busy few days! Got over the initial woes of not having a clue what was going on and now I’m just getting on with things. I’ve adapted to the local bus and train services which are really easy to use so getting around by myself when I need to isn’t an issue. I’ve also got used to the whole bowing thing. Despite being told and reading about fixated stares from the locals, or the “gaijin stare” (gaijin meaning literally “outside people” in Japanese), I’ve yet to actually notice (with the exception of one old chap in a restaurant the other day, who barely broke his stare at us for the entire duration of his meal…having said that there aren’t many foreigners in this area!) – everybody just seems to get on with their own business. This is especially the case on trains where there is almost absolute silence, and locals have an uncanny ability to fall asleep and then awake exactly at their stop and then walk off. I had heard about this but as they say, seeing is believing. I’ve seen many people wake up miles after their stop after falling asleep on the Metro (thats the local train service back home).
Well I made it – the Land of the Rising Sun. And what a journey! I set off on time from Manchester and 23 hours later I arrived at my final destination – my friends flat in Akashi (he’s in Japan teaching English for the year!). 23 hours sounds pretty bad….but to be honest, it wasn’t – it was a breeze. The first flight to Dubai was great, grub was really nice and took full advantage of the Emirates award winning hospitality…notably the drinks trolley. Needless to say I was totally chilled out, seat back, legs stretched, watching films for the rest of the flight. No turbulence either, which is always a bonus.
Well here I am in Manchester, all systems go! This time tomorrow I will be in the air and over half way to Dubai International Airport. I did say that next time you would hear from me I would be in Japan…but I had to make an entry given the opportunity!
Hello people! So this is the first entry to the blog (and my first blog for that matter)…just to get the ball rolling…
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