Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008 6:35 AM
Back home. A pity, but back home.
The last few days were uneventful; I needed some stuff from Osaka for myself and
Anime 2009, so I went to and from on the 22nd, and finally went for a bath at Furusato Onsen on Sakurajima on the 23rd. We also ran into a water and fireworks festival in Kagoshima, but not very much pictures of that due to the rain.
Didn't stop the fireworks from being lit, though; sounded like mortar shells being fired instead, amplified by Kagoshima's skyline.
On the 24th some last minute shopping and sending it away for people back home, packing the suitcase and a final dinner at Fugetsu with Robert and Matijs before turning in early, as the alarm would ring the next morning at 4:30.
August 25, 4:30 in the morning; it's damn hard to get up, but I have to. Having packed my suitcase and everything on the night before definitely helps, only thing left to do is to pack my carry-on, shower, get dressed and head on down.
When I arrive there around 5:00, I'm greeted by a few early birds, and we start making calls to the other rooms where the others are, and we actually manage to leave well before the first subway arrives.
Some think about taking a cab, and while I would concur with that when I'm in Osaka, this is only three stops from hotel to airport.
At the check-in desk, the girl behind the counter isn't quite up to the challenge of booking 26 people off of two e-tickets, and we spend a good part of the time we have before boarding commences (7:05) at the check-in desk. Add that to the fact that only some of our group were under weight, resulting in quite a few suitcases being re-opened again to take some stuff out.
In the end, everyone managed to get checked in and we boarded our flight to Narita as scheduled.
My suitcase weighed in at 21kg, by the way. ;)
After landing at Narita, I took care of something I'd forgotten to do earlier on (plenty of time; effectively 5 hours to kill until boarding for Amsterdam) and had Mapo Tofu for breakfast at a Chinese restaurant there.
The flight to Amsterdam was rather uneventful; steady flight, not much turbulence and the usual excellent JAL-service. Got my second flight poster this time as well.
Still a bit jet lag-y when I'm writing thins, hopefully some extra sleep this weekend will take that away.
Cheers, K.
Wow, another milestone; this is the 400th post! Not bad, all things considered.