02/07/09 - The Journey Out
Wake. Eat. I finish packing... Nothing like being ready in good time. I'm told. But backpacking is my release of planning.
So we arrive at the train station in good time, get tickets and no worries, then sit and wait for the train to arrive, wathing the earlier one leave (which we're not allowed on due to the super saver of course) Soon the train is on the way and we're in the subway heading off to Heathrow. All in all a nice trip and apparently Karen's first ever time on London underground!
Getting there early again we went through the process of wondering if our bags were too heavy. Nope. Mine came in at 12kg, Karen's a miniscule 6kg. Combined with the fact it's tiny, meant she could have taken it on as hand luggage (considering her "small" bag is practically a handbag). So no worries on weight and after a little hassle of needing to tie up the loose straps (I'd done it but didn't realise it was a requirement sometimes) we were off. So upstairs to guzzle the coke we'd bought before being allowed into the departure lounge.
So looked around, Karen facinated by a Whisky costing £999.99 (to the point a photo was taken! :) and then to the bar for a drink in the 2 hours before a gate is announced. So we got chatting and planning a little more. Soon it was time and away we go till we're on the plane. And what a plane...
Easily the best plane I've been on so far. And why? Japanese like gadgets. Their remote control, for the tv selection, or radio selection, or film selection, when turned over becomes a phone, though best of all, when turned on its side, becomes a playstation controller. Now I saw the 3 films on the film page and whilst they looked good, it is a 12 hour flight. Until I realised our neighbour was watching a different film and the page number showed the pages of films to watch... a few more than 3 films! :)
The games we had a crack at, something fun to keep your mind and hands entertained (apparently I don't need any brain training after completing it without any issues) whilst Karen had found something ver interesting: Berlitz word games. This was a learning tool for languages (about 30 preset but Japanese being our one of choice) and so we know the numbers, the months, weekdays (though that's gone) and a number of small words. Sadly as I expected, these words were chosen on the screen, so we can recognise them, but not remember them to use ourselves...
And if you didn't know there are effectively 4 types of written Japanese, of yes, keep it easy... So whilst we can say it a bit, and read it in romanised text, the majority is in the Japansese characters: Kanji or Hirogama. Still it helped us improve our knowledge of zero and helped give confidence. Once that was done the films began. The food was great, and drinks galore. Whilst everyone was sleeping we were learning japanese, but otherwise it seemed fine. So then I turned to films.
Whilst the film choice had some good big name American films, I opted for the latest in Japanese films, starting with an odd film that got increasingly odder with invisible fighting Oni (demons) who fight inter university battle matches, powered by odd words and dance thrusts. Humourous and odd. I liked it and Karen (after seeing a few snippets) tried to watch it later. Eventually we tried to get some sleep, as we'd be messed up already as it is!