True to my character I started packing the day before I went. Of course I started packing the most important thing but then I realized I had nobody to carry me. In the evening I had the last supper together with my parents. We ate one of my favourite dishes - banana wrapped in ham on a bed of rice and with a special sauce over it. I don´t remember what was in the sauce but it was goood! It was a really cozy last night with my parents. 

Finally I´m on my way to Japan. As I said before: surprisingly enough all this feels very natural and everyday-like. I can´t figure it out. Anyway, the thing I love about flying is seeing the clouds. They are just fantastic. Just like another world with oceans, islands and mountains. I saw something I´ve never seen before this time. When we were going down for landing in Amsterdam there was a halo around the shadow of the plane on the clouds. It was not very bright but I could clearly see it. Unfortunately all electronic equipment must be switched off during landing so I couldn´t take a picture of it. Later I saw a chain of clouds that were sticking up higher than the rest, like a mountain range. I wonder why such formations occur. It is quite a change of temperature here by the way. When I left Sweden it was snowy and cold (and the frozen lakes had beautiful strange patterns). In Amsterdam and Hong Kong it is spring weather. Well, at least like Swedish spring weather. 

I am now in Hong Kong waiting for my next flight. It´s not due for another 5 hours so I spend my time with this. Waiting for 6 hours is not very fun but at least I´m better off than when I went to Japan for the first time. That time I went together with my friend Nicke and we flew with Aeroflot. On our way back to Sweden we had to wait in Moscow for 14 hours! And as if that wasn´t bad enough, there were no comfortable places to rest and it was very chilly (even though it was in the hottest period of the year!). I don´t have any idea how I would have coped without somebody who I could spend my time talking to and playing cards with. This time I´m alone but this airport is much more pleasant than the one in Moscow and I don´t have to wait for that long so as long as I can keep from falling asleep and missing my flight there is no real problem. Too bad it is rainy and misty so that I can´t see much of Hong Kong. Well at least now I will be able to say that I have been in Hong Kong and Taiwan. If I ever feel the urge...

Well now I am on my way to Fukuoka after a quick stop in Taipei, Taiwan. I saw the halo thing again just before we went down for landing at Taipei. I could take a picture of it this time and I have increased the contrast so that you can see in better. Maybe it isn´t very rare anyway. Hmm. Anyway, I am flying with Cathay Pacific now and I flew with them to Hong Kong too. I must say they have the best service and highest standard I have seen so far in a plane. But then I have never flewn with a plane with tv-screens on the back of each seat before. It is so great! With new movies and all. I have seen Pay it Forward and O Brother, Where Art Thou and two Hong Kong movies on the flight to Hong Kong. One of the Hong Kong movies was only subtitled in Japanese but I understood most of it and could follow the story surprisingly well. Oh, and they have a j-pop audio channel on which they played my recent favourite group Ajico. 

One interesting thing about dining in Japan that occurs on the planes as well is that you get a hot slightly moist towel to wipe your hands with before eating. On this flight we got them afterwards for some reason but that has never happened to me in Japan as well as I can remember. I got one a minute ago that felt like it was just out of the boiler. Ouch!

The landing in Fukuoka was the wobbliest I have experienced yet (except for one time with a small 4-seat plane in Denmark). I was actually a bit worried for a while. But I landed safetly. When passing through customs I was asked where I had come from and when they understood that I had flown via Amstrdam they got really suspicious and I had some trouble explaining that I only switched planes and never left the airport. But when they understood that everything was fine. I pity people from Holland who come to Japan a lot... To my relief Emma, who I got to know in Sweden last year actually, picked me up at the airport and we had a pleasant ride to her house for a nights sleep.