Konichiwa from the Land of the Rising Sun!

Woooaaaah we`re half way there, wooo-aaah! ... You get the picture.

Well the flight from LHR to Osaka-Kansai was quite pleasant. We sampled Japanese "Airline-Style" Cuisine (I`ve no idea what I was eating but it was delicious and interesting all the same - the bright pink asparagus was only slightly worrying), and after 10 hrs of trying, in vain, to get some decent kip and waking up to my mouth and nose feeling like I`d been snorting some toxic chemical (probably due to the cabin air pressure than the unusual fayre!), I don`t think it could`ve run more smoothly! The airline staff were lovely, they couldn`t do enough to help you out, like I woke up about 4am and the lady was there offering complementary coffee, then back 5 mins later with a choice of complementary biscuits, and again another 5 mins later with complementary Evian Water! We may have been in the Laymans area of the plane but it was well good. Can`t imagine what the first class area (in the upstairs of the plane!) would`ve been like!

At this moment in time I am sat at an "e stand" at Osaka-Kansai International Airport, which doesn`t charge for use but there`s a queue forming behind me so I best keep it short (Claire`s not bothered; she`s engaged in chatting with a bloke from Sydney at present). However we do have 2 and a half hours to kill and shopping here leaves a lot to be desired, so we think we may work on our itinerary which we began at Heathrow last night to kill some time. And since then we discovered that after we`d designated a preferred amount of time to all the places we`re visiting, it adds up to an extra fortnight on top of the 3 months we`ve already assigned for this trip, so I imagine we`ll have to sit down at some point and rethink it!

The airport is nice and modern, and I thought I would feel like one big fat green martian amongst all the Japanese people, but there`s quite a few western people here too so it`s not too bad. And anyway all the japanese folk we`ve come into contact with so far have been lovely, so I`m very much looking forward to spending some more time here on our way back.

It`s funny cos it`s beginning to feel just a bit more real now. And it`s not nearly as scary as I thought it would be. It`s just like getting the bus to Bolton. Well maybe not quite.

Well that`s all for now, guess I`ll next post from Sydney! Hope all is well at home with everybody. I do worry about Mum too on her own with all them Lads! Take care of her!

Arigato for listening, and Sayonara!