Wednesday April 6, 2005 (In toronto) & Thursday April 7, 2005 (In Japan) - The longest day... ever
5:00 am (Toronto time): Get up in Richmond Hill to prepare to head to Pearson Int'l Airport terminal 1.
6:30 am (Toronto time): Arrive at Pearson Int'l and wait for flight at Gate 139
8:45 am (Toronto time): Board the Air Canada flight
2:15 pm (Toronto time) 11:15 am (Vancouver time): Arrive at Vancouver int'l airport 5 hours later to wait for the transfer flight to Osaka, Japan
Wednesday 11:45 am (Van time): Board AC flight 35 en route non-stop to Osaka, Japan
So here comes my rant for this EXTREMELY LONG painful 10 hour flight. I got so tired of plane food. Since hours were mixed up from Toronto meals were being fed to us at weird times. And on top of that I had the sniffles and for some reason my fingers started bleeding. Throughout the plane ride I forced myself to finish reading the conference and academic journals for my work term report and of course review my Japanese. In the last few hours of the flight, my body was aching from sitting too long. Luckily they showed the movie SIDEWAYS to distract from the fatigue. Finally we arrived at the infamous sinking Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan at 4:15 pm.
Thursday 4:15 pm (Japan time): When we got off the plane we had to board an airport mono-rail shuttle to the immigration/baggage claim/customs area. Knowing my luck, my luggage was the very LAST to come out of the plane. it was a loooong wait. There were Japanese airport workers walking narcotic-detection dogs around sniffing everyone's lugage. The golden retriever seemed to really like Teresa. LOL
My Wednesday just got extended another 13 hours... then it suddently hit me that I havent had my coffee yet today. ARG!!! (Sarah you can understand the pain)
4:45 pm (Japan time): So then we had to take this airport shuttle (the Japs call it an Airport limousine) from Kansai to OCAT (Osaka City Air Terminal) where we are suppose to take a 3 hour bus ride from Osaka to Tottori (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh more sitting without coffeeee)
5:30 pm (japan time): we just missed the bus on route to Tottori. So we had to wait till 6.
6 pm (Japan time): We board the shuttle bus on route to Tottori. The ride was very very bumpy and the roads had A LOT of turns, but nevertheless, I got lots of sleep.
9:15 pm (Japan time): Yokomatsu sensei (professor), and two Japanese students, Menota and Ryo, from Tottori University came to pick us up. They took us to this Japanese restaurant. The meals were decently priced. They averaged 700¥ (which about $7.00 Us).
10:15 pm: WE FINALLY arrive at the International students residence. There we met up with Ana, who arrived yesterday. I went up to my room to see what it was like. It was sooooooooooooooo dusty. So my allergies starting reacting, on top of my sniffles. I had my own toilet and a balcony. I was like SWEEEET. It had a sink on top of the toilet. How it works so when one flushed the toilet, instead of refillign the toilet from the inside, the Japanese designed it so that you can wash your hands as well. Very innovative and "Systems Design"ish. Professor MacGregor would be proud. You could also choose to flush according to whether you just took a dump or a piss. Then I found out my room, which I was assigned to without a choice, is the only room out of the 5 of us that has no fridge and sink/counter. GRRRRR. But I'm going to paying less rent.
11:00 pm: We walk out to town to try to find a payphone to call home. The streets are COMPLETELY empty. In Toronto/Waterloo the streets would be filled with people at this time. And we had no luck. We found a phone, but werent able to make any calls with Ana's phone card. So when we went back home, I unpacked the rest of my stuff and went to bed... I was too tired to take a shower
Its the Sakura festival (Cherry blossom festival) this week in Japan. So I'm excited. It should be gorgeous
That was a loooonnnnng, really long day. I hope jet lag is going to hit me too hard considering I slept at lot on the plane and the bus ride from Osaka to Tottori.
6:30 am (Toronto time): Arrive at Pearson Int'l and wait for flight at Gate 139
8:45 am (Toronto time): Board the Air Canada flight
2:15 pm (Toronto time) 11:15 am (Vancouver time): Arrive at Vancouver int'l airport 5 hours later to wait for the transfer flight to Osaka, Japan
Wednesday 11:45 am (Van time): Board AC flight 35 en route non-stop to Osaka, Japan
So here comes my rant for this EXTREMELY LONG painful 10 hour flight. I got so tired of plane food. Since hours were mixed up from Toronto meals were being fed to us at weird times. And on top of that I had the sniffles and for some reason my fingers started bleeding. Throughout the plane ride I forced myself to finish reading the conference and academic journals for my work term report and of course review my Japanese. In the last few hours of the flight, my body was aching from sitting too long. Luckily they showed the movie SIDEWAYS to distract from the fatigue. Finally we arrived at the infamous sinking Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan at 4:15 pm.
Air Canada Flight 35 inside the famous "sinking" Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan
Thursday 4:15 pm (Japan time): When we got off the plane we had to board an airport mono-rail shuttle to the immigration/baggage claim/customs area. Knowing my luck, my luggage was the very LAST to come out of the plane. it was a loooong wait. There were Japanese airport workers walking narcotic-detection dogs around sniffing everyone's lugage. The golden retriever seemed to really like Teresa. LOL
My Wednesday just got extended another 13 hours... then it suddently hit me that I havent had my coffee yet today. ARG!!! (Sarah you can understand the pain)
4:45 pm (Japan time): So then we had to take this airport shuttle (the Japs call it an Airport limousine) from Kansai to OCAT (Osaka City Air Terminal) where we are suppose to take a 3 hour bus ride from Osaka to Tottori (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh more sitting without coffeeee)
5:30 pm (japan time): we just missed the bus on route to Tottori. So we had to wait till 6.
6 pm (Japan time): We board the shuttle bus on route to Tottori. The ride was very very bumpy and the roads had A LOT of turns, but nevertheless, I got lots of sleep.
9:15 pm (Japan time): Yokomatsu sensei (professor), and two Japanese students, Menota and Ryo, from Tottori University came to pick us up. They took us to this Japanese restaurant. The meals were decently priced. They averaged 700¥ (which about $7.00 Us).
10:15 pm: WE FINALLY arrive at the International students residence. There we met up with Ana, who arrived yesterday. I went up to my room to see what it was like. It was sooooooooooooooo dusty. So my allergies starting reacting, on top of my sniffles. I had my own toilet and a balcony. I was like SWEEEET. It had a sink on top of the toilet. How it works so when one flushed the toilet, instead of refillign the toilet from the inside, the Japanese designed it so that you can wash your hands as well. Very innovative and "Systems Design"ish. Professor MacGregor would be proud. You could also choose to flush according to whether you just took a dump or a piss. Then I found out my room, which I was assigned to without a choice, is the only room out of the 5 of us that has no fridge and sink/counter. GRRRRR. But I'm going to paying less rent.
My room, which a gorgeous balcony view
The crazy user-friendly toilet in my room
11:00 pm: We walk out to town to try to find a payphone to call home. The streets are COMPLETELY empty. In Toronto/Waterloo the streets would be filled with people at this time. And we had no luck. We found a phone, but werent able to make any calls with Ana's phone card. So when we went back home, I unpacked the rest of my stuff and went to bed... I was too tired to take a shower
Its the Sakura festival (Cherry blossom festival) this week in Japan. So I'm excited. It should be gorgeous
That was a loooonnnnng, really long day. I hope jet lag is going to hit me too hard considering I slept at lot on the plane and the bus ride from Osaka to Tottori.
posted by Arthur Kong at 11:34 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home