Osaka bound

OK, we started to doubt we would ever get here. Here’s Laird’s email on the subject:

The trip to Japan was, on the whole, brutal. Our initial flight out of ABQ was delayed almost two hours by weather in Dallas. We were transferred to another American flight to LAX, where we stayed in the airport for about 6 hours waiting for the flight to Honolulu. We sat on that flight at the ramp for almost two hours, until the thunder showers had passed. So we didn’t get into Honolulu to the hotel until 1:00 am local time (about five hours behind Santa Fe.) We had to be at the airport by 8:15 am. The Scoot Airlines flight to Osaka was uneventful, but long – about 8+ hours in the air. It took a little time to figure out how to get to the hotel, and eventually decided to take a taxi. The cost of the taxi was 1 ½ times the cost of the night in the hotel. I did a very poor job of selecting a hotel near the airport. Jonelle’s back is hurting a lot, but we wandered out into Osaka last evening and found an udon shop, where we had a light dinner. Scoot is a “non-frills” airline – noticeably cheaper for the Honolulu to Osaka flight, but we paid for everything else, including checked luggage, water, food. We are supposed to be picked up by the program at 12:00 or 1:00 to be driven to the hotel in Kyoto. Last night, our clocks were totally unset, and we did not sleep well.

Now me: by the time we got to Osaka we’d been awake since 6:30 a.m. on Thursday the 12th. We got to Osaka on Sunday, crossing the dateline. Turns out, we’re way to tiredly stupid to tell how long it was other than A LOT of hours. After “dinner”, we went to bed. Well, I did. After taking one or two of every sleep aid I brought with me (that would be about 6 or 8 packages of assorted aids), I finally went to sleep. In the middle of the night, Laird gets up, tells me he needs me to hold the door open because he has to go get the car. I’m going: what the hell are you talking about?!? OK, no, I didn’t do that because he was freaking me out. He kept mumbling and I kept saying, Laird, we are in Japan. We do not have a car. Are you dreaming? Are you awake? He shushed me, but finally, having found his pants, sat back down on the bed and saying he had to go find Molly. I told him again we were in Japan, didn’t have a car and Molly was at home. Finally, he said. Oh, I guess I don’t have to go get her and fell back into bed asleep. Whew! Sometime also in the middle of the night I had the most wonderful dream about Hilary Clinton — it was so real, I am now sure that I have, in fact, met her. We had a long, long talk and she was just so friendly and present with me. She started out with a puppy, but I don’t know what happened to it during the time we were talking. As we were having a great time, Laird and a friend, I can’t recall who, came in and started building some weird ladder thing that they used to climb up to the top windows, way far up on a very high wall. They just stood there looking down on us. Laird does not remember meeting Hilary, though I introduced them.

Now, we have had a wonderful Japanese breakfast buffet and are waiting around for our ride. I think I have done permanent damage to my right butt cheek after being on planes and in airports for the hours and hours it took to get here. Every time I try to move it screams. Turns out, butt cheek screams are REALLY, REALLY LOUD.

From what Laird said, he might not have liked Scoot airlines as much as I did. Everyone we dealt with, from check-in through cabin crew were really friendly, nice and wanted to be helpful. We’re pretty low-maintenance travelers, don’t ask for much, but I liked that they would bring you anything you wanted, even if we did have to pay for it. I recommend traveling on Scoot. I was also relieved to know that when we got to Honolulu, our shuttle driver knew Scoot, that it was actually an airline (used to be Tiger airlines) and not some joke played on us by Travelocity.

One thing I love about Japan: they don’t know about tipping. Another thing: the toto toilets.

Can’t wait to get to Kyoto, get unpacked and start our real adventure. Our room here in Osaka is VERY SMALL. I have the fear that so is our room in Kyoto. Tokyo may be even smaller. It instantly reminded us of our room in London after coming from Laird’s year in Ekaterinburg and my month there. We had to walk on our luggage to get to the bathroom. Really.

So more later. Love from the Far East, jm and lg