26/6/00 7:45am QF414.
QF412 Mel 7:30am to Sydney 8:50am.
I love airports. The smell of long-brewed coffee fills the air, a
caffeine hit you don't need just before being sealed in a tin with sleek
fleets of uniformed business commuters (men in grey, women in
navy).
JL778 Sydney 11:35am to Osaka 8:05pm (9 hours, 30 mins)
11:37am, JAL778.
Why do I always get a view of the wing? Still, I can see ahead and to the side, and any view is better than nothing. I'm wanting nobody next to me and someone nice in front, especially after my last international flight where the girl in front of me put her seat back before take-off and kept it down all fourteen hours of the flight.
Can't wait to see what the food is like.
I changed $AU450 into about £3. Ok, so it was £165 but given all I keep hearing about prices in London it might as well be £3.
$AU100 turned into ´6000 which sounds much more impressive but in reality is probably only enough to buy a beer and a chip.
11:43am Two empty seats next to me so far.
There's a British girl (shagpacker?) who's really taken the Britney Spears thing to heart. Come to think of it, Britney is just 80s British tart for the American market. Ok, she's not a tart cos she doesn't put out but she gives the impression that given half a chance and a few bevvies she'd slip you a handjob in the cloakroom.
Oh shit, the riflemen I spotted in the lounge from whatever sports team are coming! I hope I don't get them next to me (as much as I'm sure they do a fine job representing Australia in the shooting I'm not up for a long flight next to a man in love with his gun).
11:48am. Damn, someone in the end seat. Still, as long as I get to curl up and sleep over two seats I don't care.
11:50am. Oh. My. God. I just looked at the menu and it's beef or eel for lunch. What happened to the vegetarian option?
Not just any old beef - Beef Pie with Napolitan Sauce. Sounds like Japlish has found its way from signage into cooking.
Before arriving, we get chicken pastrami and honey ham. I really hope I'm down as a vegetarian meal.
None of the flight announcements seem to be in English.
At least I'll know soon if the flight safety demonstration that has Fraser coming in his pants is worth it.
2:12pm. Why do airline napkins always smell like the pepper from those little sachets?
The Great Barrier Reef really is beautiful. What is it about shades of blue and aqua that are so alluring when they're water and shore but so tacky anywhere else? Especially in fabric. Ugh.
The woman next to me looks like Gordon's sister. Wouldn't that be awkward?
I can't get the tape to go in on my video camera. My career as a short film-maker lies in ruins, over before it started.
I have a fat belly, thanks to the money belt. If I were to give birth now I'd spew forth pounds and yen. Could be a money spinner, must see about getting some venture capital.
I'm still not excited about my trip, as much as I am enjoying the flying. I guess I haven't really had time to think about the bits that are just me travelling around before I meet up with Fraser.
I'm trying to work out how much my ´6000 is worth from the duty-free ads on the screen (don't they believe in showing movies on JAL?). I can buy exactly one bottle of 17 year old whisky, or quite a few Disney t-shirts.
The Japanese TV news had a report on the election, and it detailed which provinces had ballot stuff-ups, where the wrong ones were given out, etc. The apologies were deep and profound. You'd never get that in Australia.
We should be heading over Port Moresby later, according to the route map. It seems to bypass Guam.
I can't remember the Japanese for please and thank-you and it's really annoying me. Must learn before I fly back.
8:14pm. For some reason, I'm always paranoid that I'm doing the wrong thing on flights. I feel an undertone of patronisation in the tones of the attendants - maybe because the first time I flew international the hostesses were all American and it was my first encounter with that intense brand of niceness they inflict on you.
We are *so* meant to be there by now. [Actually, I'd just forgotten about crossing a time zone]. I'm wondering if I'll be brave enough to get into Osaka proper or just play with my camera in the hotel. I wonder what I can get with my JAL frequent flyer points when I get back.
Ooh! Turbulence in ten minutes. Maybe this means we're getting closer to land.
It's dusk outside. Hopefully I'll see pretty lights as we come in. Didn't get to see PNG (probably under cloud) or Gaum, unless it was by chance - I saw a flattish brown but not too small island at one stage. The blinds had to be down for the movie - hate that! The movie (The Straight Story) wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, I was pretty worried when I saw Sissy Spacek acting as a nuff. There was a bit too much twinkling of wise old-timer eyes for it to rise above the Hollywood high-schlock mark.
Some woman came up to me before and wanted to know if she knew me from somewhere, maybe from TV. I should have told her I was Katie from Popstars.
With my ´6000 I could get an apron like the ones the cabin attendants wear.
Finally, the turbulence! No sign of land yet but it's hard to see forward with the wings and it's getting too dark to see outside.
Don't tell Rach or Brig this but there's a toddler on this flight that's kinda cute, and more importantly, not screaming.
8:30pm. Video guide to Kansai. Woohoo, signs in English!
The video guide is using a rolling ball as a symbol for the passenger moving through the different stages of arrival, and when it hits different stations, they light up and make a noise like a pinball game. I like the metaphor.
Ok, so the hotel is 45 or 60 minutes from Osaka. Kobe is about 30 minutes away. The airport appears to be on an island. So I guess only time (and what time the trains run back to) will tell what I do tonight. I need a bar, I think.
>From postcards that I sent:
Postcard 1
Dear Thor (and people who read it to him!),
you get the first postcard cos you're the best!
I'm having a beer from the mini-fridge that cost me ten bucks, but it's worth it cos I need a shower before I do anything. It's 9pm but really humid and 25 C.
The hotel is on an island and Osaka is at least 45 minutes away so I don't think I'll make it there especially as the trains don't run that late. Even the coffee in the hotel costs, luckily I stashed food on the plane. You can watch all 16 channels at once on the tv so I might do that for a bit. You can check out by tv! Woohoo, just found the air conditioner! Did I mention it's hot and sticky?
Ok, only an hour and a half to hit the hotel bar, I'm outta here. Video at a store near you soon!
Postcard 2
Ok, so I found the hotel bar, then lost my room (when I went back to
get something to write/read), then lost the bar. But I've finally
managed to have something to do and something to drink. It's really
hot so I have an excuse, and I'm drinking Guinness which is full of
vitamins. The view from the bar is strange, I guess we're looking
towards the mainland but there are big barges with towering light
thingies. [No idea what I was really looking at but the mainland was
over the other side of the island.]
Ok, so that's not very fascinating. The Japanese are very polite, but that doesn't stop the guys looking you up and down (and I know this is really going to annoy me in Turkey). They're a bit suss on a girl out by herself, too. Other things: this bar doesn't sell wine by the glass, my beer (stubbie) was ´750 which is more than $AU10. Still, it's this or sit in my room or wander the airport. I have yet to see the shopping or eating but I think I can eat breakfast in the Japanese restaurant or the buffet so I'll stuff my face there. Again with the fascinating trivia!
10:30pm Kansai, some bar (the only one open).
Oh my god. Someone just tried to pick me up (or buy me a drink, at least) with a message written on a book of matches brought over by the bellboy. Suddenly, I'm in a movie.
I was about to say that I'd written two postcards and to get the goss off them but I'll save time and say that people seemed a bit suss of a girl out by herself - here's proof!
I think it said "they say that 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery' - care for a drink?" but I was really too shocked to take it in. I can't really see the guy but he looked Japanese and he's wearing a suit so maybe that makes him a stereotypical Japanese businessman.
So things are more exciting than I thought, but it's a bit much to deal with on top of all the travelling. This is definitely my last drink!
At least my camera works, it was just that I didn't have a battery on it yet so that cassette compartment didn't open up. And I didn't even have to ask for a transformer, the bathroom in the hotel has a European one built into the wall.
And I just realised why Australian power points have two slots on an angle instead of vertical - it makes plugs less likely to fall out. I love things that work like that - arches built by the Romans rock in that sense.
At least this trip I've managed to record a thought more profound (more verbose, at least) than "I am in America".
I guess I always expect things to feel more different when I'm travelling, and they rarely do. The States was stranger because it was like home but different in small, unexpected ways.
(Some guy came over and tried to chat me up, I'm guessing it was the matchbook guy).
6/27/2000
JL421 Osaka 11:50am to London 4:15pm (12 hours, 25 mins)
What a morning! I managed breakfast and checking out just fine, paid
´1260 for a luggage strap in an airport strap [which eventually
disappeared on the trip from Istanbul to Heathrow], then realised that
my credit card wasn't in my money belt while waiting to check in (I
didn't have enough yen to pay the departure tax, not that I had to pay
it on check-in anyway). So I checked in, kept my big backpack out and
frantically searched through it, then my camera bag and small backpack.
I had an hour before boarding and I wasn't sure if I'd left it behind,
if it was on me somewhere or if it had been stolen.
I went back to the hotel and asked if the room had been cleaned. They double-checked but didn't find it, so they gave me a key and I took my bag up and pulling everything out, after checking through the desk. And it was there! I'd hidden it too well the night before when I went out drinking. I was all hot and sticky after that because it was so humid, and then I had to run around the airport some more finding the Visa office to pay my departure tax, get through customs and passport control, then onto the shuttle and into the departure lounge.
5:10am (UK time). The JAL airline safety cartoon is on again. The old professor guy from Astroboy runs around telling off two bad travellers. Then Astroboy pops up for a bit but does nothing much.
The Japanese seem to have a superhero thing going - when one of the bad guys sets off the smoke detectors in the toilet, the hostie charges up in turbo mode, the background blurred in her speed. A few ads used special effects to do the same thing with live actors. When they weren't using cutesie animated characters, of course.
Lots of turbulence but nothing drastic.
According to the screen we're going to fly across the Sea of Japan. We're going to fly all the way over the top of Russia then across Finland.
8:12am.
Russia is fucking huge! I think we flew over the Lena a few minutes ago
- a huge river, and the first signs of population I've seen so far was a
town set at the base of a hill and a very long, very straight road that
lead god knows where.
I hate they way they make you shut the blinds during the movie. I'd much rather look out the window. There's another one after this, what a bore. Worse, it's got Meg Ryan in it. She might be bearable dubbed into Japanese.
9:26am.
It's just hit me that I'm actually going to London! I'm not on a train
to Camberwell, I'm going to be in Britain when I get off the plane.
6/28/2000
London.
Wednesday, 11:57am. Bakerloo Line tube.
Off to the British Museum!
Made it from the plane to Grant's place in an hour, which was kind of unfortunate because no-one was home. Waited an extremely paranoid hour (very aware that I must look like I was straight off the boat and that I had the camera I'd sold my car to buy on me) before Kirsty got home.
Jo W arrived not long after, chatted for a bit, then downstairs for a shower and a nap - didn't manage to fall asleep before Grant got home. Upstairs for Thai and wine, then got ready to go out for Underworld. Caught the tube in with Kirsty and Chris Fraser.
Gig great, almost fell asleep on my feet by the end but then they played Born Slippy and some other stuff and I managed to dance again. We left at 2am, by which time I'd been up for 24 hours.
Strange crowd, almost like a footy match, especially since it was at the Astoria theatre and you could buy food and there were soft drink vending machines.
First beer in London (thanks Kirsty!). And a few Red Bulls, which barely kept me moving. Shared a black cab home with Kirsty.
Trafalgar Square, 4:24pm
Fucking pigeons. Who called them rats with wings?
A car backfired, and some of the Japanese tourists hit the deck, cowering next to the fountain walls.
[It's funny, but wherever we were, and whoever we were talking to, the opinion of Japanese tourists remained the same. Personally, I don't see what's wrong with being bussed everywhere and taking lots of photos, if that's what you think makes a good holiday, but apparently I'm the only one.]
I found myself here entirely by accident, I'd ended up at the Thames and was going to go home by tube but decided I might as well keep going for a bit longer.
It's really smoggy and the jumbos fly surprisingly low. I'm going to have to out myself as a tourist now so I can figure out what I'm seeing on my map.
Big Ben, Westminster, Nelson's Column (of course) - the National Gallery and Portrait Gallery are behind me.
And now it's time I started walking back up to Oxford Circus so I can have some couch time before dinner tonight.
Dinner at the Organic Cafe, everyone got very drunk. Or was that just me?
6/29/2000
London.
Shirley and her gf Suzie took me out to see the dyke scene. It was weird being in Soho because the bombings were very much in the news as the trial was one day away from a verdict. Lots of footy (soccer) crowds in the pubs and on the streets.
Pubs close at 11 so I was able to say goodbye to Shirley and Suzie and race down Oxford St in the rain to catch the last tube home.
6/30/2000
London.
Met Fraser at the airport. I was early and the flight was delayed and I was a nervous wreck by the time he finally emerged from Customs. Retro Bar, Popstarz.