Japan Trip 2019, Day 2: Ah Japan!

Ah Japan, how we love you! But first, our flight here…

The flight

I admit to a feeling of dismay when Len told me some time ago that we’d be flying to Japan in a 747! I mean to say, how old are these planes? I remember flying in them back in the early 1980s. Then again, if it’s still around, I suppose it’s because it’s reliable. And so it proved. We left Sydney half an hour late, but I don’t think that was weather-related. Qantas blamed the delayed boarding on needing to first settle in someone who required assistance. A bit ungenerous of them methinks, and was that the full story? The point is, though, that after a rather rattly take-off, the flight was smooth and uneventful and we arrived on schedule, around 5.15am, having been in the air a little under 9 hours.

I watched three films during the flight, and no judgements please about my choices : Top End Wedding, A Dog’s Journey, and the Australian classic, Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout (which was by far the stand-out of the three.) Len didn’t watch any right through, so got more sleep than I did. Oh, and a propos our previous post, we did have a group of rugger b*****s sitting in the row in front of us, but the only reason we knew that was because of their tour-labelled backpacks.

The arrival

The arrivals-immigration process was much like any other, except that before going through immigration we had to pass through thermography, though the only reason we knew our body temperature was being measured was the signage. (This may have happened on other trips, but we don’t recollect it.) I have no Idea what they do if your temperature falls out of their approved range. The amount of inspection and detection happening at airports these days is [well, you can fill in your own word here depending on your attitude to it!] The thing is, If you want to travel, you have no choice.

Back in Japan …

Eventually, we got through immigration, baggage pick-up and customs and there we were, back in Japan. How could you not love a country that provides:

• lovely clean toilets, complete with bidet function, perfect for weary, long-haul travellers.
• a special make-up room in the Ladies toilet area containing individual make-up stations to really freshen yourself up. (Just as well I didn’t have my make-up with me as all six stations were occupied by gorgeous young things!)
• special toilet for service dogs. Well, I guess they have to go to, don’t they?
• slippers at the airport security check-in for those who need to take their shoes off to go through that metal detector frame/thingy.

Not to mention:

• quiet cafes, with gentle service and, at one, baskets for our carry bags so they didn’t have to sit on the floor. It’s these little attentions to detail that makes travel in Japan so special.
• soft recorded voices giving instructions, all over the place, such as the need to take care on travelators.
• beautifully presented gift shops, tended by beautifully presented staff.
• signs in airport public transport asking you to have your phone on vibrate or silent, and to not talk on them: clearly meant for Gaijin as Japanese know this of course.
• the courtesy and helpfulness – everywhere.

But, the Japanese still seem to use lots and lots of packaging. Will we see less of this away from the big commercial airport environment? Watch this space.

The final leg

Planning, thinking about, the Awaji component of our trip has, I’d say, taken up more of our time than the rest combined. We initially considered overnighting at Osaka and going to Awaji the next day, given the long day it would be, but had decided to just do it.

So, during our long wait at Sydney airport we cogitated the problem that was Awaji, that is, the getting to it, the getting around it, and the getting off it. We’d worked out that getting to it from Osaka-Kansai Airport should be fairly straightforward, but, helpful communications with Sue, the sister of my best friend from high school days, made us realise that getting around the island, and then getting off it and down to Wakayama City could be tricky and/or messy.

Then suddenly, it became clear. Hire a car from the airport, and return it there three days later, from where we could use public transport down to Wakayama City. What a relief we both felt. And why hadn’t we thought of it before, particularly given we’d long decided to do another awkward section of the trip by car? It will be lovely to explore the island on our own terms.

Awaji

Our flight to Osaka-Kansai was the first internal flight we’ve ever done in Japan, and we have two main observations. One is the extraordinary frequency of information provided, in Japanese and English, during the flight. Not only, for example, was there the usual beginning of flight safety messages, “put on your seatbelts” etc, but we were then told when we’d taxied to the take-off point that we were about to take-off (and make sure our seat-belts were on, etc etc.) This sort of step-by-step information continued throughout the flight.

The other surprising thing was that after we’d pushed back out of the gate, and were just starting to taxi out to the airport, I noticed two airport workers standing to attention, on the tarmac but to the side off us (in the rain). As we started to taxi, they bowed, then they waved, and then, I’m pretty sure they bowed again as we moved away from them. Amazing. As Westerners, we wonder about behaviour like this. Is it subservience or respect? It’s easy to think subservience, but my sense is that Japanese culture is more complex than that, and that respect and courtesy are bound up in it in a way that we don’t fully comprehend.

Anyhow, hiring the car was a good decision. It was a tiring drive from the airport around to the island, but most of it was on freeways so it wasn’t a particularly hard drive. It was though rather ugly – except for sudden moments of industrial beauty – as most of it was through Osaka’s industrial port-side areas. It was lovely to finally see the greenery that we love in Japan, as we hit the island. However, we’ll save the island for future posts.

Some photos

I apologise for the quality of today’s photos. The best images I saw, really, were on the drive through Osaka – some great bridges and industrial forms, amidst the ugliness, that I was dying to capture – but photography was impossible (both practically and mentally. We were pooped). I hope we do better for you tomorrow.

Challenges Won…

• Put Sue’s iPad on the Internet with an Australian sourced Docomo SIM
• Set up daily plans for roaming for Len’s iPhone, so that it is business as usual
• Transform the JR coupons into time-stamped JR Rail Passes
• Check that the Travel Money Visa cards truly work with JPY currency
• Get ourselves from Canberra to Awaji Island

Challenges Lost…

• Thankfully, nothing important