Auckland - Osaka

I'd asked reception to give me a wake-up call at 5am. However, I was awake by 4.30 and decided to get up to give me plenty of time to buy and eat breakfast before heading to the airport. I showered, dressed and packed, and then sat by the phone waiting for it to ring, but the wake-up call never came.

I went out and got coffee and a large apple crumble muffin, which was delicious. I then checked out and walked down to the bus stop on Queen Street to catch the 6.05am bus. A few minutes before the bus was due to arrive, a shuttle pulled up at the bus stop offering to take people to the airport for the same price as the Airbus. I considered taking up the offer, but I'd bought a return bus ticket the previous day and naturally the driver wouldn’t accept it.

The flight to Kansai airport just outside of Osaka was one of the least unpleasant long flights I've endured in recent years. The seat next to me was vacant, so I was able to stretch out a bit. I watched three movies (Gran Torino, Valkyrie, and Taken) and read quite a bit of my book, Barry Eisler's One Last Kill. For lunch I had a rather soggy crumbed fish dish, and for dinner I chose the chicken dish. I don’t eat chicken or red meat, but I never bother to order special meals on planes, as there's usually a fish option and if not, whatever vegetables and other things (bread roll, salad, dessert, etc.) that happen to be on the tray are usually enough to satisfy me. I used to drink a glass of wine or two to help me sleep on long flights. These days, however, I stay off the wine and coffee and try to drink as much water as possible to prevent dehydration, and usually feel a lot better as a result.

After over eleven hours in the air, it was a relief to touch down at Kansai airport at just after 6pm local time. I'd been worried about being held up at the airport due to the swine flu scare, but apart from having to fill in a form on the plane and hand it in at a quarantine desk before going through immigration, the process at the airport was no different than usual. Immigration was actually quicker than normal (there was hardly any queue at all), and customs was a breeze. I was out in time to catch the 7.05pm bus to Herbis Plaza near Osaka Station, from where it was just a two-minute walk to my hotel.

At check in I was greeted by a row of receptionists in white facemasks. Also, there were posters in the lobby detailing the measures the hotel was taking to prevent the spread of the flu. I headed to the elevator, surprised at the precautions the hotel was taking, for my understanding was there were only one or two cases in Japan. An Asian woman in a bright floral dress got in the elevator ahead of me. "Which floor?" she asked in English. "Eight," I replied. As we were going up, she turned to me and said, "Ten dollars?" I'd already gathered she was a lady of the night, but I was still rather taken aback by the proposal. "What do you mean?" I asked in Japanese. "Only joking," she said, herself switching to Japanese. "You didn't think it was funny?"

I got to my room and turned on the TV. The news was on, and I soon understood the reason for the precautions in the hotel. Between the time I left Christchurch and the time I arrived in Osaka, swine flu had hit the Kansai area in a big way, with over 150 cases confirmed in Kobe and Osaka.

On the personal health front, my toe felt fine all day. My groin, on the other, hurt whenever I stood up or sat down on the plane.

This wasn't the only thing worrying me. At the hotel I'd picked up the mobile phone a Japanese friend had sent me to use while in the country. I charged the phone and tried to turn it on, but it didn’t respond. I couldn’t get it to work. Although there was no manual with it, I'd used the same phone before and thought I remembered how it worked. I was convinced that it was broken. I was quite worried, as I was relying on the phone to update my blog and keep in touch with people in Japan during my stay. I was determined not to let it bother me too much, but I was in a pretty gloomy frame of mind when I got to sleep at about 9.15pm.