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.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Christchurch - Auckland
Because I'd booked my ticket through Japan Airlines, I had the choice of either flying to Auckland on an international flight (actually the final leg of the Air New Zealand/JAL flight that takes passengers from Tokyo to Auckland via Christchurch) and staying a night there before continuing on to Osaka, or paying extra and doing the entire journey in one day by flying up to Auckland on a domestic flight early the same morning as the flight to Osaka. I chose the former. This had its advantages and disadvantages. On the minus side it made the journey to Japan seem a lot longer. On the plus side, during the flight to Auckland I got to play with the newish entertainment system on the Air New Zealand 767, which has a nice wide screen and seems to have a clearer picture than the system on the 747s and 777s.
The flight to Auckland only took an hour and 20 minutes, so I steered clear of the movies (which I'd have plenty of time to see the next day during the flight to Osaka) and watched some music videos instead. I chose the Classic collection of clips, which were mostly from the 1980s. Some of the songs were pretty dire, others were OK if a little dated (e.g. Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling"), while a couple actually lived up to the title "classic", including the Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now". But seriously, will the absurd fashion of the eighties (big hair, shoulder pads, high-wasted baggy trousers - and that's just the men) ever make a come back?
After touching down in Auckland just after 11am, I caught the Airbus Express into the city. The bus seemed to take a rather circuitous route to the CBD, taking me through leafy parts of Auckland I hadn't seen before. I was dropped off on Queen Street and soon found my hotel, which was literally a stone's throw from Skycity. This was handy, as I was due to have dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower that evening. As a bonus, my room had a view of the harbour.
I dumped my bag and went out for a wander. Being a Sunday, things were pretty quiet. One thing I did notice was the large number of beggars and buskers on the street compared to Christchurch. I had lunch (pumpkin soup and toast) at a café on Vulcan Lane and continued walking around for an hour or so, mainly checking out bookshops and CD shops. As I was coming out of JB HiFi, a young guy at the door asked if I minded if he looked inside my bag. "Yes, I do mind actually," I said, and continued walking out. A reminder, citizens of this fair land, that not even a policeman has the right to search you without good reason. Those signs in stores declaring that it's a condition of entry that you may have your bag searched on leaving have no legal backing whatsoever.
Having seen everything in the inner city that I wanted to see, I retired to my hotel room and spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV, mostly Sky Movies. I enjoyed Scoop, a Woody Allen comedy starring Scarlett Johansson. I interrupted my TV viewing once to go out and get coffee. I noticed that the coffee shop just along from the hotel was open 24 hours. I decided that's where I'd get breakfast the following morning, as I had to check out by 5.45am - well before the hotel restaurant opened - to enable me to get a bus back to the airport to catch my flight to Japan.
I'd booked a table at Orbit, the revolving restaurant, for six, so at about ten minutes to I strolled down to Skycity and took the elevator up to the restaurant 190 metres above the ground. A waiter showed me to a window table with a great view of the city below, which had already descended into darkness. I was about to put my bag on the floor beside my table when I noticed that this was near where a revolving section of the floor and a non-revolving section met. I decided to hang my bag on my chair instead. I wonder how many people have made the mistake of putting their bags on the floor only to look down later and find them missing.
The restaurant takes about an hour to make a full rotation, so I got to see the entire city by the time I finished my meal (which included the colourful snapper dish in the photo above). I was back in my hotel room in time to catch The Amazing Race (the episode in question was filmed in Siem Reap, so I was keen to see it). I then switched back to Sky Movies to watch Vantage Point, eventually calling it a night at around 10pm.
Although my day in Auckland wasn't a complete waste of time, it was probably a mistake to stay there overnight instead of paying extra and getting a domestic flight up to Auckland the next morning. I was eager to get to Japan and start walking. At the same time I was quite apprehensive about the weeks ahead. I hadn't really trained enough, and I had some real injury worries. My left big toe was quite sore from time to time during dinner, indicating the onset of another ingrown toenail, and my groin had also been playing up for a couple of days.
The flight to Auckland only took an hour and 20 minutes, so I steered clear of the movies (which I'd have plenty of time to see the next day during the flight to Osaka) and watched some music videos instead. I chose the Classic collection of clips, which were mostly from the 1980s. Some of the songs were pretty dire, others were OK if a little dated (e.g. Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling"), while a couple actually lived up to the title "classic", including the Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now". But seriously, will the absurd fashion of the eighties (big hair, shoulder pads, high-wasted baggy trousers - and that's just the men) ever make a come back?
After touching down in Auckland just after 11am, I caught the Airbus Express into the city. The bus seemed to take a rather circuitous route to the CBD, taking me through leafy parts of Auckland I hadn't seen before. I was dropped off on Queen Street and soon found my hotel, which was literally a stone's throw from Skycity. This was handy, as I was due to have dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower that evening. As a bonus, my room had a view of the harbour.
I dumped my bag and went out for a wander. Being a Sunday, things were pretty quiet. One thing I did notice was the large number of beggars and buskers on the street compared to Christchurch. I had lunch (pumpkin soup and toast) at a café on Vulcan Lane and continued walking around for an hour or so, mainly checking out bookshops and CD shops. As I was coming out of JB HiFi, a young guy at the door asked if I minded if he looked inside my bag. "Yes, I do mind actually," I said, and continued walking out. A reminder, citizens of this fair land, that not even a policeman has the right to search you without good reason. Those signs in stores declaring that it's a condition of entry that you may have your bag searched on leaving have no legal backing whatsoever.
Having seen everything in the inner city that I wanted to see, I retired to my hotel room and spent the rest of the afternoon watching TV, mostly Sky Movies. I enjoyed Scoop, a Woody Allen comedy starring Scarlett Johansson. I interrupted my TV viewing once to go out and get coffee. I noticed that the coffee shop just along from the hotel was open 24 hours. I decided that's where I'd get breakfast the following morning, as I had to check out by 5.45am - well before the hotel restaurant opened - to enable me to get a bus back to the airport to catch my flight to Japan.
I'd booked a table at Orbit, the revolving restaurant, for six, so at about ten minutes to I strolled down to Skycity and took the elevator up to the restaurant 190 metres above the ground. A waiter showed me to a window table with a great view of the city below, which had already descended into darkness. I was about to put my bag on the floor beside my table when I noticed that this was near where a revolving section of the floor and a non-revolving section met. I decided to hang my bag on my chair instead. I wonder how many people have made the mistake of putting their bags on the floor only to look down later and find them missing.
The restaurant takes about an hour to make a full rotation, so I got to see the entire city by the time I finished my meal (which included the colourful snapper dish in the photo above). I was back in my hotel room in time to catch The Amazing Race (the episode in question was filmed in Siem Reap, so I was keen to see it). I then switched back to Sky Movies to watch Vantage Point, eventually calling it a night at around 10pm.
Although my day in Auckland wasn't a complete waste of time, it was probably a mistake to stay there overnight instead of paying extra and getting a domestic flight up to Auckland the next morning. I was eager to get to Japan and start walking. At the same time I was quite apprehensive about the weeks ahead. I hadn't really trained enough, and I had some real injury worries. My left big toe was quite sore from time to time during dinner, indicating the onset of another ingrown toenail, and my groin had also been playing up for a couple of days.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Notice
Dear readers
I'm about to leave for Japan to walk the Tokaido, and won't be updating this blog again until after my return on June 16. If you'd like to follow my progress "live", please go to my other blog at:
http://tokaido2009.blogspot.com/
Regards
The Walking Fool
I'm about to leave for Japan to walk the Tokaido, and won't be updating this blog again until after my return on June 16. If you'd like to follow my progress "live", please go to my other blog at:
http://tokaido2009.blogspot.com/
Regards
The Walking Fool
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Dreams
Congratulations to yeowatzup, who, according to this message from the other day, has completed his solo walk of the Nakasendo. And best wishes to Dr. Bad, who is about to set off on a solo walk along the same route (albeit at a slightly more leisurely pace). And, just in case I don't get the chance to post again before I leave, good luck to me, too.
I had a strange dream last night. I was on the plane on my way to Japan to start my walk. Sitting on my left was an older woman, and on my right, next to the window, was a younger, very clean-cut and well-dressed man. The woman looked over and did a double take, having recognized the man as someone famous. He looked only vaguely familiar to me. I think he was some British comedian I've seen once or twice on the telly.
The woman made a fuss and insisted the man give her his autograph. He then turned to me and introduced himself (I don't remember his name, unfortunately). He asked me my name. "I'm Matthew," I said, "otherwise known as the Walking Fool." I handed him one of the Walking Fool business cards I've made especially for the trip. He seemed a bit puzzled, so I explained what it was I intended to do in Japan. And then, as they say, I woke up.
I had another dream before that, or perhaps it was part of the same dream. I was playing tennis against a couple of female opponents. It was a close match (the scores were tied), but then without warning the umpire suspended the match. A new group of players was invited on to the court to replace us. When we complained, the umpire explained that we weren't exciting enough and the crowd was losing interest. We decided to take our protest to the players' representative, who was someone famous like Steffi Graf. That's as much as I remember.
Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 340.7km
Days left until departure: 3
I had a strange dream last night. I was on the plane on my way to Japan to start my walk. Sitting on my left was an older woman, and on my right, next to the window, was a younger, very clean-cut and well-dressed man. The woman looked over and did a double take, having recognized the man as someone famous. He looked only vaguely familiar to me. I think he was some British comedian I've seen once or twice on the telly.
The woman made a fuss and insisted the man give her his autograph. He then turned to me and introduced himself (I don't remember his name, unfortunately). He asked me my name. "I'm Matthew," I said, "otherwise known as the Walking Fool." I handed him one of the Walking Fool business cards I've made especially for the trip. He seemed a bit puzzled, so I explained what it was I intended to do in Japan. And then, as they say, I woke up.
I had another dream before that, or perhaps it was part of the same dream. I was playing tennis against a couple of female opponents. It was a close match (the scores were tied), but then without warning the umpire suspended the match. A new group of players was invited on to the court to replace us. When we complained, the umpire explained that we weren't exciting enough and the crowd was losing interest. We decided to take our protest to the players' representative, who was someone famous like Steffi Graf. That's as much as I remember.
Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 340.7km
Days left until departure: 3
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Every gram counts
This morning I got out the fancy kitchen scales to help me make some final decisions about what to take and what to leave behind when I walk the Tokaido. The results are as follows:
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 337.7km
Days left until departure: 5
iPod and adapter: 352gDistance walked today: 3km
Noise-canceling headphones (including batteries): 256g
Deluxe illustrated map of Tokaido: 134g
One Last Kill by Barry Eisler: 234g
The Flaneur by Edmund White: 166g
400g bag of Scrummy Mix: 408g
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 337.7km
Days left until departure: 5
Monday, 11 May 2009
Six days to go
I've started packing. I should have time to do one more long walk before I head off. However, I'm still worried that I'm underprepared. Mind you, looking through some of the posts I made before I set off to walk the Nakasendo in 2007, it was heartening to recall that I hardly did any training in the final two weeks.
Japan seems to be experiencing a bit of a heat wave at present. Temperatures are up into the 30s in some places. However, the forecast for the week ahead is for lows of around 15 and highs of around 25 degrees. Sounds like perfect weather for walking.
Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 334.7km
Days left until departure: 6
Japan seems to be experiencing a bit of a heat wave at present. Temperatures are up into the 30s in some places. However, the forecast for the week ahead is for lows of around 15 and highs of around 25 degrees. Sounds like perfect weather for walking.
Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 334.7km
Days left until departure: 6
Sunday, 10 May 2009
A week to go
At last! A response from Twitter to the email I sent them over a week ago informing them that my account had apparently been hacked and asking them what the hell was going on. I quote:
In other news, today I crossed off another thing on my to-do-before-leaving-for-Japan list by replenishing the wee first aid kit I took when we walked the Nakasendo in 2007. This mainly involved buying a few fresh bandages and a new tube of antiseptic cream (the old one having passed its use-by date unused). I still have a few Scholl gel blister plasters left, although hopefully I won't need them this time. Last time I had blisters before we even started the walk proper (I'd foolishly bought some new shoes just before leaving New Zealand), but they soon healed and I didn’t get any more. By the time we reached Tokyo the soles of my feet were as tough as leather. I'm also taking some anti-chafe balm to put on my feet. Erik gave me some of this last time, and it seemed to work wonders.
Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 331.7km
Days left until departure: 7
Hi thewalkingfool,Agghh!
It's been two weeks and we haven't been able to get to your request…
In other news, today I crossed off another thing on my to-do-before-leaving-for-Japan list by replenishing the wee first aid kit I took when we walked the Nakasendo in 2007. This mainly involved buying a few fresh bandages and a new tube of antiseptic cream (the old one having passed its use-by date unused). I still have a few Scholl gel blister plasters left, although hopefully I won't need them this time. Last time I had blisters before we even started the walk proper (I'd foolishly bought some new shoes just before leaving New Zealand), but they soon healed and I didn’t get any more. By the time we reached Tokyo the soles of my feet were as tough as leather. I'm also taking some anti-chafe balm to put on my feet. Erik gave me some of this last time, and it seemed to work wonders.
Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 331.7km
Days left until departure: 7
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