Enter Kōbe
Saturday 25th October – arrival
On the last episode we learned that our hero had made all kinds of plans for his trip through Japan. What would come of it?
On today’s episode, we continue where we left off: the flight to Hong Kong was underway and finished by the time the previous episode aired. That is, Hong Kong had been reached, hence the publication.
Fun fact: Upon arrival I had to walk from one end of the airport to the other end. And so a new thing was gathered: Hong Kong airport is big. Very big. I will get to that again, later.
But first we start with the fact that the plane left with a rather substantial delay. This of course meant a delayed arrival in Ōsaka (Kansai International airport). But other than that the flight was rather uneventful. A nice surprise was that even during this short flight (only 3 hours or so) a meal was served. I decided to go watch a movie that I had completely missed: Edge of Tomorrow. Basically it’s Ground Hog Day mixed with Starship Troopers and Michael Bay’s Transformers. Nice, yes really! Touch down was also a breeze by the way.
After getting off board I had to go past immigration to go pickup my luggage. After that a quick pass along customs and I was free! Well, almost. Getting that JR Pass would provide said freedom. Of movement. Other types of freedom are provided by that portable WiFi hutspot. Can you say “it’s dangerous to go out alone”? ding
With that apparatus collected, I could leave the airport and be on my way. I was advised to take the Ōsaka Ring train, which would go to Ōsaka Central, where I could transfer to Kōbe. This train stopped at (just about) all stations along the way, but it got me there. It allowed me for some time to contact the home front. (Yes! WiFi hotspot is operational!)
In the train I got to practice my grasp of Japanese a bit because I asked the lady next to me whether or not the next station would be Ōsaka Central. Since she indicated that she didn’t speak English, I had to try Japanese in stead. This worked in the sense that I grasped the notion that I only had a couple of stations left to go. Before reaching Ōsaka Central, the lady in question left the train. After that a lovely Ōsakan girl, who was sitting in front of me, offered her help by indicating some things to me. Since her English was outstanding, that was particularly helpful. She even helped me by pointing me to the correct platform. Huzzah!
After that it was a smooth trip to Kōbe, where I got off at Sannomiya station. Checking out with the rail pass remained a bit mysterious to me, it so appeared. But after that got sorted, I was underway to the tallest building of Kōbe. I believe that there are around 60 floors, whereas I “only” got to stay on the 46th. The view, Basil! The view! Even in the elevator you had to clear your ears regularly!
After finding my way up to the proper floor, I was welcomed by Midori. Bryan wasn’t home, as he had indicated to me. (Did I mention I love portable WiFi hotspots in Japan?) She was a wonderful hostess. We talked a bit about various things that define me (hobbies, interests, travel, work, where I live, etc) and that was just very nice. It took a while but in the end, eventually we could understand each other with a simpler version of each of “our languages”. It’s just so much fun. 🙂 Oh and I took that long overdue shower. All of Japan was grateful that happening.
Since I hadn’t had dinner yet, I brought this point to Midori’s attention. Midori instantly gave a couple of suggestions but in the end I asked her if she would like to accompany me. To that she agreed so together we went for a place with foodstuffs. We decided upon a sushi-shop where Midori made me sample all kinds of sushi. One even more tasty than the previous. Nice! After that we did some shopping for tomorrow.
Oh right: How Big was Hong Kong airport again? Even the bit where the plane would taxi took a small fifteen minutes of time. Keep going, it was big!
Presently I’m half falling asleep on account of sleep deprivation but at least my jet-lag will be gone tomorrow, if you’d even call it that. Yay me!
Side note: at one point my phone was continuously resetting, possibly because the power button got stuck. That gave me a shitless scare from hell. Ultimately it sorted itself, it seemed. I just can’t have my phone dying on me right now.
Tomorrow I will kill the aliens.. no wait, wrong scene. Tomorrow I want to visit the J-League baseball game in Kōbe, but possibly there’s been a slight alteration to the schedule.. I will look into that in the morning. Sleep…
[update]
Retroactively, I will introduce a fun fact of the day for something that I took notice of, while here in Japan.
Fun fact of the day: fully automated toilets, where a motion detector turns the light on, raises the top of the seat, warms the seat, flushes the toilet, plays some ‘distracting/shrouding’ music and who knows what else.