August 21, 2007

Final thoughts

"Australian Passport Holders" The words that instantly make you proud to be an Australian. It truly does signify that you have landed back home. It's cheating the system, not having to line up through the excessively long line of tourists, the perks of being an Australian Citizen. The sound of familiar accents overawed the testing and exhausting plane trip. Without sounding cliched it feels oh so good to be back home.

The return flight was as eventful as the initial trip that brought us over. Firstly, the attendants forgot (or neglected) to hand out the standard hot towel wipes upon ascent. Secondly, the plane was packed. Another full flight, my dreams of stretching out on the return leg were squandered by the holiday peak season. Again we strategically (or stupidly) requested that we be allocated to adjacent isle seats, which in hindsight I'd probably suggest against. Much easier having somebody familiar next to you than a stranger. We were working on the premise of "if we need to go to the toilet we wont be disturbing anybody". Good in theory.


The guy next to me was a quietly spoken Tasmanian who was returning from a business trip. His purpose for visiting Japan had something to do with having vested interests in second hand mining equipment. We spoke briefly and shared each others 2 week Japan experiences, this would be one of the first recounts of my trip. I was still sick so I didn't want to be coughing and spluttering in his face and after dinner I plugged in my headset (indicating that conversation would cease) and let the Qantas Entertainment system take over. Honestly, I have a vague recollection of what i watched. I finished off the movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" that I had only partially watched. The rest was a mixture of Thank God You're Here and The Chasers War on Everything (or was that on the flight over?).


There were babies on the plane, not just any babies, noisy, snotty, babies. I wasn't the only one on the flight having interrupted sleep, how long do babies cry for? Isn't there a stage when they run out of tears and just make that short breathed choking noise? Surely, the parents could hear the baby crying. Why we rent they calming it? Nursing? Why was it left to cry? What possible experience can a child get from going to Japan at the age of 1 or 2? What possible experience can a Parent get from having to take care of a child overseas? It makes no sense. To share the newly born with overseas relatives? A dying grandmother wanting to see her first born grandchild? That's the only plausible reason. I guess I'll have to become a parent to understand the situation.


5:30 am: The lights on the cabin are turned on and breakfast is served. Plane food is possibly the least memorable thing about flying. Come to think about it there isn't anything memorable about flying except that you step on at destination A and step out at destination B. Entertainment is decent, service was bearable but the overall flight was forgettable. After all that I'm pretty sure that I didn't get a wink of sleep. My neighbour had earlier asked for earplugs to block out the noise, turns out they didn't help.

Stepping off the plane we were immediately greeted by Sydney winter weather. Lip chilling, skin drying cool air. Alighting from the plane it would seem that we we rent the only patrons that we rent blessed with a good nights sleep. I always find myself expecting something to have changed whilst being away, but it feels good to be coming back home. Laundry, one of the first things that needed to be done. 2 weeks, living out of a suitcase (for a guy) in a hot humid country isn't the most pleasant things going round. I issued out all the presents to my family and let a torrid 2 weeks and a noisy plane trip back take me off into a deep slumber.

Luck was maybe indeed on our side, since arriving back in Sydney we successfully avoided typhoons and an earthquake in Japan. Maybe our interaction with Japanese weather wasn't so bad after all?

Japan, put simply is an awesome place! Just talking about it to people gives me a heighten sense of excitement. As previously mentioned if somebody had offered me a job whilst on holiday I would have without hesitation accepted the job offer to work and live in Japan. Food was exquisite, the different noodles, fish and delicacies. One thing that stood out was that tradition was still very obvious and entrenched in the Japanese lifestyle. Everybody is polite to one another, there's one common culture and everybody understands that. As good as multiculturalism benefits societies there are always differences of interpretation and this leads to an uglier side of conflicting cultures. With Japan the simpler things in life seemed to be still very much appreciated although western influence was slowly becoming more mainstream. Finally the gorgeous women. Enough said. I presume that there were darker and less desirable sides of Japan that weren't revealed. Again, my perspective is purely based on a tourist's viewpoint. The weather as a underlying theme for the posts made for a not so comfortable holiday, but in the end who really mentions sweaty armpits when you're being exposed to a new major city.

Personally I loved the pacey lifestyle of Tokyo, the aura of Hiroshima and the heritage of Kyoto. Countless destinations and plenty of attractions and with a little help from my friends and their company I would definitely go back! In the end the trip was on the expensive side of holidays setting me back just over AUD$6k for everything. What an enjoyable trip, plenty of eating, shopping, sightseeing, culture and singing. Despite all of this it still doesn't feel like I've been on a holiday more but I have definitely traveled. I wonder what my next overseas destination will be?