Departure Eve

29th June 2007

4:30 pm : Left the office early so that I could avoid traffic pick up my travel com padre. Traffic was smooth and arrived back at mine quite easily. In my last minute attempts to pack light I had reduced my luggage to a 4 t-shirt, 5 sock, 2 short and 6 underwear campaign. Was I too hasty in throwing out those extra t-shirts and undergarments? I figured, worse comes to worse I would just purchase necessities as required, right?

Had a quick last shower, grabbed my last home cooked meal for 2 weeks and fare welled the local nest. We were promptly dropped off at Kingsford-Smith Airport (Thanks, Dad). Check in was smooth and we both recorded on board luggage of 11 kg each. We were also informed that we were scheduled to be seated on a full Qantas flight. There went our hopes of stretching out and having a pleasant flight over. We were checked in and readying ourselves for leaving on a jet plane!


We proceeded to our departure gate and settled ourselves in front NRL Friday Night Football (Well, at least I did). Newcastle vs South Sydney, half way through the game it was announced that our flight QF21 would be delayed. Argh, not the best start to our trip. Finally boarded the plane and despite a few minor problems with flight path curfews we were soon tearing down the runway for takeoff. Japan here we come!

Prelude to Japan '07

What was initially supposed to be a 3-man posse was abruptly culled to a 2-man party. Due to unfortunate events it would have to be left to the dynamic duo to explore and absorb Japan in the summertime. The prerequisites of such a journey are as follows:

• Passport, check.
• Credit card, check.
• Lack of plans, check.
• Minimal grasp of the Japanese language, check.
• Desperate need for holiday, check.

This recount as been prepared with in-trip material and re-posted online. So how would two potentially unprepared Australian tourists fair in Japan?