15 hours, a car ride, a plane ride, and now a train but we still haven’t arrived back in Shounandai yet. Only another hour to go, it’s at that point where I feel like I can literally almost taste the warm evening air of my second home.
This morning started with a groan at 0330, mostly because we hadn’t finished packing up everything last night and gave up to get at least a few hours sleep. We got to the airport and checked in with enough time to grab our ‘free’ breakfast and coffee in the Koru lounge then caught our first flight of the day to Auckland. We landed then scrambled to get across to international and the duty free shop for whisky, wine, and chocolate. We had to get it duty free because all our checked bags were already pushing the weight limit with all our other souvenirs (there’s going to be a spike in the stocks at some chocolate company this month!).
The flight was great, thanks to some very kind people who shall remain nameless but to who we are very grateful, we were seated at the very front of premium economy on Air New Zealand. Got to appreciate the service from the cabin crew too, it makes a big difference when you feel like you can actually enjoy the journey and not just the destination (I’m still hoping that some day Air NZ will read my kind words and decide to sponsor me but for now it really is genuine appreciation). The movies weren’t bad either but I was surprised they showed Whitehouse Down with it’s scene where Air Force One gets blasted out of the sky. Watching a jumbo jet burn in flames and crash to the ground while riding in a jumbo is a bit of an awkward feeling. Reminds you that you really are several miles above the earth in a flying miracle of engineering (and possibly black magic.)
After a couple of movies and a quick nap it was dinner time and then after no time at all we were landing in Tokyo. Maybe because I’ve been working at an energy company for a few years now but on the way in over Chiba I was really struck by how many massive wind turbines there were all around the coast and dotted through the farm lands and small towns. It’s no surprise that Japan actually runs fine even without its nuclear stations online when you see that much energy generation as soon as the country is in sight.
We had a bit of a wait but now we’re on the Narita Express through to Yokohama. We just passed Tokyo station in rush hour… Wow. Poor little sardines getting squashed into a tin can. We feel very happy to be on the airport express in allocated seats! Next stop Yokohama so I’ll stop writing for now and hopefully upload this tonight from ‘home’ after we gorge on sushi for dinner.
More adventures to come so talk to you all soon!