1/9 - Riding the plane and the rails

In CPH airport, just before check-in; sis is the photographer.

Not long before leaving Denmark behind. Dad with my nephew, mum at his right, me at his right and my sis behind the cam.

Great start! Snapping one of the clips on my bag, I pinch my finger. *Sigh*

After boarding the plane. Having only flown with hula-bula planes to Bulgaria, and never longer than 3 hours, I played around with what I had; movies, games, music… something more. Here, watching a bit of Alice in Wonderland – of course in Japanese, to get into it.

Awesome game controller! I’d hoped for something like Commander Keen, but I guess that’s a bit much to ask for after all. The games were mainly card and board games.
 

Promised my coach to snap a picture of the plane food. Some curry stuff. Wasn’t too bad, but then again, I’m not that much of a feinschmecker…

After a loooong night, so far no sleep (an hour perhaps), we were served breakfast. Not much, but soon proved to make me last for several hours… until 8 or 9pm, actually (japanese time).
 

Arigatou gozaimasu, and Danish feet in Chinese shoes on Japanese ground; finally in Tokyo – now on to Fukuoka.

Nope, that ain’t real, fresh food, but a one of Japan’s famous, fake copies that you’ll find EVERYWHERE. This happened to be the first one I encountered. Some expensive smoked mackerel, if I remember correctly.

It was HOT in Japan (I don’t know HOW hot in Tokyo, but Fukuoka was about 34 degrees…), and I needed something to freshen up on, so what better choice could there be than some pink POWER-C VITAMIN WATER? Didn’t taste of much… There were other varieties, but this seemed to be the most popular; plus, it had a nice color!

After arriving in Fukuoka, I had to take the train to Ooita Station, but first I had to go to Hakata station (and Hakata is btw famous for their tonkotsu ramen, with a broth made of the meat and bones of either pork or cow… not sure which, but I’m also pretty sure I’m not gonna test it out, even though I won’t be vegetarian/macrobiotic on this trip). Oh yes, below is the ticket to Hakata. Vending machines are set up where you can get a ticket. Convenient and easy, at least as long as you’re not going too far and the menu’s in English, lol.

After a loooot of anxiety because I feared getting on the wrong train, I managed to finally get on it, and this is what it looked like. Rode it for about 3-4 hours – the seats can even be rotated, so you never go backwards. I like that, as I suffer from severe motion sickness! I’ll admit though, that I got pretty nervous when everyone suddenly got up and I didn’t know what was about to happen!

A bit of the view. It was very beautiful.
 

In the evening, I arrived at the train station from where I had to take the bus. Turned out that the last bus had already left! After a while I managed to get in contact with my host family, and tell them what had happened. They picked me up a little while later.
At their house, which is very traditional with fusuma (sliding doors) and tatami (rice straw floor mats), I was shown to what would be my room; it’s a room where they have a little home shrine for their grandfather (and perhaps other ancestors).

From here on, I think I pretty much just went to bed. I hadn’t slept for more than 30 hours, and I couldn’t sleep this night either. After having been awake for 55 hours, having only slept for 6-7 of them, I stopped counting.

BUTm that’s a little on my trip actually getting to Japan; hope it wasn’t too long ot boring ot anything… if so, I don’t get why you read along this far.