My journey in Japan is over. I’ve been writing the whole journey in a document and now that the concert of the orchestra I’m part of (also part of the managing team) is over, I finally have the time to put it online.
The trip to Japan has been a journey that we’ve been planning for almost a year now. But finally it was there. October 13 was the moment I put my first steps on a big plane and flew all the way to a completely new destination: Japan.
Day 0 - The night before
- Date: October 12
- weather: cold and cloudy
- Mood: Excited for the trip
The night before we step on the plane for Japan, the three of us (Steven, Francis and me) drove from Ghent to a hotel near the airport (Novotel Zaventem). Our first flight (from Zaventem to Frankfurt) was early in the morning, so we could use all the rest we can get.
We got a room for the night at a cheap price. Steven used to work in Novotel, so he got a employee discount (or something like that). He met up with some of his old colleagues and got us a free drink (as in “only one each” as we noticed when we got the check) at the bar and we went to bed.
Day 1 – Travel and The wasted hours
- Date: October 13
- weather: Cold, but sunny
- Mood: Shifting from tired, to excited for the trip, to being tired again.
We woke up early in the morning (around 4.30 or so) and hopped on the shuttle bus to the airport, where we had to wait (that WAS the key word today) until Lufthansa opened its check-in counter.
Look at us being happy about waking up this early and having to wait...
After dropping off our luggage and going through the necessary safety shizzle, we got on our first plane to Frankfurt. This was my first experience on anything bigger than a sports plane and I was quite nervous for it. But it went quite smoothly and I hardly felt anything. (*Achievement unlocked – Flying on a plane*).
About 45 minutes later we landed in Frankfurt and we had to wait for our connecting flight to Narita... for near 6 hours. We knew this in advance (hence the cheap price for the flight), but it was still kind of annoying to wait this long. We got some breakfast (at a new place that opened up last week. Slow service, undermanned and staff that had trouble understanding English… wow!) and waited in the chairs.
Waiting in Frankfurt.
We noticed an annoyingly crying little kid that cried for hours straight, without stopping. We couldn't really complain about it (since kids can cry for long times, you know...), but we hoped it wouldn’t be on our plane. Well too bad, because it was on our plane and cried almost non-stop during the entire flight, safe a few hours of sleeping.
After near six hours of waiting, we finally got on our plane (Airbus A380) and flew off to the other side of the world.
A380. Damn' good plane!
We each had a screen in the seat in front of us to watch some movies (like Madagascar 3, Brave, MIB3, the latest Spider-Man, etc.) or some random episodes of various tv-shows. It helped to pass the time, because sleeping on a plane is not that easy.
We also got lots of drinks and two meals on the flight, all for free (cool). For meals we could choose between western and Asian. Well, for a flight meal, it wasn't all that bad.
Flight meal... it's something
And so, as we flew on the plane, the day shifted from Saturday to Sunday...
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