Japan: Day 1 - Osaka

Having to wake up at 3am after being up late from the cd launch was a bad idea. We took a taxi to the airport and met up with the two Davids there. I was looking forward to a maccas breakfast but all the shops were closed so early in the morning except for a couple of cafes, so I just had some raisin toast, while Leigh decided to live on the edge and wait for hungry jack's to open at 5:30am (the departure time was 6am). We arrived in the Gold Coast a couple of hours later where it was really humid and had to wait in the airport for another couple of hour for our flight to Osaka.2

After the longest flight ever (actually it was only about 9hrs from the Gold Coast, and I slept for about 4hrs of it) we finally saw lights below... We were in Japan!! We navigated our way through customs and after catching a mono-rail thing to get our luggage we escaped the airport. It was overcast and raining when we made it outside. We soon found our way to our luxurious 5 star hotel rooms at the airport (which is actually a huge manmade island) and then I had my first meal outside of Australia in one of the restaurants at the airport. The lack of wifi was interesting, but I managed to pull out the ground pin of an American power converter so at least I knew I could get my laptop going. I also decided I would try and learn a phrase and number a day, so tomorrow's would be "hitots" (one) and "aregato gozaimas" (thank you).

Oh yeah, and I got to experience my very first bidet.

Gold Coast - The first of our many attempts to access free wifi, and we hadn't even left Australia.

Gold Coast - I am tired.

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Five star luxury!

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Our room

Kansai Airport, Osaka -The novelty of Japanese TV begins...

Kansai Airport, Osaka - ...as does the novelty of pretty much everything Japanese.

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Our maturity knows no bounds...

Kansai Airport, Osaka - ...as does our indecisive nature

Kansai Airport, Osaka - Kampai (cheers)!