Finally......Kagoshima!!

Day 1 - 28/9 Wednesday

After a sleepless 6 hrs flight, transfer from plane to shuttle bus to the subway and 3.5hrs highway bus, I’m finally in Kagoshima.

The midnight (0100hrs) flight to Fukuoka was uncomfortable. Nothing is wrong with the airline though I wished they had more spacious seats that reclines low enough to sleep comfortably. Ya, i know they have it. Wait till i marry golden tortoise first! Food was quite good but being on a diet means I had to eat selectively. Sighz…why do some people pig out and remain slim while I can’t?

Why was the flight uncomfortable? First, there wasn’t any movies that interest me enough to keep watching. Every movie seemed boring. Watched Ocean’s Eleven though there was Ocean’s Twelve. I wanted to know what’s going on in Part 1 before watching its sequel. Dozed off half-way through. A short nap and I’m woken up by the cries of a baby. I was sitting in the 2nd row after the gallery row. Seems like gallery seats are reserved for families with babies/toddlers because the air-stewardess attached a cot onto the gallery “wall”. And there were 3 of them. Imagine 3 babies/toddlers doing an orchestra in intervals onboard for hours?

Upon arrival I was questioned by the immigration officer regarding my purpose of going to Japan. Simple enough for me to understand & i got thru it. It was bad at customs though. I didn’t understand and I was a little nervous. Coz I smuggled “bak kwa” in!! hahaha (^-^;) Apparently we’ve to declare at the Animal Quarantine area when we bring in meat/animal products, beefjerkies (similar to bak kwa) included. I didn’t want to risk losing my 500g of precious Lim Chee Guan bak kwa. And with so many other food products in my luggage, I felt it might be better to act like nothing needs declaration.

First the customs officer asked similar questions to what the immigration officer asked (minus the one on Expo & writing his name). Next he asked if I’ve any duty-free items (I think). So I went “no, no… I didn’t buy anything over”. Think I looked really nervous & suspicious, coz he asked to see my backpack!! Wah…heng I put all the food inside luggage & he chose to see my backpack. I was actually pretty embarrassed coz my darling little pig soft-toy was in it. After he checked and was satisfied that I’m not smuggling things, he let me go. Phew, what a close shave! I’m just “too honest” to do illegal stuff…my nervousness would show…hehehe

Out of the arrival hall means the start of my adventure. I was lost in the arrival area of the airport. How to get to the train station?! Using my rusty Japanese, I managed to find out that I’ve to take a shuttle bus from the international airport to the domestic airport. Over there I’ve to take a subway to the main train station at Fukuoka (Hakata station). My small luggage was about 16kg. With a 7 kg backpack consisting my precious laptop & camera & pig, I was dying…what was I thinking when I did my packing? I wonder how my sister & I survived our Japan trip with a medium sized luggage weighing a tonne then…

Buying the bus ticket at the bus terminal was a challenge. As I’ve mentioned earlier, my Japanese is rusty. And it’s not even good to begin with. It’s the usual chicken & duck talk at the sales counter. I told her I want the overnight ticket on the 12th on my return. She was a little lost, so I repeated with more details: 12th of October, Wednesday. She got it. She said because it’s 12.18am, it’ll be considered 13th. I didn’t really understand her, so replied with “So I’d depart on 13th, and arrive on the same day at 6am, right?” I could see & feel that she’s really irritated with me based on our conversations. She’s certainly not the usual cheerful enthusiastic Japanese that one would expect to meet in service line.

With the ticket done, I checked out my Japanese pre-paid card mobile phone. There’s some value left, so I happily messaged Teru & emailed my sister. The bus seats were very spacious & comfortable but I couldn’t sleep well. Teru came to fetch me and we had ramen for lunch. Yummy!!! We went home after the meal. I was quite stoned by then, but decided against taking an afternoon nap coz that nap might last till next morning.

Unpacked my stuff, showed them some of my photos, watched TV, relaxed till dinner time. Teru had already left for work, so it’s just me & his parents at dinner. We had sushi then lots of dessert. We chatted a bit, and out of the blue his mother asked if I liked Teru. *wah! so direct!!* His father burst out laughing and tried to answer for me. He tried to put across the message to her that “I came here because of Teru!”. Hahaha! Her question took me by surprise. I felt a bit embarrassed but I mumbled a “yes” anyway. No other questions relating to him followed. I’m sure they asked Teru too. Wonder how he reacted…

I wanted to wait for Teru to come home after work at night but too tired.