Pre-Script: Very disappointed that I do not have internet connection in my room. Bummer. Hope I will be able to post this when I bring my laptop around. Or when I use my thumbdrive to bring all this to school.
I flew from Changi’s Terminal 3. The place is sparkly but no interesting shops were open at 8.30am. The departure area looks the same as Terminal 2 to me. No wonder Changi’s voted the best airport, the services available are amazing. Reclining seats for tired travellars and free internet. Shanghai’s airport has plug point but no wireless LAN. It sucks! (will blog about it later)
My luggage was 1.9kg over the stated 20kg. A couple in front of me was told by the girl at the check in counter that they cannot bring their overweight luggage in. bla bla bla. But at my counter, it was a middle aged man and perhaps D is right about “Lolita Complex” but I would rather be in a complex than pay money. ha ha
My air tickets
A phrase book I bought at S$5 from Carrefour.
China Eastern’s plane wasn’t bad. It’s a lot better than I’d imagine, the seats are blue and red. On the plane, I was seated quite near the business section and there weren’t many people around me. Most of the people switched seats and so did I. I had a four seat row all to myself. :D
For lunch, we were given a choice of pork with rice and fish with noodles. It’s the first time I’ve heard of pork on the plane. I’ve flown from planes leaving Malaysia, which muct be the reason no pork is served. Of course I ordered pork. I don’t like soggy noodles (which comes with fish).
The meal wasn’t bad. Only the bun had the texture of really hard wholemeal bread. And that thing does NOT look wholemeal. I lathered on the butter but couldn’t finish it. When I was a kid, I absolutely loved plane food’s bun, actually, I love the butter more than the bun.
I only had a meal on the plane. Was disappointed because I was expecting four meals like last time I had on the plane from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur. I don’t have enough money to eat in Shanghai’s airport (they were selling a set meal at around S$20). I’ll bleed if I eat that.
weigh your hand carry here
Charge your phone here
Shanghai Pudong’s terminal 2 is sooo boring. There is no free wireless and I couldn’t go online to update my blog. *sob*
The plane to Fukuoka was quite full. I was seated next to a 25 something Japanese dude. He gave me candy and wrote in Chinese characters to communicate. I used my really broken Japanese to reply.
At last we reached Fukuoka airport. The view from the plane was fantastic. The city looked bright with lights. All my nervousness was gone as I told myself, “THIS IS IT!”
It was raining when we got down. JAL employees handed us umbrellas. It was very exciting for me. I’ve only seen them in dramas. How cool is that! (How lame I am!)
Guess what was the first photo I took in Japan? This:
How to use a squat toilet. ha ha ha
The immigration guy was really lenient and I passed the booth after scanning my two index fingers and giving the camera a BIG smile.
But the guy at the luggage checkpoint was a busybody. He asked, “Why did you come from Singapore?” Only after two hours did I realise he was trying to say, “Why are you in Japan?” Man, that’s two different Qs! So I told him I am a student in Singapore. He didn’t understand and I had to let him see the photocopy of the letter from Kyushu University.
I met the welcoming team and they sort of looked at me strange. Is it my makeup-less face? Is it my hairy legs?
My host family was there and because I didn’t try too hard to imagine how they look like, it was a nice surprise. But my peer tutor turned out to be a tall, beautiful girl with the right amount (in this part of the world) of make up.
The host family is really nice and polite. AH! Politeness is what I don’t understand… The journey home was long and I didn’t talk much because of my limited spoken Japanese. I will work on this once I’m taking lessons.
It rained hard when we got back. It’s the rainy season and it didn’t feel like it’s a summer.
The pets turned out fine. Quite cute, very clean. Seems like they have an overflowing love for animals. They’ll faint if they know how we treat animals back home.
The family and I sat at the table to “chat” and have juice. Awkwardness 95%!
I took a Japanese bath and it wasn’t as relaxing as I had imagined. I slept well.
YQtravelling 