I went from working, to the airport, onto a three-hour flight, to another airport, and then… nothing.
Let me elaborate.
I finished up my shift at around 3:30am and hopped into the car with my parents. They took me to McDonalds at the airport to have a meal and a quick exchange of words. Then I had them drop me off at the airport where I met Janna and Nick, who had arrived early. After Jason joined us, we went to check in our bags and then made our way into the airport and onto our flight. Since we flew Jetstar, we had to change at Cairns … no problem, right?
Very wrong. The moment we touched down at Cairns and received permission to turn on our cellular devices, I received not one, but five SMS from Jetstar telling us that our connecting flight to KIX Osaka would be delayed by 5 hours. Considering that we already had a transit wait time of 4 hours at Cairns station, the extra 5 hours was really unbearable.
So what do you do for 9 hours at a practically empty airport, with very little to see or do in the area? …well, I suppose that depends on who you are and who you go on the trip with, but for most of us, we could only just sit around and do absolutely nothing. I had bumped into an old high school friend, Cara, after leaving the airplane so we got to catch up and hang out. Luckily she had experience in terms of traveling (and in particular, Cairns airport), and she managed to find me a Hungry Jack’s and a place to buy cigarettes. Those cigarettes really came in handy…
Anyway, to speed this up a little, after 9 hours passed we boarded our flight to Osaka. The flight was underbooked so Janna managed to get the entire middle 4 seats to herself. Nick moved somewhere else as well, so I was stuck trying to sleep in two spots. Janna noticed and gave up her 4 seats for me. I have legendary friends ?
Finally when we arrived at Osaka, I fast tracked getting out of the airport as much as possible because I needed a cigarette more than anything. Jetstar had organised shuttle buses to all possible locations that one would want to go to from KIX, so Cara (bound for Umeda area) and I parted ways. We took the bus to Namba, which was slightly faster than expected.
By the time we got to Kintetsu Namba station, naturally, there were no longer any trains running. We decided to use a phone I borrowed from a Japanese friend, to get onto Google Maps and find our way home. …this is where I learned that iPhone compass really isn’t that helpful. So we walked around in circles for a little while, before I gave up on using the compass, found my own bearing, and got us home.
As promised, Ben was waiting at the apartment for us. The girls got the key to their apartment and we separated, then they decided to leave to get something to eat. I decided to go my own way, opting instead to hang out at Royal Host to clear my mind. A mini pizza and melon soda (+unlimited drink refills) later, I was satisfied ?
By this point, the other guys had arrived home, and Ben offered to come out and see me. I gave him directions to come to Royal Host, and we just hung out and talked for a while. I ordered dessert, coffee jelly & ice cream (thinking of Laura).
Then when I said I was going to Namba and he decided to join me 🙂
So we went for a walk through Namba, with my commentary. When we got to the station I tried looking for a place to buy ICOCA cards, but couldn’t find one. Finally, I shelved my long-running pride and asked the station guard. To which he replied – “you can only buy those at JR stations”. I couldn’t believe this, because I don’t remember buying mine at a JR station either! Ohwell, right?
The next part is funny for people that know the area well – I figured I should go get Ben his ICOCA card, so we hopped onto a train to Umeda so as to visit JR Osaka (I since then remembered that there is a JR Namba station, somewhere LOL). Anyway, we got the card, got everything sorted, then went and had a coffee at Vie de France.
My lighter stopped working (later on we realised it was from the cold) so I had to go get a temporary replacement. Instead of being smart and buying a pack of cigarettes that included a lighter, I saw this other lighter and really wanted it…
Of course, it’s totally normal for a children’s character to be on something so closely associated with smoking(!) But I figure it’s because girls would find it cute.
Anyway, after this… and the ridiculously annoying Yodobi screen behind us that kept playing epic music and showing the weather forecast (but did literally nothing else)… we decided to head towards home. We took a train back to Honmachi this time, and walked back to the apartment from there. I’m pretty stoked with the location of the apartment, and having three balconies to choose from is nice too.
Ben and I conked out at around 9am, only to be woken up at around 11am. Everyone left to explore Namba, but I wanted to sleep more, so I stayed at home…
(to be continued)