The dreaded final day has arrived. After all that has come before this, I’m tired and so are the other two. Can’t stay in bed though, have to go down to the hotel breakfast and then check out. The breakfast at the Prezio is probably the best of the hotels so far. Lots of choices, including local dishes, and cream puffs and mango custard pudding.
We make it out shortly before the 11 am check out limit, leaving our luggage at the hotel. It has been decided that we need to visit the Jins glasses store in Namba Parks, which means walking in the heat (now yesterday’s clouds have gone) to Honmachi and riding the Midosuji Subway Line to Namba. Then we need to navigate underground to Namba Parks, a shopping centre with a number of midmarket and upmarket stores.
Jins is located. But neither B nor Alex can find what they want. Being boring, I get another version of my current reading pair. It only takes about 30 minutes, so much more efficient than here.
In the meantime we get lost searching for Tower Records, and when it is located, I can’t find any limited edition or Japanese soundtracks I want to buy. There are some pretty aquariums in the pet store and I buy B a souvenir Expo t-shirt from Loft. Be warned that the toilet facilities are very limited.
We begin heading back, but then they want lunch and we end up walking all the way back from Namba Station to Namba Parks again and eating lunch at Fugetsu, an okonomiyaki chain. B and I share an okonomiyaki, Alex has yakisoba. Both he and I have queasy stomachs due to flight nerves.
It takes us a while to relocate the Midosuji Line entrance at Namba, then we ride the train back to Honmachi and collect our luggage. Trudge back to Honmachi and catch the Midosuji Line to Shin-Osaka. Actually should have got off at Umeda/Osaka, but I didn’t realise that the Haruka Express also stops there now.
It’s a long walk to the JR ticket gates at Shin-Osaka, during which time we have to stop to buy some more omiyage. I reserve tickets on the Haruka and this time we make sure we are at the correct waiting area for our carriage. Along comes the Hello Kitty Haruka and we board.
The Haruka is one of those comfortable interludes that allows you to relax and collect your thoughts before your flight. As you whiz past the stations the view also reminds you of what you are about to miss. I’m not really ready to go yet. I don’t feel like I’ve had a chance to relax and take the time to really feel Japan. It’s all been a blur.
Once we have crossed the long causeway bridge and arrived at Kansai International Airport we head up to the fourth floor to drop our bags off for the flight. We then head down to the second floor to get some dinner. B orders take-away from Tonkatsu Wako. Alex has a slice of cake from Le Pan, the kind of cake we were hoping to get for B’s birthday, but they were sold out for the day. He throws up.
I buy an onigiri from the Lawson convenience store. I don’t have much appetite.
It’s getting close to boarding time when we get to the queues at security. It’s not helped by B coughing so much she throws up. She caught my cold a few days back and getting rid of the muck is troublesome.
We hurry past all the duty free stores and catch the shuttle to our gate. It’s gate 8, same as our flight to Busan! Are they boarding already? There’s a line, but the one that’s moving is for the adjacent Hong Kong Airlines flight.
Then we hear the announcement. Our boarding has been delayed.
It is delayed again.
And again.
The entertainment system needs to be fixed.
There’s time to use the bathrooms, to get a drink from the vending machine.
We finally board an hour late. I was almost wishing that it would be delayed by hours and I’d get to sleep somewhere. I am so tired.
I have booked seat 24 on the other side of the plane to the flight up.
I can barely keep my eyes open.
We taxi and take off to the north. As we rise into the sky I try to make out the Expo site. But it’s hard because B has fallen asleep on my left shoulder, so I can’t turn around properly. She and Alex have already used the sick bag.
Our route out of Japan is a bit different to usual. The weather maps have indicated a bit of adverse weather around our route, so I suppose the pilots are trying to avoid it, though the first officer says that it should be a “mostly smooth” flight. Turbli suggests that we might get moderate turbulence from about 2 hours into the flight and it be smooth after 5.
Everyone is a bit wrong and 1 hour in, just as the crew have started meal service, the captain turns on the seatbelt signs due to “unexpected turbulence.” It’s not that bad, but it does make me nervous. It is the last time that the captain turns on the seatbelt lights before final descent.
There’s then some smooth flight for a while before the high cloud returns. Bump, bump, bump. I can see it out of the window, which they have thankfully left unlocked for undimming.
I decline any food while the other two sleep. I have some microsleeps, but mostly I just leave the map on while listening to some classical selections on the IFE. William Barton, Smetana, then I add Mark Mancina’s Sea Beast and Michael Giacchino’s Spirder-man: No Way Home.
I had better start watching the rest of Dune: Prophecy. I have three episodes to go. It distracts me.
Although there is little light outside, there is enough to see us sometimes fly high over a carpet of cloud, stars overhead, and other times bump through high cloud with the odd flash of lightning. It is like this from before until beyond Guam, down to Papua New Guinea.
There are light in that country below, then darkness, cloud. It is not until we are over Australia when dawn arrives with almost two hours to go, that the skies truly settle. As the sky brightens I fall asleep for a little, feel so much more refreshed when I awaken.
Meals are served. I seem to have order the vegetarian pies and I am hungry, so despite their sogginess, I appreciate them. We use up a combined $45 in meal vouchers and buy banana bread, chocolate and lollies for later, an apple juice, hot chocolate and peppermint tea for now. I appreciate the tea, relax in these smooth bright skies.
Cliff walls reflecting the morning sun look like lightning. Green irrigate fields shine. Valleys filled with morning fog.
The skies over Sydney are clear and calm, but for one bump. Our final descent takes us by Homebush and the Olympic Site. I can see our suburb in the south as we fly over the Georges River, over the Royal National Park and out to see. Then we turn northwards and slide over Kurnell, over Botany Bay and touch down on the runway.
Our luggage takes a while to arrive. We are asked to go the inspection route at customs but are then sent straight out. All of us are tired and we take a taxi home, splurge rather than have to sit around waiting in the cold for infrequent buses.
It is a perfect day in Sydney, just cold after an Asian summer. Despite the bumps, it was a pretty good flight. I enjoyed the holiday, but I don’t feel refreshed and rejuvenated. It was too rushed and it was terrible starting it with sickness and back pain. Korea was fun, but I wish we had more time in Japan. Time to take it slow, to really enjoy some quiet places instead of racing off to the next train. I need at least an extra week or two. Or more. There is always more to see.