I opened my eyes around six in the morning and made the mistake of going to the toilet and fetching something to drink which meant I was fully awake rather than just bleary eyed and partially comatose. After getting showered and dressed, I tried to drill some Japanese into my brain (mostly to do with ordering food and asking for a table) then wandered down to the hotel restaurant around seven. Even at such an uncivilised hour the place was packed, including a group of noisy, middle-aged women sitting opposite me. Using a breakfast voucher obtained from the front desk, I munched on some sort of fish (potentially salmon though it could have been anything), broth and a pair of very neatly fried eggs. After eating and helping myself to some odd tasting fruit juice, I sauntered back up to my room – unsure as to the etiquette of leaving when I didn’t have to pay. The hotel lobby sported a couple of Dell Vostro 1000 laptops which let me post an update to Facebook and also bash out a blog post; part of the way through writing the post I managed to switch the keyboard into Japanese mode which took and embarrassing amount of jiggery pokery to switch off. Handy hint: aim for the key that has purely Japanese writing on it and is in a position you don’t recognise. Read full post »
Now on JST! I had not been furnished with headphones for the seat-back display and asking a flight attendant proved fruitless, thankfully the films were either too lengthy or heavy going to be of interest (Australia by Baz Luhrmann, Changeling by Clint Eastwood) or were kid orientated (Bolt, Madagascar 2, The Incredibles) so it wasn’t too much of a loss. Unfortunately sitting in cattle class meant the films weren’t even video-on-demand and were more “tune in half way through” which meant watching more than a couple of films was protracted at best. Read full post »
