Day 0 – Travelling [3rd April 2009]

I got up at half past three in the morning to the first of my many alarms going off. Surprisingly, I had slept straight through after going to bed at just before midnight which is more sleep than I expected to get: ordinarily pre-holiday sleep is fretful and I awaken every half hour to check the time – fractious at best. Learning from past overseas trips I had set the heating to come on before I awoke so that I not only got a hot shower but didn’t spend the morning shivering from the cold and adrenaline. Things went smoothly and by the time the taxi rolled up at twenty to five I had showered, dressed, checked and double checked and drunk a cup of green tea; thankfully the taxi arrived on time rather than before which usually makes me forgo the green tea or make me forget something important like my glasses. I’m always wary about speaking to taxi drivers when going on long trips: they know where you live and can glean from the size of your luggage how long you’re going for and they are of uncertain backgrounds; usually I would spin a yarn about the nature of my trip (returning the luggage to a friend) or for how long, but this time I mentioned I had a room-mate which I hoped would ward off any attempts at burglary. The driver chatted about his time in Asia and people hassling him to buy trinkets while on the beach, I assured him Japan was nothing like that. Read full post »