So I haven't really posted in my blog lately. I caught a cold when Anthony and I were in Kobe a few weeks ago and have just now gotten over it. So nothing much happened during the sicky time. But a lot happened in Kobe and Osaka so I will post about the Airport adventure in a little more detail.
Anthony and I stayed in a hotel on Rokko island for a night before heading to the airport. Rokko island is another man-made island designed for tourists it feels like. It is a little odd though. There are lots of shops and shopping centers both empty and full with not many people around. It feels little like a ghost town sometimes. Anthony and I explored around this little flat square island for a while before heading to the airport around three o'clock. (Below: A picture of Rokko island's little watter fountain. They have a lot of water fountains and streams at Rokko island, in buildings and out side.)
The trip to the airport was the usual long journey full of the elaborate dance of the subway transferring followed by a long ride on an airport express train, which stops many more places than the actual airport but the airport is the final destination. After a small train adventure, we arrived at the airport around fifteen minutes to five and were greeted by a massive line in front of and winding around the Uninted airlines counter. After queuing up in line, we asked one of the people working what the line was about, because it seemed a little long and slow just for checking baggage. They handed us a peice of paper stating that the air plane had operational problems and would be unable to make the flight that day. Along with that information it also gave us a number to call for information, which conveniently closed at 5pm. So we pulled out books and game boys and got ready for the long wait a head.
There was a group of mid twenty somethings in front of us whom we started to chat with. Two of them were from the JET program and a friend of theirs was visiting. After the first hour or so we started to take shifts watching the baggage. The Kansai airport has a huge shopping and restaurant area that is accessible by all people in the airport. After hour rather lengthy wait in line we finally reached the counter. All of the employs looked exhausted, understandably so after dealing with probably a thousand people wanting to change their flight to the next available. Anthony offered to take a flight three weeks later. The man working at the counter was so happy when we asked for that. He upgraded Anthony's ticket to a flexible business class ticket. Once we got out of line, around 11:20pm or so we sprinted to the airport hotel. The hotel restaurant's last order was at 11:30 and we were very hungry. We made it just in time and ordered yummy food. Once we ate we went up to the room and crashed, preparing for the busy few days a head of us in order to get back to Miyazaki.