I came back from KL on the 2nd evening and had to rush to do my laundry and re-pack my luggage for my trip to Japan. It was coming 10pm when I felt really tired and told my mom to wake me up at midnight so that I can start my packing. That didn't happen. I woke up on my own roughly 2am and for that moment I was panicking cause my luggage was empty.
I promised Rab that I will fetch her at 3:45am but guess what? I finished packing at 3:30am and was in the shower at that time. My parents volunteered to send us to the airport and by the time we left my house, it was close to 4:30am.
Cut things short, there was no queue for check-in at airport. But there was this irrelevant security check before we reach the counter and I swear that Aetos officer was being rude from the way he posed the questions. Like c'mon, our passports were with him and he was flipping thru the pages, I'm sure he saw that this is not our first time travelling out of Singapore, and on an airplane.
First time on a Delta flight, was pretty skeptical about their Muslim meal. I heard the one on United was like really bad. Turns out that their meal was pretty decent. Spent half of the time sleeping and the other half watching movies on screen. Before we know it, we're already in Japan airspace.
First thing we did was to exchange our rail pass orders to the actual ones. Thought it was a grab and go thing, but we had to fill up an "application form" as they call it before we queue. The staff reserved our seats for both NEX and shinkansen - it's exactly as the time stated on hyperdia - and we're on our way to Osaka!
It was a three hour ride to Osaka even though we're on the bullet train. FYI, JR pass holders can't take the fastest shinkansen - you can, but you have to pay additional at the ticketing counter - so our's is the 3rd fastest one. We slept throughout the journey since it's getting dark fast and there's nothing much to see. Wanted to smoke at some point, but when I got to the smoking cabin, it was all smoky and full of Jap guys... and there's a thousand thoughts inside my head so I head back to my seat.
I love their subway trains. It looks antique but it's still comfy. That green seat, don't be fooled by it. There's thick cushion underneath it. If only SG train seats are like that......
Btw, we got lost upon reaching our train station. Cause we exit at the wrong exit and tried to make a turn, which led us even further. Japs are such nice people! Even when they can't communicate with you, they will try their best to help. It took us about 45mins to finally reach our apartment - which is just a 5mins walk from the correct station exit btw - only to be devastated by the fact that we can't retrieve our keys. Using the combination that the home owner gave me, the letterbox doesn't seem to open. Again, we ask for help from this sweet Jap lady who lives on the second floor of the building. We didn't manage to open the letterbox, but she used some sort of a bending metal thing to lift the key out from the letterbox.
We spent the next hour unpacking and showering and then it's lights off for us.
Will be back for 2nd day, stay tuned! :)
