On board the flight I was in the back row of a small premium economy section of about 40 seats. From researching online videos this was the old design of premium economy as Cathay Pacific are still doing a refurbishment of all of their aircrafts.
Soon after we took off I just tried to get some rest until they served the first meal, apparently called supper, but at 1am. I got served first because I selected the vegetarian lacto-ovo option and once again was disappointed. The main course was some random assortment of hot vegetables, with green beans being the best option but I don't even like them really, and the other stuff just looked and tasted bad.
On the plus side getting bad meals saves from overeating on the plane, and I got a small tub of ice cream as a consolation when they came around with the standard meals after. One of the standard meal options turned out to be spinach and ricotta pasta, so I would have happily taken that instead.
After the meal service and a long wait for the trays to be cleared I returned to trying to get some sleep. I couldn't find a very comfortable position but using the foot rest seemed to work a little better. I didn't realise there was also a lower leg rest that extended, but it wasn't comfortable after I discovered it anyway. I resisted looking at the screen until we were four hours into the trip, or about half way, and then again another two hours later - somehow the time had gone by quite quickly in between.
With two hours to go they also put the lights back on for the breakfast service. This time I got served another random collection of bad stuff, the best option was some baked beans, and I didn't even try the rest. The last hour dragged on a bit, but overall it wasn't too bad for an eight hour plus trip. Maybe eight hours is bearable on a good day, but that's probably close to my pain free limit for a single flight, until I can afford a business class ticket. The main mystery of the flight as usual was why people are constantly getting up to use the bathroom, multiple times per person.
Landing at Hong Kong airport I had about 3 hours to wait for the next flight, which was probably a bit too much although I guess I played it safe in case of small delays. There was actually two earlier flights going to Osaka on the board, one was about to leave, and another one in between would have been the best choice. On the plus side again, I had plenty of time to get up my step count for the day, and purchase a small breakfast snack instead of the plane food.
Going through the transfer area from arrivals to departures my passport didn't work at any of the three machines, so I had to wait in the manual processing line. When I got this new, incredibly expensive passport last year I was immediately unimpressed with the construction quality of it. The main page with all the advanced technology looks almost stuck in afterwards, it's very rigid, and I'm not confident it will stay attached for 10 years. I hoped this wasn't a sign of more problems coming up, but it did work fine in Melbourne, so I'd have to see what happens in Osaka. I'd already gone through the Japan Travel Web online process to speed up customs and immigration, so it will be annoying if a faulty passport ruins that benefit.
I switched on my Optus SIM with mobile roaming while in Hong Kong to make sure I wasn't missing any travel updates, and it all looked good so far. Additionally I was curious if that $5 daily international fee would carry over from Hong Kong to Japan later, or I'd get billed twice. I also have pre-loaded a cheap eSIM on my phone with 10GB of data for Japan only, just to have multiple options available each day.
After writing my Sunday morning travel report in the airport I was down to 45 minutes until boarding was due to commence. I also checked my main bank account and I was down to about $1500, with a few hundred dollars also due on credit card repayments. The good news was that my monthly salary was due on Tuesday, so I wasn't at any risk of running out of money before then.
The next flight took off quickly but the time then seemed to drag on forever even though it was a much shorter flight. The seats were a bit more spacious on this aircraft so I managed a little bit of rest, but I started getting a big headache at the same time. We got one lunch meal served and this time I actually ended up with a similar spinach and ricotta pasta option that I missed out on during the previous flight.
Just as we were getting ready to land we got told there was some air show at or near the airport and we'd be delayed by 30 minutes. Probably the most annoying thing at the end of a long travel day is going around in circles and changing altitude while waiting to land.
Finally we landed and the first immigration check was almost empty. The QR code saved to my phone worked at the automation machines, and my passport even worked too. There was a quick secondary passport check with staff, but I was through there in about five minutes also. The last step wasn't as good as it took about thirty minutes for the luggage to arrive, but customs was quick since I had nothing to declare.
Finally in Japan but I had a checklist still to do:
- Claim my ticket for the airport express train
- Claim my ticket for the Osaka to Himeji shinkansen with the same train company - to save doing it later
- Buy an ICOCA card with cash
- Get some more money from an ATM
- Find the train platform for the airport express train
Despite being unfamiliar with my general surroundings everything went well except I almost divided Yen to Australia currency incorrectly and asked for the equivalent of $1000 AUD at the ATM. I corrected the error before it went through, but it wouldn't have worked anyway as I didn't have $1000 in that transaction account.
The train took a surprisingly long time considering it only made two stops and was going quite fast, although nothing like the speed of the shinkansen. It took a little under an hour to get to Osaka station and then I had to navigate the maze of station exits and shopping malls to find the hotel.
The hotel had published multiple sets of instructions on their website due to the complexity, but I couldn't work out the first set because there was no sign for a "bridge exit", however the second set of instructions worked well.
The hotel check-in was fully automated including providing a key card and breakfast vouchers, and I was off to the 34th floor, second from the top. As to be expected for Japan the hotel room was quite compact, but it had a fridge and separate bathroom and toilet. The entire travel process from leaving home came in close to 24 hours.
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After quickly unpacking I hurried down to buy some food for dinner. I walked past a bakery on my way from the train station so went there to get a small baguette, then a couple of snacks and a drink from a Family Mart convenience store. The drinks selection was quite disappointing, so I just picked something that looked like lemon soda.
Dropping off the food at the hotel there was just enough time left for a quick run of less than two kilometres, as it was about 7pm local time. I found a good short route, but there was some dead ends so I couldn't got further out towards the river. In under two kilometres in the evening I was already sweating a lot, so that was not a good sign for the coming days.
Back to the hotel I ate dinner and watched a quick TV show, then it was already after 8pm. I was quite exhausted and wanted to sleep, so didn't do much planning for the morning. The breakfast vouchers were for 7am to 10am, but given the size of the hotel I figured I'd have to get their either early or late. I also had to decide how to fit in a longer run sometime during my daily schedule, and an alternative route to get to the river.
I tried switching over my mobile data to eSIM and I thought it wasn't working, but it just took several minutes to activate. The hotel wifi and VPN with Japan location also worked. My laptop power cable was also charging my devices, so everything was sorted the rest of the trip in that regard. And just out of interest, I didn't get billed a second time when transitioning to Optus data roaming in Japan within the same 24 hours.
Steps = 9,809 with 1.6 kilometres running
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