11 hours in a plane is no picnic but despite getting barely 3 hours sleep I felt in pretty good shape, probably due to me changing my circadian rhythms several days in advance. My window rattled in precisely the way that aircraft windows shouldn't but through it I caught my first glimpse of the Japanese mainland of Honshu and the city of Niigata. Apart from the modern stadium that stood out from the rest of the sprawl, I couldn't help but liken what I saw to that which the pilots of the Enola Gay saw over 60 years ago. Whether or not this melancholy thought was brought on by sleep depreivation or not is debatable but I put it from my mind almost as quickly as breakfast arrived. After shovelling down the curious assortment of eggs, asparagus, plums and cream cheese I looked across the endless white clouds and caught a glimpse of a very distinct protrusion, Mount Fuji. This meant that I was very close to Narita and well over half way through my initial journey. One relatively smooth landing and taxi later, I was back on terra firma.
Narita airport is modern, efficient and absolutely spotless. The immigration form was simple and I passed it over to the official before having my fingerprints scanned and photo taken by a smiling computer. I managed to get my bag back within a few minutes and filled in another form for customs before being waved through by one of several uniformed individuals with flu masks covering their faces.
Next on the list was to get my rail pass. You cannot buy a Japan Rail tourist pass outside Japan, nor can you buy one IN Japan! What you need to do is buy an exchange voucher and redeem it at one of several outlets across Japan. The only one that I knew of was in Narita so this was to be my first port of call. After a fairly painless display of hyper-efficiency I got my pass but as I didn't want it to start until Saturday, I had to buy a ticket to travel the 2 hours it would take to get to Hanneda airport.
The girl at the desk gave me a map and explained that I would have to change at Sakura where the train would be on the same platform and leave 4 minutes later. By this I thought she meant a train that was to arrive after mine had left and so I completely ignored the train opposite me before realising my mistake. The next train was to arrive 15 minutes later and I was actually quite glad to have a few minutes in the cool breeze before getting aboard my new train for the next hour and a half of urban slog.
Typically, I sat at the front of the train which is glazed allowing you to watch the train drivers perform personal rituals of checks, rechecks and even more checks which is quite entertaining. This constant state of alertness must take its toll on them as I experienced no fewer than 4 changes of driver in the remaining 90 minutes of the trip before I arrived at Hanneda.If anything, Hanneda airport is even more modern and shiny than Narita and after wolfing down a quick Bento I marched along the entire length of the terminal due to a last minute gate change. I actually managed to sleep for much of the flight but the final approach offered me my first glimpse of Sakurajima (Kagoshima's very own active volcano) before landing at a much smaller but equally modern terminal.
After a quick call to Cub I grabbed my bag and was met by Chisato and Daiki who welcomed me to Japan and took me to the car. Chisato's Mum was waiting outside and immediately apologised (via Chisato's translations) for the volcanic ash that had turned an otherwise white Toyota crown into one that looked as though it had just been dug out of the ground. We whistled down a super-smooth highway and before long I had arrived at the Bradshaw residence where I took an extremely welcome shower and waited for my friend and host to finish work.
It was great to see Alex although I couldn't believe it had been 5 years since we last saw each other. Chisato's family arrived and everyone welcomed me to Kagoshima. We then sat down to a fantastic Japanese meal with my favourite of all Sushi, a full Sashimi platter. Chisato's Uncle was most impressed with my chopstick skills and when this was conveyed to me I said Arrigato which seemed to delight him further. He asked questions about life in the UK which Alex translated in what I can only describe as perfect Japanese and then offered me a cup of Shochu, a local spirit made from sweet potatoes which really does work very quickly on jet-lagged visitors.
Knowing fully well that it would be bad idea to go out drinking in the middle of town whilst it was raining, Alex and I went out drinking in the middle of town whilst it was raining. Kagoshima is used to rain and not always clean rain so we found some umbrellas and headed down to the main road. Sakurajima's regular outbursts regularly shower the town in volcanic ash and so finding a place to keep your umbrella whilst you nip in to an establishment is never a problem.
Everything about the journey was fascinating although the bus journey did cause us both to flag a bit. We felt the only sensible solution was to get drunk as soon as possible and so Alex took me to a Japanese style bar. Upon arrival, all the staff shout a Japanese greeting in Unison and await your order of beer, Shochu or delicious looking meat skewers. Alex ordered a selection of kebabs as well as a local speciality that even I felt apprehensive about eating, raw chicken!
It wasn't too bad, well, the liver was great, the breast less so and the thigh, was, erm, different shall we say. With the prospect of 3 days of throwing up in the back of my mind we found our way into a very cool but small bar with some fairly excitable local students. They were all very inquisitive and after learning my name, 'Krriss-uh', they delighted in stopping every 15 minutes to count 'wahhn, tuhh, sreehh, Chaaaaaahhhhrrss' before downing their drinks. After the initial shock of realising I truly was in Japan, I settled into my stool and started to work my way through a variety of types of Shochu, all of which seemed to taste exactly the same!
At around 2AM we decided we simply had to leave. After much fanfare, handshakes and Arrigato's later we walked up the road, turned around, returned for our umbrellas, turned around again and headed off for a taxi. As we approached the cab, the back door opened automatically and we fell inside and asked him to take us to the Mos Burger outlet not far from Cub's house :-). Once full and back home we chatted for a while before heading off to bed where I had a good but surprisingly short sleep.
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