30/05/1999

At Brisbane Airport. Tired as hell. Only one hours sleep this morning. I must look like a zombie. Customs was ok, pretty much a walk through except that their emmigration system crashed. Their new system for Y2K is currently being tested but isnt going well. Got to get away from work. Time for me to find a book store then open the camera and have a bit of a fiddle. Boarding is in 35mins.

Bloody Tired (9:55am). The flight was a little late on the take off but everything was quite smooth. The flight is expected to be 8 hours long. I've already had my eyes closed for 15mins. Now I'm just waiting for the food and then I think I'll catch up on the the sleep I was supposed to have last night. hmmm... juice is on its way. Someone mentioned watch out for screaming kids. No such luck. Try smelly baby. There is also a little girl sitting in the middle of the centre isle. She is well behaved. Juice tray gets closer. Baby is back and doesnt smell so bad any more.

Apple juice or water... decisions, decisions...

Apple juice!(10:40am) Japanese news is interesting. And their gov. is a little... wait a sec. Announcement from the Capt. Arrival at 4:30pm... (cont) strange. It seems the gov. is not representing its people. I dont think it gets that bad in Australia. i wonder if anyone else is going to read this crap. Japanese news covers sumo, baseball and soccer. I didnt quite hear what the weather was going to be like. I think it was going to be raining on arrival but fine tomorrow. Food is coming soon. I should be asleep. Oh well... maybe after lunch/breaky.

(1:15pm) Sleep is never coming, and neither is this inflight movie! Japanese pop is quite nice, although I do prefer the grungy power chords of the Australian punk rock scene. Japanese is a language that sings quite well. I guess they're not restricted by having some syllables and different tones meaning different things. On some of the songs, subtitles are slotted in, and this is English and Arabic numerals are used often. I wonder what counting system is native to Japan. I guess the english is used to denote that a phrase should actually be pronounced in English.

I think Japanese would be an easy language to learn. It is very structured.

:) Someone just got busted for smoking in the toilets. They're not too happy about that: "Understanding and cooperation is necessary". Who says that? I think an Australian flight would be a siple "Please do not smoke on this flight. Smkoking is prohibited and is against International Flight Regulations." I hope the alarm went off. The music videos have stopped now and the lights have been dimmed somewhat. They baby has settled down now. Perhaps the movie will start soon. Geez, what a first entry. I dont think the coming days are going to see entries quite like this.

(7:15pm) Time for a quick update. I'm at the hotel now. Its quite small (the room), and there were complications on the room booking. Seems that no actualy reservation was made. They cleaned it up though and now I have a room. Its ok.

Customs was relatively easy. Only had to fill out an embarkment form and everything else was checked in / check out from there. I've met some people. We're going to grab a bite to eat soonish.

They have vending machines on each floor and NO COKE!. But they do have Jive Coffee. I'll have to try it out tomorrow. Ireally need some sleep. In fact, I didnt see any sort of cola soda at all. Oh well, coffee will do.

The flight was good. I didnt end up getting any of the sleep I need. I am going to be so screwed with the sleep. At least now I have my wits about me.

I'm a little concerned with the money situation. I only have 4000yen. Which was about $50AUD. That Jive Cola was about 210yen which makes that about $2.50AUD. Crap. I hope the hotal has a currency exchange, or I'll just have to use the plastic. At least breakfast is free.

Japan looks a little like Australia, except alot more bamboo. Of course, this is just little ol' Narita. I can see a shitload of lights from the hotel room but I think that is just the airport.

When I was on the plane, a Japanses lady/girl beside me asked how many times I'd been to Japan. "This is my first time". Then she mentioned the chopsticks and asked me where I had learnt to use them. Maybe it is general opinion that the average Westerner cant use chopsticks.

Its probably true. Well, Australia is a part of Asia. Besides, the meal was fish, Japanese style so when in Rome... They had a nice bit where you mix finely chopped leeks and wasabe in sweet soy sauce and then you dip the green noodles in and eat. Quite nice and the wasabe had a little kick. I think I could get used to it. Its quite nice. Did I say that already? They also do another thing where they take a slab of rice and put various little bits of stuff on or around it. Like salmon or shaved ginger, some sweet red stuff that soaks into the rice, prawn, other fish and a couple of veges. Very small, yet again, quite nice. I have the western tomoato and lettuce salad a miss.

Full flight details. The flight left at 9:30am and got into Narita at 5:30pm (same timezone). But there is a timezone change of one hour so I guess that means I got in at 4:30pm Tokyotime. Nonetheless, the flight still took 8 hours.

Getting hungry now. I think I might read for a little while and wait for the others.