To say that the start of my journey was a little haphazard might be a bit of an understatement. Let it be known, at the very least, I have interesting adventures. For some reason, I had the wrong dates in my mind for when I began and it was only a last minute confirmation that revealed I was leaving a full day earlier than expected. Apparently, I had been reading my ferry ticket instead of my airplane ticket for the last month.

So, my day started at 6:45 with a last minute check of Steam’s Christmas Sale. There are some priorities that just can’t be ignored. Sadly, there was nothing of interesting so I grabbed my pack and was on my bike by 8:30. The plan was to take the direct bus right to Haneda airport which, assuming nothing unexpected happened, would leave me with a two hour wait at the airport. I figured it was better to be early than late in these situations.

The plan also included stopping by the post office to get some extra cash. However, it seems, ATMs have more benefits than most workers as they were closed until after the yuubinkyoku opened at 9:00. So I had to stop at the central post office. At least that was on the way to the hotel.

I parked my bike in the notoriously dangerous Belinda/George neighbourhood, hoping that the sad state of repair my bike was in would deter any would-be thieves. I then hurried to the hotel and quickly purchased two tickets for the Haneda airport. Curious when my bus would arrive, I popped outside to check the timetable.

I had missed the only one that would get me there on time – at 8:00. The next one wasn’t until 11:35. Oh shit.

With few options, I hopped on the bus to Tokyo station, fishing my Lonely Planet out and plotting a route through Tokyo’s underground to Haneda airport. Thankfully, getting there by train was incredibly easy. According to my research, I had three stops and a twenty minute tram. It was good that I allotted two hours in case of emergency.

Alas, it turned out, that two hours wasn’t enough. Who would have guessed that the roads would be incredibly congested on Christmas Eve. Well… this probably surprises nobody but me. It took over 3 hours to get into Tokyo and though I got from the station to the airport without any difficulties, I still managed to arrive just as my plane was leaving.

Thankfully, the Japanese pride themselves on customer service and an incredibly helpful worker got me a new ticket for a plane in a hour and ushered me through security before I even knew what was going on. It seemed that, while everyone was going somewhere, they weren’t going by plane.

I also learned that my backpack counts as carry-on. Furthermore, I learned that tripods can’t be brought on as carry-on. Good things to know for when I return.

Now, I don’t know if it is customary or if the attendants saw me board, but they gave an English version of every announcement. I was more impressed that I could understand them more than anything else. Not that this was anything but a nice observation since I promptly spent the entire two hour flight unconscious save for a brief moment when they offered me a complimentary drink. Too groggy to want to deal with it, I told them I was fine in Japanese. To which, the attendants immediately began talking about how I spoke Japanese… or something. I can’t really remember too well since I just rolled over and went back to sleep.

I have notes here on turbulence during the flight but that’s pretty boring. Let’s see if there was anything else of interest that happened this day. Airport staff got me safely on a bus for Kagoshima. Couldn’t find my hostel for an hour since the Lonely Planet’s map is incredibly useless. Hostel service was pretty unimpressive but the place was cheap.

Oh, to celebrate the festive season I made some wonderful purchases for you – the reader. First was a new pair of earbuds that are both rain and sweat resistant! They’ll be perfect for my runs on Monday which, invariably, is the same day Kamisu decides to rain on every week. I also bought a tripod, one of those Gorilla things that can wrap around posts. I’ve been meaning to get a tripod in order to improve my photos for awhile now and Yakushima seemed the perfect time to try and get better photos.

I passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken and can confirm that the Japanese eat chicken on Christmas. There was no seating in the restaurant as that whole area was packed with piles of take-out buckets. I wish I was exaggerating. Had I my camera with me, I would have photographic proof. Sadly, you’ll just have to take my work for it.

My dinner was less exciting. I stopped by a conveni for a typical bento and a piece of “Christmas” cake and eat it in my bunk at the hostel.

Merry Christmas…

Sigh. Forever Alone.