Half way there

こにちわ (konichiwa)

well im here in the land of Japan, im more than half way home now, with just a 10 hour flight on the horison and i will have my feet firmly planted on australian soil once again

my epic journey home began yesterday at 10am when i left the hostel in london and headed to the lovely Heathrow airport, with what seemed like millions of others, all trying to make it out of the uk and else where for christmas no doubt.

some of you will remember the trouble i had in changing the return date of my ticket (note cheap tickets are cheap, but complicated and frustrating to change!) anyways i tried to do the online boarding 24hours before my flight, and got all the way through only to be told that it hadnt been accepted...

so i turned up at Heathrow and joined the relatively short line for the BA reservations and tickets sales... 1 hr later i paid my 40 quid and was free to check in..
i was glad to be rid of my increasingly heavy pack 20kgs of goodness in there...
thankfully a lot of it can stay at home and i just have to remember not to sneak in anything extra for the return trip.

so then i get to head through security.. now having seen so many people with tons of carry on luggage i decided that i could have my day pack, and my laptop bag...
they had other ideas..
i must have forgotten to remove that flashing sign that says i am guilty...
i got swabbed, checked out, and felt up, and i didnt even make the metal detector go beep!
and i had to dispose of my laptop bag and fit my computer into my pack..
(i didnt really mind id already planned to leave the bag at home anyway.. but still..)
and ended up removing all things wearable and wearing them!
it got awfully warm!
but i fit my computer in the bag...

not really a lot to do in the airport itself... just sat around and looked in the shops until it was time to board the plane...

ended up scoring the worst seat possible for long haul flights...
in the middle seat..

you get absolutely no arm room at all

makes cutting meals almost impossible

but thankfully i had a lovely girl sitting next to me, and a random japanese girl on the other side, who we were able to spend the next 13hrs laugh at her antics..
she would perch on the arm rest for like 30mins at a time... and sway to her own music... (she had no head phones on) then at teh end of the flight she wouldnt get off the plane!

food was as you would expect, though we did get xmas dinner of turkey and unidentifyable veggies...
and a traditional english breakfast with raw sushi instead of beans, and floating scrambled eggs..
dont ask!

the movie selection was awesome...
its the fist time ive been on a plane where ive been able to choose what to watch and when...
so i got to see Stardust, No reservations, High school musical 2, Broke back mountain, and snipets of a few others..
so i pretty much didnt sleep at all, though i did try, and i am paying for it now....

its about 6am uk time.... ive got the whole headache happening from lack of sleep... and there doesn:t seem to be anywhere to even lie down for here, though the shuttle between gates looks pretty comfy! might have to give that a go if i get desperate!

found a few others who are also on the epic journey home to OZ via Japan... so we are amusing ourselves... decided to hit a shop every 30mins... that will keep us going for the next 8 hrs till the flight leaves... plus we have found this internet cafe for free, it starts writting in japanese after ever few minutes which has been interesting...

goes to show that when traveling you will always meet people

anyways off to see if theres a shower or something to make me feel more human

next post coming to you from the sunny land of OZ

さゆなら (Goodbye)