The Long Journey To Japan

Monday night I arrived at Pearson International around 6:30 and waited for Dom to show up. He arrived about 15 minutes after I did and we printed off our boarding passes and got in the baggage drop line. This was probably the slowest moving line I have seen at an airport. It took us almost an hour to check our bags. The fact that they were moving so slowly worked in our favour thought because it only took about twenty seconds to get through security.

Eventually it was time to board the plane and that’s when the real fun started. The turbulence started almost immediately and lasted the duration of the flight. I managed to fall asleep after being served dinner (which I had about two bites of because it was disgusting) but the ride got bumpier and I woke up a few hours later. I was sweating buckets so I threw off my blanket and took off my hoody but I was still roasting. I looked up to turn on the cold air but the stupid plane didn’t have that option, just a reading light. I’m starting to panic now, I’m fairly confident I’m going to toss my cookies and not only is the guy beside me fast asleep but the seat belt sign is on so I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. I riffle through the magazine pouch and find a paper bag that I move to the front, just in case but praying I wont need it. I put my head down and try to focus on my breathing but its no use the turbulence is too much.

Let me tell you not only is puking into a paper bag while being tossed about challenging its also incredibly embarrassing. I ended up waking up the poor guy sitting next to me, and then had to hand a bag full of vomit to the flight attendant. I still felt like death and now I was mortified to. I apologized to both of them but still felt like a complete tool, even though I’m pretty sure I heard someone else puking at the same time as me.

I managed to pass out shortly after that and slept off and on for the rest of the flight but still felt like garbage when we arrived in England. After we went through security I found an empty row of seats and napped for several hours before it was time to catch our next flight.

The flight to Helsinki went much smoother and although I moved the barf-bag to the front of the magazine pouch at the beginning of the flight I didn’t end up needing it. We found our hotel without much trouble and decided to forego celebrating New Years and went straight to bed.

I was half asleep watching a movie around 1am when all of the sudden the fire alarm started going off and we were asked to evacuate. I threw my laptop back in to my bag, grabbed my passport and jacket and headed outside. I was pretty sure it was a false alarm but grabbed the important stuff on my way out just in case, and when I saw fire trucks as soon as I walked through the door I figured it was probably best that I did. Fortunately it was a false alarm and we were able to go back to bed a few minutes later but after all the excitement I wasn’t able to fall back to sleep until about 4am.

The next day I woke up around 9 and headed downstairs for the breakfast buffet. I was starving since all I’d had to eat since I ralphed was a blueberry muffin but after a bowl of cereal and some home fries I started to feel sick again and went back to bed until it was time to check out.

I didn’t have the motivation to explore Helsinki so just sat in the hotel lobby until it was time to the airport. This time I made sure to put the Gravol in my carry-on and took one as soon as we boarded the plane.

The flight was delayed due to some sort of repairs needing to be done on the rear of the plane but I fell asleep during the repairs and we were already in the air when I woke up again. Unfortunately that was the only sleep I got on that 10-hour flight and got to spend the next several hours watching bad movies and TV shows while wishing I could sleep.

When we finally arrived at the airport we learned that ATM’s here don’t accept foreign debit or credit cards and neither of us had exchanged money into Yen’s before we left. Luckily Dom had some Australian money that he was able to exchange for a ridiculous rate so we were able to buy train tickets into the city to get to our hotel. This whole thing was a very long and drawn out process and I think we were at the airport for about 2 hours after clearing security.

We checked into our hotel and decided to head to Kyoto to do some exploring before sunset. I wasn’t feeling very well but decided to tag along anyway. It was raining cats and dogs by the time we got to our destination and I was in no mood to wander around in the cold and wet so I decided to head back to the hotel and Dom decided he would head back to.

I ended up falling asleep around 6pm and slept off and on until 6am. Hopefully the long snooze has adjusted my body clock but only time will tell. I’m off to grab some breakfast then head out exploring some of the cities around Osakak.