D-Day : Tears at the Airport
So, this is it. Departure Day. This was the culmination of dreaming for several years, working on plans to get here and studying Japanese at night classes - but I made it!
Not every adventure begins with a laugh and a smile. Mine began with tears in the terminal.
The last few weeks have been such a rush that they are mostly a blur to me now and I felt as though I'd been doing everything on autopilot. As I had predicted, it didn't feel real. Even when I was sat on the plane to Amsterdam where I'd catch a connecting flight through to Osaka, I still felt like I'd wake up at home.
I flew with KLM which is a Dutch air company and the first plane was aptly named 'The Flying Dutchman' - I don't know why the plane names were an important detail to me at the time, but I felt I should make note of it - for posterity. The flow of people swept me along until before I knew it - I'd got on 'Darjeeling Railway' to fly to Osaka and was on my way.
Within the first 20 minutes, the man next to me had fallen asleep and his head was slowly falling toward my shoulder. I thought to myself 'This is my life now for the next 11 hours.' and for some reason, this was hilarious to me. Of course, I couldn't laugh so I just sat there, silently shaking, waiting for the enevitable contact between shoulder and head that would seal my fate. Luckily, he jolted awake and I escaped having a plane husband.
I'd eaten a meal, watched two films and tried to con myself to sleep but nothing was working. I'd had maybe 40 minutes sleep but it was no good. I was too excited to sleep.
Adventure awaits...
Not every adventure begins with a laugh and a smile. Mine began with tears in the terminal.
The last few weeks have been such a rush that they are mostly a blur to me now and I felt as though I'd been doing everything on autopilot. As I had predicted, it didn't feel real. Even when I was sat on the plane to Amsterdam where I'd catch a connecting flight through to Osaka, I still felt like I'd wake up at home.
I flew with KLM which is a Dutch air company and the first plane was aptly named 'The Flying Dutchman' - I don't know why the plane names were an important detail to me at the time, but I felt I should make note of it - for posterity. The flow of people swept me along until before I knew it - I'd got on 'Darjeeling Railway' to fly to Osaka and was on my way.
Within the first 20 minutes, the man next to me had fallen asleep and his head was slowly falling toward my shoulder. I thought to myself 'This is my life now for the next 11 hours.' and for some reason, this was hilarious to me. Of course, I couldn't laugh so I just sat there, silently shaking, waiting for the enevitable contact between shoulder and head that would seal my fate. Luckily, he jolted awake and I escaped having a plane husband.
I'd eaten a meal, watched two films and tried to con myself to sleep but nothing was working. I'd had maybe 40 minutes sleep but it was no good. I was too excited to sleep.
Adventure awaits...
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