Take off to Asia

The excitement was building for weeks!!!!!

And before we knew it, we were packing our bags and heading to the airport at 3am.

It is always so interesting travelling through airports.

Our journey from Copenhagen to Osaka required us to transfer in multiple cities (Brussels and Abu Dhabi). As we stop for a few hours in each airport I notice the shift in language, food, clothing and personal space.

The first flight we heard announcements in Danish and Flemish. The second flight was in Flemish, French and Arabic. Our final flight we had Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin and Korean. It was kind of surreal hearing all of these languages in the span of 24 hours. Even Aila remarked "to be a flight attendant you must have to know a LOT of languages."

We were impressed with Abu Dhabi airport. You get the sense this is the gateway to Asia, Oceania and beyond. The multiple perfume stalls and diamond stores are very alluring, but just looking at the eye-watering price tag, we resisted. Instead we opted for the 8 AED (Arab Emirates Dirham) soft serve ice cream

When we landed in Kansei airport, we had been up for 24 hours already but we still had a few things to do before we could completely crash:

1. Pick up our train tickets we had preordered online. In hindsight we shouldn't have bought the cheapest tickets because it only allowed us to travel on the slow train.

What could have been a fairly smooth and quick ride on the fast train meant we had to pass through every. single. station.

2. Get a cold drink from the vending machine. Hah, easier said than done. First of all, it only took cash. So off the ATM I go. It took several tries and a kind woman who took pity on me, but I got the cash.

Unfortunately the machine only accepted small denominations so off I went to buy a snack to break my 10,000 yen note. Finally with some coins in hand, I chose the chilled grape and aloe drink from the vending machine.

I almost choked on my first sip, I didn't expect little clumps of grapes to be inside the drink! But it was rather tasty.

3. Figure out exactly which train, platform and transfer we needed to take. Luckily Matt still remembers his Japanese but things have changed in 18 years and now he had three trailing people who were basically depending on him to lead them the right way.

4. Operate the toilet. So many tempting buttons to push and no clue what they do. What could possibly go wrong?!

We reached our Airbnb, met our super friendly host and went out in search for food.

That first meal in a new country is always better than it probably is on a normal day. But it's the feeling of accomplishment, relief and fatigue that is served up alongside that is so satisfying.

We ended the night at a local sento (bath house). Basically you go in, undress, wash yourself whilst sitting on a plastic stool with a powerful hose and then proceed to soak in various hot spring baths and saunas. Absolute bliss.

Now I feel like we are truly on our way. This trip will be nothing short of epic. Feeling so fortunate.

McD's soft serve ice cream is always a good idea.

No Swarovski for us this time.

Breaking our yen bills. Yummy siu mai for the win.

Finally got the correct change to buy a Coke to keep us going.

How's that scenery, Tai?

Coke didn't do the job, oh well.

Squeaky clean after a visit to the local sento.

WHAT does this mean?! This will take some getting used to!