Day 7: Travel Day - Hong Kong to Tokyo
Nau mai
Yesterday we traveled from Hong Kong, China, to Tokyo, Japan.
I wanted to start my day with some Hong Kong French Toast. The morning was hot and thick and wet in the air and as I walked through the streets towards the Lin Lin Cafe drips of water pattered down onto the footpath from the rows of window mounted air conditioning units working overtime to cool their apartments.
I sat down at my table and received rapid, efficient service from the server, and I was tucking into my extremely large slice of French Toast within about five minutes of arriving. It was served with a large pat of butter and a bottle of pure cooking syrup. On the side I had scrambled eggs that came in a ham sandwich, a detail I hadn’t expected but one that I wasn’t unhappy about.
At around 9am we said our goodbyes to Hong Kong and climbed aboard another large tour bus for the drive to the airport. The clouds had finally parted and there was colour in the sky and the views of the harbour and surrounding islands brought us great pleasure, the contour of the terrain looking almost like home but it weren’t for the massive fleet of cargo ships and tightly bunched towers right on the water’s edge.
Aboard our bus for the drive to the airport.
The check in floor of Hong Kong International Airport’s Terminal 2 is aquarium themed with large colour displays treating the inhabitants of this terminal to the relaxing movements of flitting fish and swaying coral. We all needed this calming background stimulus an hour later after a frustrating period of processing at the HK Express Airways check in desk. It turned out that this airline had a weight limit of 20kg per piece instead of the usual 23kg so we were left shuffling leads, microphones, and other small pieces of gear between other bags to try and avoid extra luggage charges. When we finally achieved this goal they came in with round two, deciding to weigh all our carry-on baggage and strictly enforce the 7kg limit. Everyone pulled their clothes out and stuffed them in their backpacks while I stood thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t travel with any spare clothing.
Liz demonstrates her mastery of the candid selfie with this shot of us catching the Hong Kong International Airport APM.
We came so close to nailing this photo.
We took off on time and flew north east for four hours, passing Taiwan and crossing the East China Sea. It was early evening when we landed at Narita International Airport, about 60km to the east of Tokyo. The airport wasn’t particularly busy but there were endless airport staff in yellow safety bibs ready to direct you into a queue or direct you to complete the correct immigration form. The customs officer who processed our carnet was wide-eyed and excitable and kept emphasising how fast he was going process our document.
Our festival liaison was waiting for us in the arrival area and took us straight outside to board our transport. This one was a small bus and it had a tiny fridge and a makeup mirror behind the driver’s station. An hour later we were in Tokyo, checking in to our hotel and getting ready to head out for dinner. One more full travel day ticked off and we were ready to enjoy five full days without having to experience an airport.
