I was on the fence about whether to go back to London for the holidays.
All the tickets I found were in the 120,000 yen range (about £850), which was more than I was willing to spend.
One night in November, while casually checking flights, I stumbled upon a bargain: An Air China flight to London for only 65,000 yen. Trips this cheap usually involve an 18-hour layover on an obscure Asian island, but this flight's connection was just an hour-long in Beijing. I scrambled to find my Barclaycard.
I was initially concerned about the short 1-hour connection. Unfortunately, my worries turned out to be valid. The flight from Tokyo was thirty minutes late taking off. By the time I landed in Beijing, my plane to London had already started boarding.
As I ran through the connection lobby, I had a multitude of worries, "What if my luggage gets lost in the mix-up?", "Perhaps I have to buy another flight ticket?!!".
Once I got to the connection area, the lady by the gate looked at my ticket and stoically pointed in the direction of a desk. I gave my connection boarding card to the staff at the counter. The staff mashed some buttons on her keyboard, looked up, and said sternly, "You've missed your flight. You're now on this flight in two hours. Your luggage will be on that plane. Goodbye"
I was thankful that I got another flight so soon after missing the other. I wasn't so grateful that I was given a middle seat. The plane also had the crampest seats ever. My knees cried in pain throughout the over 10-hour journey.
After that ordeal, I finally landed in Heathrow. I had been away for almost a year, the longest I had been away from London. I thought when I came home; I would be overwhelmed with feelings of nostalgia. But, instead, I felt a frightening sense of familiarity. It was as if that year in Tokyo had never happened, that all those experiences and moments were just a dream. Every moment I stayed in my childhood bedroom, I felt I was regressing.
After a few days, I realised I was on holiday and that it's perfectly acceptable to spend a whole day eating Indian snacks and playing Final Fantasy. Looking back, I'm grateful for having the time to relax away from work and to spend time with family, even with Sanji, who would try to tackle me every day.
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| Sanji's reaction to the snap election |
While my mind eventually adjusted to being home, my body never did. My internal clock was stuck on Japan time. I would fall asleep at 7 am and wake up in the evening. While out with my friends, I ended up falling asleep in an IMAX cinema during a Rogue One showing (Can't say whether it was the jet lag or the movie that made me snooze).
The plane rides back were much smoother. On the flight from London to Beijing, I was again assigned a middle seat, but the two guys on each side of me were mates who kindly let me sit in the aisle seat. On the short flight from Beijing to Tokyo, I made my first Plane Friend (Hi Kristie!). As my body had stayed set to Japan time, I had a peaceful sleep that night.
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| Mt Fuji from Hakone |
A week after coming back, I went on another holiday (those two days of work took it out of me), this time to Hakone, a town renowned for its hot spring resorts. I had two previous experiences of hot springs (or onsens as they call them here) at Odaiba Onsen Monogatari in Tokyo. Although, Odaiba's onsens are artificial. Hakone is the real deal.
While Tokyo is very welcoming to foreigners, with English menus and multi-lingual train signs, the hotel I stayed in Hakone was not. The menu for dinner was 100% Japanese, replete with tough kanji. If it weren't for my girlfriend, I would still be using Google Translate to figure out the drinks section.
At the hotel, I experienced Kaiseki for the first time. Kaiseki is a traditional multi-course dinner where many small dishes are served over a long period - almost ninety minutes. As a westerner who is used to instant gratification, this was as frustrating as watching an England national team game.
After dinner, I went to the onsen. The hotel was fully booked, so I expected the onsen to be packed with naked dudes. I walked into the changing room and saw one older gentleman in the indoor onsen. The outdoor onsen was empty. I took this rare opportunity to have a nice long soak.
Before leaving the hotel, I spotted a box of sake with a Kit Kat label; I don't think I've ever bought a souvenir faster. The next day we explored Hakone. Mt Fuji can usually be seen from Hakone, but the weather in the morning was overcast. Luckily, as the day progressed, the sky cleared up. As we went up for a ride on a cable car, we were able to see a good view of Fuji.
The journey back to Tokyo wasn't as scenic; it involved switching at least five trains. When I got home, I tore open the Kit Kat sake box to discover it wasn't Kit Kat flavoured sake; it was sake flavoured Kit Kat...
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| The box in question |
To cap off a busy January, I moved house. After exactly one year, I left my sharehouse in Uguisuidani to an apartment in swanky Setagaya. The sharehouse experience was not what I thought it would be. There were no wild parties, but I did make a good friend (Hi Sanjar!).
On my floor, I was by far the longest-residing person; I went through at least twenty different neighbours. Before I left, the neighbours on my left were two Thai guys. When they weren't chatting to each other, they were having loud discussions on Skype. The person on my left was a Swedish guy with a strong cologne that filled the hallway. He also had a worse cough than the Korean guy. That's how I will remember my housemates, Skype and coughs.
