8 November 2018
Island hopper
Flying from Naha to Fukuoka on an ANA Boeing 767
After an uneventful flight I am in Fukuoka. The airport is about here is about 3 subway stops from the city centre, you could walk it. I would if I were leaving from here but I am not, instead I will take a train to Nagasaki and fly out of there, which is a very long walk.
The weather here is grey, but that is meant to change tomorrow, I had zero rain the entire time I was in rainy tropical Okinawa.
Enough about the weather, let talk about my hotel, thats a super exciting topic.
My hotel here in Fukuoka has a massive room, is dirt cheap and has breakfast included. I dont think it belongs to a chain but it is called the 'Hotel Hakata Nakasu'. The check in staff had zero English but that wasnt really a problem until I asked if breakfast was included, at which point I was escorted to the bathroom.
Taking it back a step. My flight today had no school kids, but Naha airport was full of school kids. Thousands of the little bastards, all going back to Tokyo. Japanese kids basically just travel around on jets. They were creating chaos in the airport just like in Tokyo. I wanted to fight them.
I got to Naha airport too early but that was fine, the check in line was long and then there was a coffee shop with no seats. Me and everyone else buying coffee was wondering how to manage our bags and our hot coffee and hordes of screaming school kids. I did better than the guy that emptied his entire black coffee over his work mates shirt. Furious bowing ensued.
My flight today was on an aging Boeing 767, although that might be a good thing, as the BRAND NEW 737 max that crashed the other day in Indonesia now appears to have crashed when the Boeing computer interpreted false signals form the Boeing sensors and pitched the nose straight down into the ocean!
It is rare for me to fly on a 767, there are zero left servicing Australia on either a domestic or international flight. Compared to modern planes they seem luxuriously spacious, 2-3-2 seating. Thats enough plane nerd.
I need to hurry up and post some sort of half assed witty description for my boring pics from today as I have a lot of steps to get this evening.
My flight wasnt until lunch time and from the city to the airport in Naha is just a couple of stops on the awesome monorail, so I had time to wander around and stare at everything that was still shut and annoy the thousands of cats.
I was mildly disappointed I had missed this outdoor food court place, it has at least 20 little restaurants to choose from. It was very hidden away off the main street.
The covered shopping streets were dark, mysterious and abandoned. Darker than this photo conveys.
Japanese graffiti is generally written in English. Just as non American rap music is spoken with an American accent. Racist.
The market was kind of already open. But nothing going on. I found a secret staircase to the secret upstairs eating area. Cats were waiting for me to let them in!
I do not understand how this market survives, or how its open 18 hours a day.
There are thousands of cats to keep you company. They all seem quite happy, slightly murderous. Do not turn your back.
Not all parks in Japan are nice! I presume these guys are scaring away the snakes that have been allowed to regroup over the long summer months in the long grass.
Naha airport has an observation deck where you can take a photograph without glass between yourself and the view. Happy times!
Here is the line of school kids for security. It took forever. They were not on my flight but I presume the flight they were on was as horrific as the one I shared with school kids a few days ago.
Here is the view from my hotel room. It is right in between the two main stations of Tenjin and Hakata. Hakata is where Hakata ramen comes from, which is the most popular style in Australia due to Gensuke and Ippudo.
And here is my hotel room. It is comparatively huge.
Last photo today, I especially kept these 3 ticket stub things to highlight Japanese inefficiency. Each of them is a boarding pass. As you can see, I was issued 3 at various stages of the long winded process. At each of the check points they were all scanned, stamped or manually entered into the computer. The best one was after I sat down on the plane they again checked all 3, just after checking all 3 at the door as I got on. I believe I can solve the labour shortage in Japan, there are roughly 5 times as many staff as required doing this stupid paper shuffling. They can be redistributed to be nurses.