As the small amount of chatter continues around me I am consumed by the feeling of confusion.  I was definitely looking forward to a culture shock, however, I didn’t expect to feel as though I was merely a ghost, searching for my petty soul.  Arriving in Osaka Kansai, Japan was a marvelous feeling, following an extremely long flight out of Dallas, Texas.  Felicia and I were thrilled about our flight to Osaka, we enjoyed the pampering we received during the flight.  I guess before I get too far into today, I had better start with yesterday.. err two days ago now for you people back home..

June 24, 2006 at 11:45PM central time, Felicia and I boarded our flight #125 to Osaka, Japan.  We were in seats 2G and 2D.  We were happily placed in first class and the accommodations were incredible!  International flights’ first class treatment makes domestic flights seem as nothing more than a fancy economy class.  We were immediately served a drink, as I expected, but to my surprise I was not allowed to have an alcohol until after the plane was in the air for about a half hour.  I wasn’t offended or upset, rules are rules and on an airplane — I will definitely abide by them!  We traveled to somewhere over New Mexico when were served our first meal.  I would consider this meal a brunch, a very large brunch.  We had an appetizer of Smoked Salmon and Brie, followed by a salad.  After the salad we had our choice between a few dishes, I chose the filet mignon and Flea had the lasagna, which was so far from American lasagna that it was just, too goofy!  We ate our meals and afterwards, we, well I enjoyed some ice cream for dessert.

After brunch came lunch, after lunch came a snack, after that snack came another snack.. you get the picture.  We ate, ate and consumed more food during that flight than I typically do in three days!  I had cheesecake, steak, salmon, seafood of sorts, coffee, wine, etc.  It was definitely pampering at its finest.  We actually were able to take a small nap sometime during the flight.  Having our seats folded out into a bed was actually more comfortable than the wonderful Aeroplaza, Hotel at Osaka Kansai International Airport!  That is another story all on its own.

Well, some of the details are not too important but they have their moments.  I was so comfortable on the flight to Osaka that I was actually able to lay on my stomach and sleep.  How about that?  Don’t envy, those of you reading this who have made the flight in economy, don’t envy.  Not everyone can be as super duper uber elite as Flea and me.  We landed in Osaka about 3:36PM, Osaka time.  I have no clue what time zone we are in, but I know that Osaka is +20 hours GMT I think.  If its noon in Tulsa, Oklahoma (-6:00GMT) than it is 2:00AM the following day in Osaka, Japan.

Last night, Flea and I had to pay an incredible 1,000Y to watch a single freaking television channel in English.  Our Hotel wasn’t bad by any means, it was quite nice, somewhat elegant in a way, but small.  The beds were tiny, the room was tiny and well — everything in Japan is just smaller than it is in America.  Its definitely a shock.  We were welcomed to the Aeroplaza hotel yesterday evening after landing in Osaka and trekking across the 800m walkway.  The hotel room was originally 32,900Y, for those who are not aware, that is $329.00USD; less or more due to conversion ratios.  The gentleman at the hotel desk informed us he could give us a deal at 29,400Y.  I don’t believe that is a deal at all, considering they informed Shannon the day prior that the hotel room would only run us 17,000Y.  Next, we spent about a half hour trying to get in touch with Shannon in Okinawa.  You have so many country codes, dialing prefixes, etc that you have to deal with in Japan.  I’m not used to this.  We were not able to reach Shannon so eventually, finally, the guy told us if we walk back to the airport, visit the information and travel center we could get the same accommodations for a cheaper fare.  Therefore, because I am trying to spend my money over here on fun things, I walked back to the airport and visited every information center until I found the correct one.  I reserved the hotel with two 21m beds and it was only 14,700Y plus some weird 525Y booking fee or something.  That is still cheaper than the hotel itself.  I journeyed back to the hotel, found Flea and we went up to our room.

We spent a little while in the room, chatting, carrying on about the day and finally decided to find something to eat.  We traveled back to the airport because we had to find information on our next flight.  We were told to revisit the hotel the following day about 8:00AM to receive our boarding passes.  We walked away from the ticket counter and kindly giggled to ourselves.  We decided, due to the large amount of people in this airport all the time, we thought it would be intelligent if we showed up a little early, say 7:00AM to get our passes.  Next, we went back to the hotel and went all the way up to the top to the “Jet Stream.”  This is a restaurant in the top floor of the hotel that served all kinds of food.  We noticed a menu outside the joint a little ways away from the entrance.  We glanced over the menu everything looked somewhat appetizing, until Flea pointed out to me that what I thought was $20.00 in all actuality it was more like, $200.00!  I immediately thought otherwise about the purchase in which we were about to make.  We decided to go downstairs to find something else to afford.  We found a little joint, we’ll call it, something.  Something looked good, something had decent food prices and we felt we could make the expense to eat so elegantly at something.  You see, something was one of those places that you just drop a coin into the machine, it spits out a ticket, you give the ticket to the cook, she makes your food and gives it back.  No money is ever exchanged at something, its kind of weird.  We opted for beef over rice, with a cup of soup.  The soup was not good at all.  Their miso had like bread chunks in it, it was awful.  The beef over rice was okay, except they are not very well at clipping the fat from the beef.  Flea spent the first twenty minutes of her meal trying to get all the fat off the cat.  As we walked away from something, I decided I would try the whole, reverse head bob.  In this culture, you don’t nod your head upwards, you nod downwards.  I was doing the reverse head bob when I tripped over the step and nearly face planted right ouside of the restraint.  I was so embarrassed that my first reaction was to take off running.  Food in hand I began smiling and jogging through the hotel as though I would receive less laughs.  Flea was slightly ashamed of my actions as well, she ran too.  It was funny though, we are still laughing about it now.

Now is seats 7A and 7B on flight 1731 ANA out of Osaka Kansai, towards Naha, Okinawa Japan.  We are somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, snapping a few photos hear and there.  Unfortunately, Amercian Airlines allows no photos what-so-ever.  Being that we were in First Class on AA’s flight 125, we decided to not try to bend the rules, as punishment could’ve been severe.  They might have made us sit with the grunts and smelly individuals back in economy.  When we left Osaka, it was extremely gloomy, rainy in fact.  It had been raining for two days I think, crazy huh.  We are no in the wonderful sun light, enjoying the small amount of heat coming through the window.  This flight isn’t but a 8th of yesterdays flight duration, short as heck.  Only a few hours, honestly, I forget how long this flight is.  But for some reason i only think its a few hours.  If we would have landed in Tokyo yesterday, than we would have had to fly another five or six hours to Okinawa.  This is crazy,  we are about 32,000 feet in altitude and I am actually able to see the ripples of the tide under us.  I am unable to see if there are any boats or anything down there but there are definitely a ton of clouds!  Flea is writing a note, drawing a picture, heck I dunno.  I am sitting here chomping away on some gum she gave me in the airport terminal.  We are still early in flight and I have nothing else to say — so I will end it with something useless like..  TTYL!