Sunday - Rainy, with more added typhoon!
A lucky how it all worked out kind of day.
I spent the time since Friday in Kobe, a very large city in the southern part of Japan. I had an interesting time and I saw some amazing art, so part of me was very happy. The other part of me wasn’t so glad. It was raining as a typhoon approached, I found Kobe a difficult place to get around in and it was sometimes a bit challenging in my condition to be out and about by myself.
I arrived in Kobe on Friday after 2 airplanes and a bus ride. I couldn’t find my way around at all, the layout of the city didn’t match what was on my maps and I got horribly confused. That meant that I walked around for ages, dragging my suitcase and I really didn’t need that. Then, when I checked into my hotel, the hotel demanded to copy my passport, and failing that, my ID card. As far as I know, as a resident of Japan, that is something that they don’t need. However, I needed a place to stay, so I had to allow them to do it, with the proviso that they give the copy back. However, who knows how many copies The “B” Kobe made when my card was out of my sight?
After I had rested a little I went out looking for the place to catch the bus back to the airport. I walked for ages, and only when I went to the place where I got off the bus, did I get any help finding it. Luckily, the porter spoke English and told me where the stop was.
At that point I decided to go to Nada! I had read in the newspaper that there was an exhibition of works by Edward Burne-Jones so I took myself off to see it. It was wonderful. I wanted to stay and look at the pretty pictures for hours. Thankfully the gallery wasn’t too busy, and people were quite decent about getting out of the way! For some reason, the tapestries that he did in conjunction with William Morris moved me the most. Perhaps because I love thread/cloth art, or because they are more “womanly” or something…there were two tapestries and they were wonderful. I came out of the exhibition and bought quite a few postcards.
I also bought a few postcards downstairs at the gift shop. They might actually get sent out!
I went back to my hotel after this. To do that, I took a taxi back to the train station, then a train back to Sannomiya. From there, I walked back to my hotel. I was going to go to a local restaurant, but I couldn’t be bothered climbing the stairs, so went to a “conbini” and bought some sandwiches instead. I was in bed and asleep by midnight.
Saturday was our AFWJ Board meeting and it was good. We decided a few things and discussed a lot of things before the day was out. I took a taxi to the meeting place, but the driver was sort of an idiot and took me to the wrong place first. I didn’t get out of the taxi and then he stopped the meter and took me to the right place. Good thing that I had left early for the meeting.
I left quite soon after the meeting. Most of the others had a meal planned that I thought sounded nice, but too expensive. My original plan had been to join up with everyone later, but then I got sick. I decided to have a quiet evening by myself and it was a good idea. After dropping stuff at my hotel I went shopping for an umbrella, then went and checked out the bus place. Found it. A-ha! After that I went to Tokyu Hands for a few more postcards, grabbed a tea latte at Starbucks and took it back to my room. I had dinner in a Thai restaurant that was in the hotel.
I was in bed and asleep by midnight.
This morning I got up early, had an early and okay breakfast…Italian food for breakfast is odd, then checked out. I did get my ID photocopy back.
I walked to the bus stop, and caught a bus to the airport. When I was there, I bought the Osaka Gotochi cards, then checked my bag. I was oodles early and was expecting at every moment to hear that my plane would be cancelled as the typhoon was approaching. Planes to Niigata and Sendai were cancelled, but not to Haneda. Yay. I did a little souvenir shopping and then went through security.
The flight was fine, arrived in Haneda and transferred to the outgoing terminal. There were no restaurants that I could see, so I had to buy more sandwiches for my lunch. I ate so I could take my medicine.
The flight back to Shonai airport was bumpy. We had to board by bus, and when I got to my seat there was someone sitting in it. There was a family and they were all confused about who should sit where. I ended up sitting next to a man holding a baby for the flight. The baby wasn’t too bad, just kicked me a few times and stared at me a lot. It was kind of funny. Near Shonai, they announced there would be turbulence and there really was. We dropped a couple of times and went sideways another time. It was a bit scary.
F was waiting at the airport to pick me up…hurray! I was very happy to see him. I got my bag and met him. I did kiss him in public, even though he was being all No PDA! It wasn’t a tongue kiss…nothing nasty I promise!
We had dinner in Kintaro sushi, which was really nice for a change. It was busy there so we had to wait as well. After that, we bought a few groceries and then came home. I’ve spent most of the evening reading email.
I think I’m going to sleep in a bit tomorrow. I haven’t slept-in in ages, and if my body can handle it, I’d really like to. Not sure if that’ll happen or not. I’ve been waking up a bit at night, but always managed to get back to sleep fairly easily, and fairly quietly too.
Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow I’m going to relax a bit, maybe write a postcrossing card or two or ten! I’m quite behind. Come back tomorrow night and see what goes on. Got to go. Night!
