Well after several delays and 3 flights and a long bus ride, over 24 hours from leaving home we are FINALLY at our first accommodation in Japan and I am ready to eat 50 convenience store meals and then sleep for 50 hours. Trying to bust out the Japanese after so long is breaking my brain. Next few days will be full on soaking up the atmoshere so I might be incognito over here. Thank you all for the wonderful messages this morning.
I still have some question marks for the second part of my trip but I’ve got plenty of flexible options and I’m not feeling quite so stressed out about it now…
Seagoon had it. Got to MEL early, flight delayed, transited through HKG, second flights was delayed, then some snafus at immigration for one of my friends, then a 1.5 hr domestic flight + 50 min bus to tonight’s destination. Could’ve gotten here faster with a direct flight to Fukuoka or something but we had a really cheap deal earlier in the year with Cathay.
And the exchange rate certainly helps. Feels like I’m living it up compared to spending the same amount on holiday in Australia.
Holy shit, the place I contacted to arrange a car booking as a hail mary came through and got us a vehicle at short notice, on a Sunday, less than 24 hrs from my email, for ALL 5 days of our stay - on an island (= few cars). And for a very typical price (~70 AUD/day including insurance and tax). With pickup and dropoff directly at our port of arrival!!!
I’d tried the car rental agencies directly and found nothing, so these guys must have some cars specially kept up their sleeves. Now the fact that my friends’ accom and mine is spread apart is less of a problem, and we can be way more flexible about timings, especially with inclement weather and with not needing to rush hikes to meet bus timings. And it’s cost effective too compared to daily bus trips for 3 people. What a huge, massive relief… I feel genuinely blessed. Much more enthusiastic about this part of the trip now.
Feels like I frittered around a lot today, at least I managed to work out which days I’ll be in a certain area and booked another car reservation (area requires a car to traverse). That felt like a lot of work. Plus going to a friend’s place to pick up a backpack kindly loaned for this trip.
Buuuuuuuut I HAVEN’T EVEN REMOTELY STARTED TO PACK and I leave in less than 48 hours and I have work on both Mon and Tue that I have to go into the office for. And I still haven’t organised my SIM card or travel insurance… and I still have some food to cook and freeze before I go… god I’m so last minute with this trip.
Okay, deep breath because I know I can control this and I pack very efficiently at the last minute.
Late reply, but I’m going to go for one of the airport pickup SIMs… they should hopefully be fine. I certainly needed an assistant the past three weeks - so much life stuff still undone that will need to be resumed when I get home. I should’ve known it’ll take me a while to build up my stamina for full time work hours and that this would happen! 😩
Today calls for a treat, I’m getting a coffee at a cafe. Knuckling down on all the shit I need to get done, which, looking at the weather over the next few days, appears to include ALL the washing done and dry by the end of today.
I’m making some progress, after weeks of procrastination - first 6 nights of my trip are sorted, as well as the ferry booking!
Of course, there have been consequences, as accom and car booking for the shared part of my trip with my friends is basically sold out, so I’ve had to book somewhere a 30 minute drive from where they’re staying (and gotta rely on the public bus to get to and fro - it’s Japan, we’ll survive). Crossing our fingers something will come through with a car booking in that period even for just one day.
Now to do the next 9 days. And travel insurance and a damn travel SIM. I got this…
Meanwhile at least I’ve done all my laundry and it’s drying nicely in the sun. I’m afraid my plants are at the bottom of the list atm.
Need to still make dinner tonight. Tomorow, packing and more cooking.
Yes, in a few days. I’ve been a bit worried about the heat and humidity given there’ll be quite a bit of hiking and maybe a bit of cycling - we’ll be around the southern parts of the island - but it looks quite manageable!
If you have comprehensive insurance then you’ll be right. These things happen. It’s much more painful to your heart and wallet when it’s you causing the damage to your own car…
Mate, and I believe most people here would back me on this, but based on your writing over the years, you’d be a better candidate for heading into uni than most kids your age. Your capacity for research, ability to write, and emotional maturity is way beyond that of many adults I know…
But yeah, I get that in your situation you might be happier by getting out of the school system asap.
Then it’s all pretty easy from there. Hopefully your policy also provides for a replacement car while yours is in for repair - it’s very handy to have.
I had someone’s towbar back into my rear driver side door while I was out on a job still using my own car. They thankfully left details and all, but it was in the shop for 10 days. (after driving around with a badly dented car for weeks as the incident happened two weeks before Xmas - I was very lucky; 2cm more and it would’ve hit the B pillar and been a write off). The replacement car was a godsend
Alright I’ve mostly got the frame of my travel down pat - still need to work out accom for the latter half of my trip, but at least I know how long to spend in each general area. Still yet to organise travel sim and travel insurance, although my friend is very generously lending me their rather primo backpacking rucksack that I can use for this trip, otherwise I was looking at having to possibly fork out for that too (my own daypack is on its last legs and a suitcase would be a bitch)
I’ve spent the last 3 hours whipping up some curries to tide me over till I leave. Tidied the kitchen, had a shower, ate dinner, and am just wiped out now. Brain overloaded from all the research. Will look through it tomorrow morning with fresh eyes. Over the last couple weeks I’ve noticed that I find it easier to put a natural stop to things rather than fixating/hyperfocusing well into the night.
Maybe at long last I’m getting better at pacing myself… that or I’m getting old and tired more easily. Am definitely taking a cue to have plenty of “do nothing” periods slotted into my travel schedule.
Feeling a bit like that except it’s my travel plans that’s a siren-blaring mess lol. I’m letting myself park it till tomorrow, can’t fix the mess if I don’t recharge right now and let my brain heal from all the load it’s been placed under. Lean into the grey I say, get cozy and warm for one night at least.
I was pleasantly surprised (ecstatic) when IT installed QGIS for me just by asking. Would probably stab my eyeballs if I was forced to use arcmap (or worse, intramaps as a desktop application).
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