Finally on the way to Osaka. This trip we decided to lighten the load by onsending a piece of luggage via Japan's amazing takyubin service. Let's hope it arrives at the hotel.
More to the point, our first meal, fittingly, are bento boxes on the train. And pretty good bentos they were too.
It's been a long time between drinks as they say, but we're finally off again, this time to the land of the rising sun. And having one's first experience with a budget airline.
One of the many things one used to take for granted with major carriers is to have one's luggage checked through to its final destination despite being forced to make unwanted stops. Unfortunately, in this case yours truly had to retrieve all our luggage at the final departure airport and go through the check in process twice in one day.
And having walked from one terminal to another and up a non working escalator, we faced utter chaos at the check in counter. Only 2 counters open with a mass of self service check in kiosks. Hey guys, this isn't like a supermarket. Scan passport, fail, ask roving attendant, get sent to one of the 2 counters staffed with obviously harried women. In fact, come to think if it, all the staff were women.
But that's not the end of the saga. We then had to brave the immigration/customs exit points.
Then the TRS claims. Yet another queue of iphone 6+ and camera buyers. Tick tick, boarding time edges closer as the queue slowly progresses. At least the TRS guys were quite friendly and efficient, more that can be said for the claimants. We make the gate with 5 minutes to spare, enough time to enjoy a barista bros iced coffee from a vending machine. Aaaaaah.
I suspect the experiment with this particular (not that cheap really) cheap airline may be short lived.