Lukas and Martina in Japan//japan.lukas-prokop.at/blog/2016-10-01T23:21:00+09:00Arriving in Japan2016-10-01T23:21:00+09:002016-10-01T23:21:00+09:00Martinatag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-10-01:blog/arriving-in-japan.html<div id="preamble">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 29th of September 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Our arrival in Japan was well planned. We arrive (by the latest) at 18:40 at Kansai International Airport, go through the passport control, get our <a href="">Residence Card</a>, and finally claim our luggage. The next step would be to take the <a href="">MK Skygate Shuttle</a> to go to the <a href="http://yumenomad.com/">Yume Nomad hostel</a>. Of course, both services were already booked from Austria at the end of August.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>The first few steps went smoothly. The dinner and breakfast at the plane was fine. We even got our first towels - Japanese people use - to clean our hands before eating. The plane landed without troubles, we filled out some forms (Japan government loves its forms), got through the passport control after some waiting, and received our Residence Card right away.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Obviously, we were the last passengers of our flight due to this long procedure. We looked for our luggage on the baggage lane, but could not spot it. A few moments later an airport employee approached us and guided us to our suitcases. They were standing next to the lane and two other employees watched over them. If I had not experienced this on a previous trip to Japan, I would have been really surprised by this.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>No challenge so far. But from now on, all our wits were needed.</p></div>
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Challenge 1
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Find the counter of the MK Skygate Shuttle. The e-mail said "After passing through immigration and customs, please come to the MK counter next to gate H on the first floor of the airport as soon as possible."
So we went as fast as possible from the ground floor to the first floor. Up there we looked around for the counter or gate H, but could not find either of them. Lukas went to the information counter to ask, where we need to go. And that was the moment we got reminded that in Japan the ground floor is called first floor and the first floor is called second floor and so on.
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Challenge 2
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After we finally found our shuttle, we travelled quite relaxed to our next destination, the Yume Nomad hostel. This should not be a problem, since the MK Skygate Shuttle takes people "right to the door". Unfortunately, the Yume Nomad hostel is in very small side street of a shopping street (no cars allowed). The driver even bothered to get out his car and showed us the way to our hotel. We only noticed that this was the wrong location when he was gone already. Walking around, we tried to find the hostel on our own. Our approach to show the address of the hostel to some people around us did not work out. One local pointed out, that this address is "1 hour foot walk this direction". Actually, it was close by 2 minutes by foot at this point in time. The Japanese address system is quite complicated and maybe we would have been more successful if we had asked for the Yume Nomad hostel instead of its address. During our short journey around the Shinkaichi area we found different food shops, a Patchinko hall (gaming hall) and a train station. Just when we unsuccessfully checked the whole shopping street for our hostel, a nice Japanese guy approached us. He recognised immediately where we wanted to go and took us to the Yume Nomad hostel. This will not be the first and only time Japanese politeness helped us out!
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Challenge 3
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We finally managed to arrive at our booked hostel. But since we arrived at Shinkaichi close to 10pm and this is the deadline for check-in, we were already too late. There was a phone number given on the door and we decided to call it. But my mobile phone did not work. It still does not. Luckily, Lukas' mobile phone worked without problems. We managed to call and we could still check-in. The staff was really nice.
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<div class="paragraph"><p>This was our first day with actual Japan feeling. Polite people, Lukas' first ride on the left side of the street, thin cars compared to American SUVs, we applied Japanese slipper conventions in our hostel and Lukas bumped into the low ceilings.</p></div>
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From Graz to Istanbul2016-09-30T02:30:00+09:002016-09-30T02:30:00+09:00Lukastag:japan.lukas-prokop.at,2016-09-30:blog/graz-to-istanbul.html<div id="preamble">
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<div class="paragraph"><p>※ This article discusses the 29th of September 2016.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To save a good price, we booked the flight in mid June 2016. To reduce issues, if some flights delay, it is recommendable to stick to one airline (thanks to Ali for this hint!). We discussed a choice between China Air and Turkish Airlines as airline. China Air provides flights from Vienna to Osaka (I don’t remember intermediate stops) whereas Turkish Airlines provides Graz to Osaka flights (with intermediate stop Istanbul). We chose in favor of the latter, because adding the costs of going to Vienna would reduce the price difference of those two Airlines. With the hint that the 30th of September 2016 would be most likely the first day to move into our dorm, we booked a flight from 28th of October (11:30, Austrian timezone) to 29th of October (18:40, Japanese timezone). In August Kobe University confirmed that we will get a room at the Kobe University International Residence beginning with 30th of September. So for one night, it was necessary to rest in a hostel.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>To avoid overlapping the events of moving out of our flats and travelling to Japan, we decided to move to our parents during summer. We spent the last week before our flight together packing and planning final steps.
In the final night, Martina was busy with some oganizing and packing while I tried to install <a href="http://opengapps.org/">GApps</a> with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CyanogenMod">CyanogenMod</a> on my Samsung Galaxy S2. Unforunately, this did not work out. I wanted this to work, so I can next install <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_(application)">LINE</a> which is a popular messenger app in Japan. As you can guess, we did not get much sleep that night.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the morning, we met my parents and Martina’s parents as well as Martina’s sister at the airport. After drinking some beverages, we waved goodbye to all of them and left through the security check. After some short wainting, we entered <a href="https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=Airbus+a320-200+turkish+airlines&source=lnms&tbm=isch">an A320-200 by Turkish Airlines</a> where we got some lunch during our flight. Unexpectedly, only one third of the seats were taken.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Leaving the plane at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul_Atat%C3%BCrk_Airport">Istanbul Atatürk Airport</a>, we joined a large multicultural crowd of people gathering at the gates of the ground floor. It was great to see so many people from all continents <span class="footnote"><br>[Okay, I am not sure about Antarctica]<br/></br></span>. When we walked around, Martina remembered some places at the airport, she has been at in the past. We noticed that on the ground floor were only metal seats, but power supply was available for free. On the other hand, the 1st floor provided more comfortable seats, but power supplies were only provided commercially. It was also interesting to see how popular power supplies for mobile devices are these days. The ground floor was crowded and lively, while some people used the seats on the quiet waiting areas on the first floor to rest.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>We waited 11 hours at the airport for our next flight. I took two naps, Martina was working on her laptop or reading. I think this was the most boring part of our journey. Lacking desks, it was not really possible to work productively. So we slept, we discussed, we observed, we walked and kept ourselves busy. We were bound to the area after security checks, so I also could not check out whether any damages from the suicide bombings of 28th of June 2016 are left. Martina and I checked out duty-free shops. I took some photos of nice little bowls and Martina bought some sweets. We were also able to try some Turkish sweets for free. Eventually, we continued our stroll because, for my part, I did not want to increase my luggage weight.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>In the evening few people were left at the gates, but people gathered again close to midnight. That’s when my second nap got interrupted due to the noise. At about the same time, Gate 306 was announced for our flight to Osaka. Finally, we joined a community of Japanese-speaking people, many of them using <a href="https://www.tofugu.com/japan/surgical-masks-in-japan/">surgical masks</a>, in the plane.</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>All in all, our choice of Turkish Airlines resulted in a very nice travel experience.</p></div>
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