Road Trip!

The weekend just past was a long weekend here in Japan, and it also coincided with the first departure from our group- AbSlance was leaving us. So we planned to make a trip of it and RayVon, LeeJay and I were headed to the beach for the rest of the sad weekend. Only as usual things went a little wrong.

For LeeJay and I the weekend started with a return trip to the okonomiyaki restaurant in Ochiai where the couple who owned the place proved very friendly asking us about where we were from and who we knew locally, and we headed onto karaoke (always our refuge after a frustrating day at work). She came back to mine and I introduced her to British chav culture by showing her the DVD of "Shameless" (UK tv series) that Saddam had lent me.

Saturday got off to a weepy start as Rayvon and AbSlance headed to Katsuyama to start the journey to Kansai Airport. As if we needed further proof of her kindness and loveliness, Nao chan came to see them both, give us food for the journey and say fond farewells, which had everyone in tears again. So we set off, and with only a couple of wrong turns along the way we made it to Kansai in good time. Our last hours together were spent drinking and laughing, taking photos and making videos (which pretty much sums up the previous year together). And we said our goodbyes and Abby walked through security with the bunch of flowers Nao chan had given her on Thursday night. We thought they'd take them away from her. They scanned them instead. Let's hope the little sachet of flower food wasn't mistaken for drugs. I really will miss Abby, although I don't think it will really hit any of us until everyone's gone and no-one's doing things together anymore.

From the airport we headed into Osaka for RayVon's last Saturday night out in Japan. This took longer than expected but we got there and found a car park , admiring the 24 hour sign and the sign that said "0:00 - 16:00 1500yen". The hotel, as usual, turned out to be right in the centre of the red light district, and our view consisted of girlie bars and snack bars and strip bars. Purdy. So we decided not to stay in those non-luxurious confines (despite the fact that attractive Western men were staying there) and headed out to the Thai restaurant LeeJay had spotted along the way. Only to find the doorway being blocked by a very interesting festival taking place (men on carts and Chinese dragons which were probably Japanese led the way). With gorgeous food and great service the Thai place was fantastic, as was the bar 20 yards down the road. We started drinking and as the music started, we started dancing . The music was excellent, starting with hip-hop and changing to Algerian and Egyptian music. We danced as late as we could- our hotel had a curfew (boo!)

On Saturday morning we left the hotel and prepared to start our 1 hour and 40 minute journey to Wakayama. We collected the car from the car park speculating how much it would cost, thinking we may have to pay 1000 yen each. LeeJay slid the ticket into the slot. And waited. We all turned to look at the screen. In my mind I was thinking, "ooh, maybe it'll be 1,500 each", and because of this I had to do a double take. LeeJay looked at me and burst out laughing, shrieking, "I'm gonna pee my pants". Parking overnight had cost us 9,300 yen. $100! 50 UK pounds. We looked at each other laughing hysterically and I thrust a 10,000 yen note into LeeJay's hand. We should have seen it as a sign of things to come, but we were too busy laughing.

The journey to Wakayama took 4 and a half hours as traffic jams and road markings led us on and off expressways numerous times and we got lost in the small town where our hotel was. But on arrival we were thoroughly impressed. We had a room on the highest floor of the hotel (the 8th floor) with tv, laptop (with DVD player), fridge, massive windows with a view of the town, the sea and later the sunset and not one, but 2 (!!) air conditioning units. Hotel Altier in Tanabe is well recommended. The staff are great (thanks Kumiko!) And it's right near the beach, boooy! So we wandered round to find food, eating delicious Chinese cuisine in a small local restaurant and returned to the hotel with drinks from Lawson's (the world's best convenience store), only to discover some more disturbing things. The hotel had a free adult channel. And as we soon found out, watching "adult tv" is like watching a car-crash. Despite the hideousness of what's going on, you can't tear your eyes away. And we struggled to, fortunately succumbing to the gorgeous sunset which drew us to our balcony. Next was more karaoke (we haven't had many opportunities to Karaoke with RayVon) and back to the hotel to chat, laugh and sleep.

Having bought a breakfast of baked goods from one of Tanabe's many bakeries (Okayama could learn a thing or two) we popped back to the beach for a half hour and then started the journey back to RayVon's. This took less time than the journey from Osaka to Wakayama despite the fact that we travelled across four prefectures. And with my hand hanging out of the car window for much of the journey I managed to get a suntan on half of one arm. I look quite special right about now.

We had our last dinner at JoyFull (cheap restaurant) and LeeJay and I headed home. As we suspected it would, our weekend of sunshine ended as soon as we hit the last stretch of the way home into Maniwa shi. It started to pour.

Goodbye Abby Lance! I will miss you!