The long flight

Ready for the off

Oh yes it was a very long flight - a necessary evil for trips to Japan. Tom was so well behaved though that I can't complain - just wish we could take a leaf out of his book and sleep some of the way!

So, the taxi arrived dead on time (6.15) we bundled everything in and made our way to the airport. At the airport everything went well - we got checked easily (Totoro was given a special priority tag) and we managed to exercise Tom by making him run round quite a bit. It obviously isn't a popular time to fly as Birmingham Airport was the quietest I have ever seen it!

However, having said that our flight to Charles de Gaulle was full. We did get a little nervous at one stage because we got quite badly delayed - someone didn't turn up for the flight so they had to go through the luggage hold to remove their luggage, delaying us by a good half hour - not good when you have a short connection in one of the worst airports! However we were lucky in that our flight to Osaka took off from the same terminal where we landed, meaning we got our flight with no problems.

We were very lucky in that the Osaka flight wasn't very full - we had 6 seats for the 3 of us which meant I could make a nest for Tom and he could lay out. Perfect - I wish all flights were like that! Tom actually fell asleep on take off (he has done that a number of times now) so once the seatbelt signs got turned off we lay him down and after 30mins of fighting it (or rather being distracted by things) he finally submitted and fell asleep - he was out cold for 2 hours.

A light snooze on the flight

Once awake he had his dinner, played a bit (almost broke his Daddy's iPad by dropping it on the floor on purpose which didn't go down well (false alarm - it is working fine now), read etc. when he started getting whiny again I lay him down again and within 40 mins he was asleep - and then stayed asleep until 40 mins before landing - not bad in fact some of the flight crew were impressed by just how much he did sleep - must say it made our flight easier, however neither Matt nor I managed to get any sleep.

We landed in Osaka on time, got through immigration and customs without getting stopped (first time ever for Matt) and then got what seemed like the longest ever train trip to our flat via Osaka (change trains), Himeji (change trains and Yoshinoya for Gyudon lunch and Aboshi (pick up keys). We found our little house without too much trouble. It certainly is little and has little furniture (a low down table, fridge freezer, tv and single bed), however we don't need much and it is certainly convenient for the train station.

We dumped our stuff, made up the futons, put Tom down for a nap and then lay down ourselves - it felt really good, but we didn't manage any sleep as we expected. Isn't jet lag just horrible!

After a couple of hours we gave up, had showers and baths and went for a look around our part of town. It is very sleepy but then it is Sunday. Had a look round the local convenience stores and ended up having dinner in a ramen restaurant although we didn't have ramen, opting for fried rice, gyoza and kara-age chicken instead - yummy!

We then headed home, put Tom to bed and then followed ourselves shortly after - about 7.30 (well it had been a long, long day,)

Today's Purchase: Dr Yellow Toothbrush

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Location:Birmingham to Aioi and everywhere in between