Thursday, 19 December 2013
Flight day started around 7:40 with the Japanese hotel room blackout once again proving ultra-effective.
Downstairs for another go at the Viking, we found ourselves back in the Camelia Room. The spread was far more compact than our earlier visit, but just as extensive if you catch my drift.
They'd moved us into the wedding reception room last time, and the options were somewhat more spread out.
As I made my any towards the fruit juice, the tomato juice was again in evidence. So was the bottle of vodka and the handy batch of Tabasco. I refrained from the temptation to start with a Bloody Mary, opting for a dash of chilli in a common or garden tomato juice.
After two days of attacking Japan's Number Three Breakfast Viking, I felt we were qualified to make a comparative assessment. For mine, the Okura mightn't quite match the variety but definitely has the edge as far as quality is concerned.
Plus, of course, the possibility of a Bloody Mary should one be required.
We were back upstairs around nine-fifteen, and I was back in the lobby shortly after that, accessing the WiFi and filling in time before an eleven o'clock checkout.
We've got the final day routine down pat, with a transfer to Sannomiya followed by a subway trip out to Myodani.
That, in turn, melds into a foray into the shopping centre while Madam stocks up on things she can't buy in downtown Bowen.
This can take anything up to an hour, and as long as I can bring the iPod into play while I take up a seat, I'm reasonably happy.
There's plenty of passing parade to watch, and the soundtrack is better than what gets delivered over the shopping mall PA.
On this occasion, like every other time we've been out in public over the past fortnight the PA was ringing out the seasonal bells, and the iPod was a welcome variation.
The shopping process can take anything from thirty minutes to an hour and a bit and is followed by the taxi transfer into the high-rise dormitory suburbs.
Once we're there, and the time of arrival varies, restowing and rearranging what we've been carrying is the first task.
So we incorporate what's been recently added into what we've been hauling around with us. Then we combine that lot with what was dispatched to the suburban wilderness earlier on. Finally, we divide the lot between the two bags that will be checked in at the airport.
At this point, we need to pause to consider the logistics of these trips. A lot of detail I once thought was overly fussy increasingly seems entirely necessary.
There are, for a start, things that come with you that you won't be needing again until the homeward leg. One of them is the second suitcase.
The need for speed when switching train services means two suitcases is one more than necessary. I'm increasingly inclined to put a significant question mark over the other one.
In any case, anything that won't be needed until the return leg goes into the other suitcase, which then gets put out to pasture until it's home time.
From there, you cram everything you need into the other suitcase, a travel bag and a backpack. That trio gets lugged around until what you need for the rest of the travel leg can fit into the other two bags. That's when the suitcase, loaded with everything else, is dispatched by courier to join its brother.
By this point, we're usually back in a major centre, and increasingly using the subway to get around.
After a day or two of lugging a suitcase up and down flights of steps, you're quite happy about not having to do it anymore.
It would be easier if you could fit everything you need into one airline size carry-on bag, but we haven't quite managed that.
Yet.
Much of that comes down to how often you want to wash. Then there's the question of access to coin laundries along the way and the effect that allocating a morning or evening to do the washing will have on your travel arrangements.
In any case, with the roaming done, everything needs to be rearranged for the homeward leg. That Australian mobile phone that doesn't work overseas will be required after we disembark, and pillows and blankets needed for the night flight come into play as well.
Then, with everything stowed away, it's time to sit down and wait for the taxi to the airport.
That might seem like an extravagance but works better than the alternative, which would be a taxi back to Myodani station, a struggle with the stairs at Sannomiya and the airport shuttle the rest of the way.
You book the cab, which is actually a coaster bus, in advance, and they call you back with a pickup time. Experience suggests we're usually the first of at least two pickups along the way.
Hit the airport, and it's the normal processes that go with international travel.
You start by proceeding through the check-in.
Then there's the meal before we move through immigration on the way out, the wait in the departure lounge and, finally, the seven-hour flight that will deposit you in Cairns around five in the morning.
And that arrival time creates its own little kettle of fish.