About to go!

Tomorrow it all starts. I leave about 06.15 to walk the 3kms, uphill, to catch the local bus! I have done a little bit of practice but anyone who has seen me huffing and puffing up the road would never believe that this time last year I was walking the Camino de Santiago!! The walk will be in the dark and, if todays weather is anything to go by, in the rain. In Ourense I will make a final trip to the hospital to get my last Hepatitis A & B vaccinations, then on to Vigo and Oporto. I am quite looking forward to seeing Oporto so I won't moan too much about the fact that Ryanair has re-instated the flights from Santiago this week. Once in London I will be able to phone Alitalia and hopefully get some info. I should at least be able to converse in English. The flight last Tuesday stopped at Osaka before going on to Tokyo. The way things are going around Fukishima I canot believe that I won't be able to change my flight but I'm hanging on to my booking in Tokyo till I know for sure. I expect the highlights of my trip to Japan to be: a night in a ryokan in Takayama; the cherry blossom in Nara and Yoshina; and the Geisha concert in Kyoto. For the latter I want to pay for the most expensive seats and have a 'Tea ceremony' beforehand. My camera is ready! My bag is packed! The house is clean! My alarm is on!

Sooooo!

I've found my flight, it's back to going to Tokyo. I can't say I'm delighted, however there are still 10 days till I fly so anything can happen.
With the news today about radiation found in foods and water I think, if I end up in tokyo, I'll arrive with a bottle of water and some Pot Noodles. I can't stand Pot Noodles so that really is dire. I was wanting to visit the fish market in Tokyo but I think that will be a sad place at the moment so I'll pass on that.
I am a bit perplexed as to what news Alitalia have heard that makes it safe to fly into Tokyo this week when it wasn't last week.

Tales of the unknown!

I have no idea where I am going now! Tuesday's flight from Milan to Tokyo was still shown, at Milan Malpensa airport, to be flying to Tokyo but Tokyo showed it as being diverted and Kansai didn't show it at all, so there's a mystery. I assume it arrived somewhere.

I have just phoned Alitalia and am informed that my flight, on 5th April will be going to Tokyo. This may be, of course, that they haven't made up their minds yet, but this mornings flight to Tokyo was still being shown as flying to Tokyo so I will look tomorrow morning and see if I can find out where it has gone. Last week the flights were very clearly turning up at Kansai airport, Osaka. I seem to be going on a Magical Mystery Tour. I wouldn't mind except that I have to cancel a hotel before I leave England, I currently have bookings in hotels in tokyo and Osaka, for the same 2 nights. I assume Alitalia staff at Heathrow will know where flights are going as they have to label luggage. I hope my luggage and I go to the same place!!!

Tales of the unexpected!

I had it all organised!! After changing my itinerary several times I thought I was all set to go, there was just a niggling doubt over the situation in China. There is considerable unrest in the Middle East and there were/are some concerns that this may spread to China. But no. It's not China that is the problem, Japan has suffered the biggest earthquake in history, followed by the biggest tsunami in history, and, as if this is not enough for one country, the tsunami has wrecked a nuclear power plant.

Stories about what may or may not be happening in Japan depend on what one reads or watches, suffice it to say the Japanese are having a hell of a time. I really haven't chosen the best time to go but neither do I intend to cancel my trip. I have spent the last week watching and monitoring the situation very closely. Now it seems that Alitalia is diverting it's flights to Osaka, this is fine by me, I don't know how long for so I now have 2 hotel reservations for the first 2 nights!!

I have cancelled a night in Nikko and I may not get to see Mt. Fuji but so what, it may be covered in cloud anyway:) For my first big trip this is certainly one I will remember, if only for the anticipation and anxiety. I feel very selfish worrying about trivialities when so many are suffering and so many are dead.

Plans continue

I have now booked all flights. I can't book the ferry until the end of February and the Japan Rail Pass and my Visa for China I will get in London in March, just before I go.
I am now insured, I found a company that does insurance for expats, very useful as the small print is easier to understand and my sons will have no problem communication with them if they should need to.

I have found another problem of living abroad! I would like to buy a prepaid credit card so that I don't need to travel with my credit and debit card. I have spent the morning looking at this but it seems that to have an english card I must reside in England and I cannot make sense of the spanish ones. They mostly give information on pre-paid telephone cards! Someyhing else to try and look into when I am in England next.

Not Trans Siberia!

Once again my plans have been under review. I found a Mongolian company that did short tours but when I returned to the site in order to make contact I discovered the site had dissappeared. This is too big a journey to risk discovering, at the last moment, that I have booked with an unreliable company, so I have changed my plans yet again. I will not go on to Mongolia this time. It will be much easier to add Mongolia to the Trans Siberian trip when I do it from Moscow, especially as there are frequent trains from Irkutsk to Ulan Bator but very infrequent trains from Beijing to Ulan Bator and those that run are subject to changes in day. I would have had to wait until the very last moment to discover what day I would be travelling to Ulan Bator and, more importantly, how I would get back to Beijing. Now I can be certain (is anything certain?) to be in Beijing for May Day, which is something I have wanted since I first discovered that my itinerary seemed to be panning out that way. I will also be able to have a more relaxed visit to China.

Trans Siberia?

I have put my mind back on my trip next year. I've bought the ticket for Tokyo, London - Milan - Tokyo! Seems an odd way to go but it is cheap. Now I am really committed, the question is; what am I committed to? I have spent ages thinking over the problem of visas, particularly the Russian Visa which is tricky, if I travel east to west this is a major problem. One answer seemed to be to get an agency to buy my ticket from Irkutsk to Moscow, but how would I pick up the ticket, I can't pick up a ticket in Moscow and they can't post it to me as I will already be away, finally I have changed my plans completely. next year will not be the year of the Trans Siberian, I will do that in a couple of years when I also visit Poland and the Ukraine. Next year is now going to be Japan, China and Mongolia. This will give me longer in China and a more relaxed journey. I thought of journeying back via Korea, recent troubles have made that impossible, I just hope that China and America don't enter into a full scale war else my whole plan will go ape. I must get my insurance quickly!