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Things about Japan.

Shinkansens are great, and so fast. All trains are always on time, but the seats are not always comfortable. Every time the conductor comes through, and he does after nearly every stop, he bows at the front of the carriage, and again at the end, regardless of whether he is bowing to the backs of all the heads, or whether anyone cares. Similarly, the lady who wheels the refreshment trolley through, bows at each end of the carriage. No wonder you see so many tiny little old ladies permanently bent at the middle.
Destination information on the trains is written in English as well as Japanese, so you don't get lost. The station names are also bilingual, and announcements are usually made as well. Most suburban buses also have bilingual signs, and street signs are also in English. It would be worthwhile to have the address of your hotel written in Japanese to show taxi drivers, because they have difficulty with maps written in English. Menus are only sometimes in English. You may need to check out the plastic models in the window, or just take pot luck.
Most people do not understand spoken English. Although they all learn English to pass their high school exams, their methodology is acknowledged to be abysmal, so it is useless.
It's a noisy place. Pedestrian crossings make loud noises, (in Fukuoka they sing songs) and there are beeps and pings going on all over. Beware of bikes on the footpaths. When you enter a shop, someone, or the entire staff, will call out a welcome to you, "irrashimasssseee". When you leave, they will call out a farewell. This can be very noisy in a busy shop. At the supermarket, there may be spruikers at the various counters, encouraging you to buy their broccoli or octopus or something else. If you are supplied with breakfast, it may include soup, cold scrambled egg, cold fish, salad, tofu, rice. Different, but it does fill you up.
Take some slip-on shoes. Every time you enter a traditional hotel etc, you will need to take your shoes off, and put on their slippers. If your room has tatami mats, you will have to then take off the slippers, and just wear socks on the mats. In this case, you will also have a Japanese bed - matresses and doonas on the floor. I raided cupboards for extra doonas to go underneath, to give me a bit more padding. I also found it easier to just crawl around the room, rather than standing up and getting down all the time. There will not be a chair, you spend all of your time on the floor.
You probably know that bathing in hot spring pools (onsen) is done naked in segregated baths. We found them extremely hot, so were disappointed that we didn't have a lovely, lazy, relaxing time.



Friday 20 Feb

Although I had an empty seat beside me so could spread myself out, I still didn't sleep much. David did sleep more that he usually does on a plane.
We landed at Coolangatta at about 7:00am, collected our bags and went through customs. We had some breakfast, exchanged money, and sat around until 11:00 for our next flight. It was the baby special - we had them everywhere - but still managed a brief doze.
We reached Melbourne around 14:45 and waited again, until 17:00 for our bus. That arrived at Ballarat at 18:45, and I waited at the station with our bags while David walked up to Tim's to get our car. Bec had prepared enough dinner for us, which was very well received. A call at the supermarket on the way home meant that we arrived at about 21:00, ready for a good sleep in our own bed!