Return To Australia.

Tuesday 23rd October. Day 89. Fine, A lovely day.

This morning Mr.Higuchi gave us a breakfast of toast, milk, orange juice, and cold tofu with bonito garnish.
After breakfast, Mr. Higuchi took us for a walk to Amagasaki Station via the Post Office. This wasn't very far from the ryokan. After the Post Office, our walk went along Temple Street. Both sides of the street were lined with temples. We looked into several temples.
At Amagasaki Station Mr. Higuchi showed us the vending machine that sold tickets for the airport bus. We also saw the bus. It went directly from Amagasaki Station to Kansai Airport, avoiding a rail journey through Osaka of unbelievable complexity.
We had a quick look at a flower and bonsai show next to the station. Up on the station level, the fountain area was looking much tidier and greener than in 1999. In the near distance we could still see the quaintly named "New Archaic Hotel".

A train took us back to Deyashiki. We were refreshed with green tea and bean sweets. Kyoko cooked us okonomiyaki from a packet.
After lunch it was, horror, case packing time. What a job! I had to use an extra bag: the emergency folding bag.
We walked to the post office to post a present to Yuki; we had forgotten to take it to Sendai when we went there the previous week. Back through the market to buy a present for Mr. Higuchi; we had brought him a bottle of shoochuu from Kyushu, but he didn't drink alcohol.
When we got back there was just time for us to drink coffee and to eat some sticky rice rolls in nori.

Mr. Higuchi and Kyoko walked us to Deyashiki Station. We said goodbye to Mr. Higuchi and Kyoko went with us in the taxi to make sure the driver went directly to Amagasaki Station by the shortest route. The taxi cost 650 yen, but then the train fare would have been 280 yen. At the station, the vending machine gave us two bus tickets in exchange for 2600 yen. We waited about ten minutes. The luggage was tagged. The bus arrived. After a hearty goodbye, we boarded, and off we went.
The Airport Bus is cyclamen pink and has "Airport Bus" in huge letters along the sides. It took forty two minutes to get to the terminal, but sometimes it can take fifty five minutes in heavy traffic.
If you ever wish to take the bus from the airport to Amagasaki, look for "Hanshin Amagasaki No.4".
There were good if fleeting views of Osaka Bay, many rivers and waterways, and many signs for Universal Studios. The sun was on the horizon and shining redly through the misty air. We passd a brightly lit "Mr. Pachinko" and it reminded me of "Fortunate House" in Kanoya where Toshiharu helped Colin win twenty thousand yen.
At 5-25 pm we turned right onto the bridge across the bay to Kansai Island. Behind us was a tall hotel and a brightly coloured ferris wheel that reminded me of the ones we visited on "Port Island" at Kobe in 1999.
As the bus drove onto the approach to the terminal, a female voice began an announcement through the bus' P.A., "Mamonaku....". (Essentially, "Soon...") . Most announcements of imminent arrival on Japanese public transport begin with this expression, so it's a word you soon recognise. On the trains the announcer has a particularly sepulchral tone.
At Kansai Airport, International check-in is on the fourth floor, and this is where the bus stopped first. Domestic check-in is on the second floor. Before we reached the check-in counter, security demanded we unpack all our luggage for them. Once again we had to face the horror of packing, but at least it was shared by security.
On the other hand, happily, at check-in our extra bag was accepted without question. Next we had to purchase from a vending machine, with cash, two Departure Tax Cards (2600 yen each). After that we got to go through the hand luggage inspection. My hand luggage had to go past the machine twice. The guard took my bag. He only wanted to open one end from which he took a camera, some AA batteries, and my pump-pack of hair spray. I suppose this assemblage must have looked quite suspicious in the X-Ray picture. They put my things in a tray and sent them and the bag through the machine again. This time everything was OK.

We had been deliberately early to check-in and a later sight of the chaos caused by the security checks made us glad that we had been early, but now there was three and a half hours to wait until take-off at 9-35 pm.
I wrote in my diary and solved a crossword. Meanwhile, Colin found a free (both not-being-used and no-charge) computer, so we both looked at our email and composed some emails to people we were leaving and to those who were soon to have the pleasure of our company once again. Colin bought a sandwich to share (we didn't want to eat much because we knew we'd be eating a meal within the hour after take-off).
The plane took off about three minutes early. In one sense, this was goodbye to Japan, but in another, we stayed in Japan until we left the flight at Sydney; there were the usual delicious JAL meals served by polite, well-groomed flight attendants, the signs and announcements and on-board entertainment was in Japanese, though an English translation was provided.
Flying time to Brisbane was eight and a half hours. This took us into day 90, however the change of day has not been noted, so, types Colin, "I'll just press on."
"Brisbane?" I hear you say in puzzled voices. Well, we were surprised, too, but the flight plan for this aeroplane was quite complicated. It flew to Brisbane and then to Sydney. We expected to be able to relax in an empty aeroplane after Brisbane, but no; all the people who were returning to Osaka from Brisbane had to board this aeroplane and go to Sydney first. In fact, we're not quite sure, but it's possible that this aeroplane landed to pick up and discharge passengers at Cairns on the return trip, too.
At Brisbane disembarking was very slow because the Australian Quarantine Service was looking for WMD as well as plant and animal diseases. After an inspection, we lay about feeling tired in the terminal, but we were able to charge a mobile telephone, thanks to a kindly shop-keeper who let us plug in to a powerpoint.
So in Sydney, after we'd passed through Customs and had all the food our kindly hosts had given us passed by Customs, we were able to telephone to our daughter, Kath and warn her that our arrival was sort of imminent.
Approx. two and a half hours after landing in Sydney, noticing the dead Ansett planes parked everywhere, we were in the air once more. Kath was waiting for us as we came through the arrival doors at Melbourne Airport. It was so nice to see her. Getting our baggage back was no problem, then Kath drove us home. It must have been in the Valiant, because she still didn't have her full licence. In Queenscliff, we were pleased to find Gran Win (Colin's mother) at her holiday house in Richard Street.
Our house, the Learmonth Street one, looked lovely, I thought. The colours seemed different to what I had remembered. Kath was cooking roast beef with the traditional accompaniments for us and for Gran Win. We greeted the old back cat, Mewbert, and were introduced to Kath's new cat, Lucella. Actually this new cat soon revealed itself to be a Luciano, but the Lucella/Luciano story is part of my next book.