hometown and wonders of this world
1 Comments Published by nico on Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 7:45 pm.
This one’s a bit more like the rest of my blog; longwinded and personal. So it’s not really about Japan but if you want info on my Japan trip check out the previous posts. Do not say you have not been warned! If I were you I’d stop reading now.
Greeted with a sunny morning. Mike, Irene and I are headed to New Chitose Airport were Mike and I will head to Tokyo Haneda then bus it to Narita New International for our flight back to Sydney, Kingsford Smith (see this video from JAL... yes that actually play a slightly updated version on the plane. awesome!). Irene is heading to South East Asia for a few more weeks but in reality will just be hospitalised for a while then land in Sydney. She does not know that yet.
The bus ride starts off with a gentle ride out of the village.
As the weather turns foul our bus driver becomes more and more intent on breaking the bus land speed record, tailing any vehicle and generally going faster then Michael Shumaker on speed. Highlights include overtaking a truck on a one way snow-covered road with snow bucketing down. Sure the road was straight for about 2 km but what happened if someone coming the other way didn’t have their lights on? I figured stuff it; I’d had a good week of skiing so I’d be happy to go out like that. Gangsta. At one point in the journey the suns pops out for while as we roll past a lovely little lake.
I imagine this place could be ok in summer also but then I’m reminded that really have no interest in any place that has ski lifts but doesn’t have snow.
Arriving at the airport Mike and I finally have a Mos Burger because Irene has been banging on about them since forever.
Post Mos Burger, I think it’s been built up a bit too much. It’s like seeing a movie that everyone is raving about. It’s good but you wouldn’t napalm a village over it. We say our goodbyes and grab our separate flights.
Arriving in Tokyo Haneda again, Mike and I spend some time awaiting our baggage. Highlights during the wait include;
Lovely floor sign-age
The Michael Jackson white shoe test. Winner by a long shot is Mike ‘doing it for the kids’ S. 
The instruction bag! We discuss the merits of picking this bag up and trying to exit with it but I’m fairly certain that this sole action would bring chaos to those instruction--loving members of Japanese society. I’m also betting him they hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest a bag has stayed on a carousel. Can you tell we are bored?
Yep, inside was a massively cute puppy. And to our surprise it wasn’t frozen.
We then grab a bus between domestic and international. Having done this trip at night it’s not really that nice to see during the day. I keep thinking how much of shame it would be to fly all this way to just ski. The journey is like a long ride through the worlds biggest industrial park. I have DJ Shadow’s Giving Up The Ghost (Original Mix) going. I love when the music just matches the moment so perfectly your life feels cinematic for a moment.
Arriving at international the bus is stopped with guards boarding and all passports being checked. I feel like I’m on train crossing the boarder between Germany and Switzerland. Some last minute shopping and Mike and I grab our last lunch box set in Japan. Itatakimas! Mike gets the worlds more annoying puzzle game that I crack by total accident. Waiting for a plane that is delayed, some random guy asks me if I’m going to Sydney. Not sure if it’s a pickup line or just a ‘is this where the plane goes to Sydney from’. Thankful GK and Dina have turned up waiting for the same flight, thus proving we could have left the snow a few hours later in the morning and caught a later flight to Tokyo with them. Man, I could have even squeezed in a morning run… ok ok maybe I am dreaming here. Before boarding I manage a final Japan shot
Being a 9pm flight it’s going to be one of those lets hope I can sleep flights. I don’t have any drugs on me to sleep (as oppose to the other drugs!?!!?) so I’m just hoping but deep down I know it is wishful thinking. I’m in and out of sleep for most of the flight, maybe stealing 20 to 30 minutes at a time. The lady next to me keeps turning and moving around. Soon I’m perpetually in that state of half-sleep / half-awake, wherein my powers of reasoning become incredibly weak. This always frustrates me a lot. I know I should stand up and go for a walk because my legs are so swollen but I really struggle to fully awaken myself to do it. I really feel like I’m having this parody of sleep, like my body is being mocked by the forces of science pushing me un-naturally across the earth.
When I think I’ve finally come to everyone else is asleep around me, the map tells me I’m somewhere in the pacific, maybe south of the equator near PNG or Australia. I realise I’m heading ‘home’ but I cannot think of why I am doing this. Why am I heading due south? I feel like I’m going to throw up and I’m griped with this sense that I have no one nor any thing to go south for. This irrational set of feelings is all but overwhelming. In that moment I know that they are irrational, I just cannot convince my body to believe it. Part of me is totally aware I’m fatigued and not fully conscious but it almost feels like I cannot control that all important final act of waking up and applying rational to my thought processes.
I sense I’m seeing into the future as my over active imagination visualises me arriving at the airport, walking straight past the families, friends and lovers saying hello, to a taxi stand. I’m see the line for the cab, my driver as he becomes annoyed at the short fare. I see this house I now live in. I’m rolling my bags into this empty place and that will be that. That is what home will be. I force myself to wake up and push my mind to focus, praying for something visceral. I open the blind of my window. I’m totally shocked.
Early light is awakening on the horizon as we fly over The Great Barrier Reef towards Queensland. It’s just enough light to make out the curvature of the earth. I see (or think I can) The Southern Cross and suddenly I’m found again. Those same stars that have looked down upon me for the last 20 odd years. Nature will always extend beyond us. I will see my family and friend in due course. Dislocation leaves my body and soul. I watch the slowest sun rise I’ve ever experienced, watching that constellation gradually fade as the sun greets this side of the earth again.
As we fly over the Great Dividing Range I have the sounds of Adele’s Hometown Glory playing in my pod of I.
After passport control Mike and I have our boarding pass stamped by some official so we bypass customs all together. We must be home, Mike hasn’t been rubber gloved! Walking down the ramp I say see ya Monday to Mike and straight past the families, friends and lovers saying hello, to the taxi stand on a steamy wet summer morning. Quick queue for a cab and as soon as I say my suburb the driver groans. At destination home I roll my bags into the house, everyone is out. Strange for a Sunday 10:30am.
I pick up the phone, I’ve got a few friends and family to catch up with.
After all… what is a journey if not shared.
Greeted with a sunny morning. Mike, Irene and I are headed to New Chitose Airport were Mike and I will head to Tokyo Haneda then bus it to Narita New International for our flight back to Sydney, Kingsford Smith (see this video from JAL... yes that actually play a slightly updated version on the plane. awesome!). Irene is heading to South East Asia for a few more weeks but in reality will just be hospitalised for a while then land in Sydney. She does not know that yet.The bus ride starts off with a gentle ride out of the village.
As the weather turns foul our bus driver becomes more and more intent on breaking the bus land speed record, tailing any vehicle and generally going faster then Michael Shumaker on speed. Highlights include overtaking a truck on a one way snow-covered road with snow bucketing down. Sure the road was straight for about 2 km but what happened if someone coming the other way didn’t have their lights on? I figured stuff it; I’d had a good week of skiing so I’d be happy to go out like that. Gangsta. At one point in the journey the suns pops out for while as we roll past a lovely little lake.
I imagine this place could be ok in summer also but then I’m reminded that really have no interest in any place that has ski lifts but doesn’t have snow.Arriving at the airport Mike and I finally have a Mos Burger because Irene has been banging on about them since forever.
Post Mos Burger, I think it’s been built up a bit too much. It’s like seeing a movie that everyone is raving about. It’s good but you wouldn’t napalm a village over it. We say our goodbyes and grab our separate flights.Arriving in Tokyo Haneda again, Mike and I spend some time awaiting our baggage. Highlights during the wait include;
Lovely floor sign-age
The Michael Jackson white shoe test. Winner by a long shot is Mike ‘doing it for the kids’ S. 
The instruction bag! We discuss the merits of picking this bag up and trying to exit with it but I’m fairly certain that this sole action would bring chaos to those instruction--loving members of Japanese society. I’m also betting him they hold the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest a bag has stayed on a carousel. Can you tell we are bored?
Yep, inside was a massively cute puppy. And to our surprise it wasn’t frozen.We then grab a bus between domestic and international. Having done this trip at night it’s not really that nice to see during the day. I keep thinking how much of shame it would be to fly all this way to just ski. The journey is like a long ride through the worlds biggest industrial park. I have DJ Shadow’s Giving Up The Ghost (Original Mix) going. I love when the music just matches the moment so perfectly your life feels cinematic for a moment.
Arriving at international the bus is stopped with guards boarding and all passports being checked. I feel like I’m on train crossing the boarder between Germany and Switzerland. Some last minute shopping and Mike and I grab our last lunch box set in Japan. Itatakimas! Mike gets the worlds more annoying puzzle game that I crack by total accident. Waiting for a plane that is delayed, some random guy asks me if I’m going to Sydney. Not sure if it’s a pickup line or just a ‘is this where the plane goes to Sydney from’. Thankful GK and Dina have turned up waiting for the same flight, thus proving we could have left the snow a few hours later in the morning and caught a later flight to Tokyo with them. Man, I could have even squeezed in a morning run… ok ok maybe I am dreaming here. Before boarding I manage a final Japan shot
Being a 9pm flight it’s going to be one of those lets hope I can sleep flights. I don’t have any drugs on me to sleep (as oppose to the other drugs!?!!?) so I’m just hoping but deep down I know it is wishful thinking. I’m in and out of sleep for most of the flight, maybe stealing 20 to 30 minutes at a time. The lady next to me keeps turning and moving around. Soon I’m perpetually in that state of half-sleep / half-awake, wherein my powers of reasoning become incredibly weak. This always frustrates me a lot. I know I should stand up and go for a walk because my legs are so swollen but I really struggle to fully awaken myself to do it. I really feel like I’m having this parody of sleep, like my body is being mocked by the forces of science pushing me un-naturally across the earth.
When I think I’ve finally come to everyone else is asleep around me, the map tells me I’m somewhere in the pacific, maybe south of the equator near PNG or Australia. I realise I’m heading ‘home’ but I cannot think of why I am doing this. Why am I heading due south? I feel like I’m going to throw up and I’m griped with this sense that I have no one nor any thing to go south for. This irrational set of feelings is all but overwhelming. In that moment I know that they are irrational, I just cannot convince my body to believe it. Part of me is totally aware I’m fatigued and not fully conscious but it almost feels like I cannot control that all important final act of waking up and applying rational to my thought processes.
I sense I’m seeing into the future as my over active imagination visualises me arriving at the airport, walking straight past the families, friends and lovers saying hello, to a taxi stand. I’m see the line for the cab, my driver as he becomes annoyed at the short fare. I see this house I now live in. I’m rolling my bags into this empty place and that will be that. That is what home will be. I force myself to wake up and push my mind to focus, praying for something visceral. I open the blind of my window. I’m totally shocked.
Early light is awakening on the horizon as we fly over The Great Barrier Reef towards Queensland. It’s just enough light to make out the curvature of the earth. I see (or think I can) The Southern Cross and suddenly I’m found again. Those same stars that have looked down upon me for the last 20 odd years. Nature will always extend beyond us. I will see my family and friend in due course. Dislocation leaves my body and soul. I watch the slowest sun rise I’ve ever experienced, watching that constellation gradually fade as the sun greets this side of the earth again.
As we fly over the Great Dividing Range I have the sounds of Adele’s Hometown Glory playing in my pod of I.
I’ve been walking in the same way as I didA few hours later we circle over the countryside just north Lithgow finding our Sunday morning slot. We cross the range bumping over my parents, my sisters, my own and finally the cheats place. We all need to clear our gutters fokes! Flying west of the bridge I tap my Japanese neighbour on the shoulder and point to the bridge. She claps her hands with excitement, pointing to the bridge and The Sydney Opera House. I smile; it’s still a damn fine city to come home to.
Missing out the cracks in the pavement
“Is there anything I can do for you dear? Is there anyone I can call?”
“No and thank you, please Madam. I ain’t lost, just wandering”
Round my hometown
Memories are fresh
Round my hometown
Oh the people I’ve met
Are the wonders of my world
Are the wonders of my world
Are the wonders of this world
Are the wonders of my world
After passport control Mike and I have our boarding pass stamped by some official so we bypass customs all together. We must be home, Mike hasn’t been rubber gloved! Walking down the ramp I say see ya Monday to Mike and straight past the families, friends and lovers saying hello, to the taxi stand on a steamy wet summer morning. Quick queue for a cab and as soon as I say my suburb the driver groans. At destination home I roll my bags into the house, everyone is out. Strange for a Sunday 10:30am.
I pick up the phone, I’ve got a few friends and family to catch up with.
After all… what is a journey if not shared.
Gotta love that overactive imagination. But what if?!!! You always have the fam anyway you silly thing.