Photos will be added at a later date after sorting through them all.
22 July:
Firstly my Qantas flight QF44 due to leave ate 6.30pm (+12 GMT) was delayed not once, not twice but three times. This meant that I was not due to arrive in Sydney until my connecting flight had already left. This was a very big worry for me as I was supposed to meet up with my sister in Sydney as well as make it to Tokyo in time for domestic flights the next day.
Unfortunately I was too broke to afford travel insurance and I wasn't the person who booked the tickets so I was unsure of what to do. I debated not even getting on the flight but after paying $10 twice for 2 hours of internet I managed to contact my brother and ask him what to do. Typically he told me to trust god. So I did.
I was stressing somewhat on the plane but ended up just trying to relax and rest. Once I arrived in Sydney I was handed an accomodation voucher and was told my sister was waiting for me. She didn't have to wait for me but since it was my first time flying she asked Qantas to rebook both of us for the next night and provide us a hotel room with breakfast, lunch (but not dinner) provided.
23 July:
Despite being set back a day it ended up working out well as we were both able to sleep and then spend a day exploring Sydney. They have some nice Apple stores where you can jump on Macbook Pros and check your emails while pretending to be interested in buying. My sister who is technologically challenged managed to use google maps on an Iphone to find the Sydney harbour for us. She now loves Iphones.
We also had a look around the asian markets but most of the items weren't any cheaper than NZ, I did manage to get a couple of souvenirs though.
My sister Lish of course had to visit Meyer which is a large department store which sells $2000 dresses and $500 bottles of perfume, and those are the cheap items. I didn't get suckered into selling my soul to smell nice for a few hours but my sister did pick up some swimsuits for her daughter (50% off, of course).
We made it to our flight from Sydney to Tokyo with plenty of time to spare and departed around 10pm (+10 GMT)
24 July:
After making it safely to Tokyo's Narita airport we went through customs and within minutes had bought Narita - Haneda Limousine (Bus) tickets and were directed through some nearby doors to wait outside. Unfortunately the road the bus drove on had sound proof barriers all along the sides so I was really unable to see anything of Tokyo during the trip. On the bright side however I was able to use free wifi while on board.
Haneda is where all the Japanese go for domestic flights so my sister and I were the only gaijin around. For an airport it was pretty cool as it has around 6 floors of shops and a lot of cool memorabilia and historical products. One amusing thing I saw was a JFK doll in a rocking chair that announced 'authentic rocking action', unfortunately I didn't get a photo. I did get some photos of Starbucks and myself sitting in a very tiny chair/stool type thing.
The process of getting my boarding pass was smooth and simple and waiting at Haneda wasn't overly boring due to there being a TV with random advertisements and Jpop playing.
The actual flight from Haneda to Kochi was uneventful apart from the crew onboard repeating all announcements again in English. I'm pretty sure the sole reason they did this was due to my sister and I being onboard. Go the Japanese courtesy!
Arriving in Kochi was also smooth although getting off the plane was like stepping into a sauna. The amount of humidity is unbelievable and coupled with the heat makes Japanese summers somewhat difficult to cope with.
Anyway that's a summary of my travel to Japan, I will follow up with some of what I actually did in Japan and then my return travel after I get back home to good old NZ
