day 8: Seoul to Heathrow

We were on the 0740 shuttle bus from the hotel and in the Asiana Lounge for breakfast by 0830. It's almost deserted here.

This is the only airport I know where you can watch the planes from the comfort of a massage chair!

Off to the gate to board the B777.

On board we had a Chinese ATC delay of 10 minutes and then we're off. Starters number 2:

We didn't sleep much, partly because it's a daytime flight westbound and partly due to a child with Attention Defecit Disorder close by. The child wasn't as much a problem as the trendy parents idea of how to get him to sleep by making even more row. Suffice to say that the oriental kids in Business were good as gold.

Anyhow, the Asiana ladies pandered to our whims and we arrived in reasonable shape for a 11hr 40min flight.

cheers!

P.S. Arrival at Heathrow isn't a great advert for the UK. For a start, all the 'Priority' tagged business class bags came off the plane last, about 40min after we arrived, plus the prepaid car park system still doesn't work which means one has to go visit the office to get out. Hey ho...

day 7: Kumamoto to Seoul

Back to Kumamoto airport to drop off the car, which seemed to be the only way we could stop the satnav from jabbering away in Japanese at us and fly to Seoul. Most of the Japanese passengers have face masks on thanks to the swine flu publicity and we saw our first Westerner since leaving Seoul a week ago. And he was wearing a mask too, perhaps in an effort to blend in. Or maybe he understood Japanese and was responding to a directive. In 'normal' i.e. 'oh my god we're all going to die of a strange disease' times many of the Japanese wear face masks; I know I don't have a biology degree, but can't viruses get through face masks?

Goodbye to Kumamoto.

We were in 'Travel' class on the 90min flight up to Seoul but were well looked after so I'd imagine that Asiana Economy class would be pretty good long haul too. It was wet on arrival and Korean immigration included a thermal imaging camera which we assume to be aimed at detection of anyone with a high temperature - for swine flu detection - I was just hoping that my sunburnt nose didn't set it off. No queues though and we were on the shuttle bus to the Best Western within minutes.

Unfortunately, check in at the hotel wasn't so speedy. In fact, it didn't happen at all as I appear to have made a reservation for a month ago and because of the holidays all the airport hotels were full. As we waited for the shuttle back to the airport a nice Korean guy got on his mobile phone and found us a hotel that had a twin for USD80. It was difficult to know whether he was taking us to his brother's flat but in the end all was well; as seems to be the case in these parts people are actually trying to help you, not themselves, and we spent the night in the Hub Herb Hotel which was in a housing estate close to the airport. I'm sure something must have been 'lost in translation' (must watch that film again) as Hub Herb doesn't mean anything to me!

We went out in search of some local delicacies and found a bar around the corner. This proved most acceptable and we pointed at some dishes from the menu to go with our 'Hite' beers. Mine turned out to be sausage, chicken and something else which was quite tasty. Nick had a selection of various sausages with some pizza topping on top; each sausage had a different flavour, which inevitably leads to the question of which is the Dachshund, which is the Labrador etc.

This photo taken before Nick had too long to think and went monochrome. There wasn't much else to do near the hotel so that was that.

day 6: Kumamoto to Nagasaki

A Phantom to start.....

The Japanese seem to have everything sorted including how to make the Expressway stay Express even when it's a bit like the Friday before Bank Holiday for us. They make the toll for the Expressway a deterrent so that only rich tourist - and probably the average local - can afford it. The toll from Kumamoto to Nagasaki is approx £30 each way, distance same as Bournemouth to London. From what we could understand from Happy Radio in garbled English the A roads are rather busy.

Another thing the Japanese do really well is car parks. You take a ticket on the way in, pay on return to the car but don't have to put the ticket in the exit machine as technology recognises you as having paid and you drive straight out. Saves a couple of seconds, but clever. Compared to what happens when we get back to Heathrow in a couple of days where I am probably expected to produce a credit card that was used to book and pay for the car park 8 months ago which I doubtless don't have any more or on me so I'll end up in the office.

And another thing is mealtime. You can go in any restaurant, choose your food from the photobook menu. Then when ready to order, press a dingdong device (I was tempted to nick one for work for use with the PA but the Japanese don't steal anything so this would be really poor) and the staff appear instantly.

And there's free internet everywhere. My mobile may not work, but that's my provider's fault. Roll on nuclear fusion and free energy for all too. Fusion....leads me to fission....

...as we rolled into Nagasaki town looking for the Peace Park, Atomic Bomb Museum and the Memorial we noticed that an usually large number of locals were using parasols. We were expecting facemasks given the swine flu media coverage. Anyhow, we noted that perhaps the locals had more experience of the effects of radiation than others.

The museum was just great. Describing it is difficult as I can't do it justice but they do do museums rather well too and it makes the point.

Having done the museum and stood in the remains of the church 500m above which the bomb exploded we went to the Peace Park.

I'll think about what to say later.....

...and another thing they do well is drinks machines. They're everywhere - farmers fields etc - and dispense all sorts including hot coffee. Naturally this wouldn't work too well in the UK as someone would just steal the whole machine. Here's me with a can of lemon tea.