July 29th~July 30th 2008
We had been awake all night, putting a last finishing touch to our costumes. We were both getting extremely tired, and it was hard to concentrate on packing our things.
But somehow we both managed to pack our bags, and our costumes. All in all we had 3 large suitcases
We took off from home at 7.30, and arrived at Kastrup Lufthavn just before 8.00.
Adrian hadn’t arrived yet, so we just sat aroud for a while waiting for him to show up, which eventually he did 10 minutes later. The lines for the check-in counters weren’t so bad at all, we only had to wait in a line for like 25 minutes. They checked us in, and sent our luggage on it’s way to the plane. Both of us were a bit reluctant to let our dear costumes out of sight, to loose them would be a catastrophy.
Then we had some time left until the flight was boarding, so Risa and I just hang out with Tatiana and David for a while, to say goodbye to them. It’s always hard to say goodbye, but luckily the both of them will meet us in Nagoya on August 1st. So it’s not so bad, we only have to be without them for a couple of days.
When we had boarded the plane and found our seats (all the way in the back) we could finally relax a little. The flight took off without problems or delay, and soon I started to nod off into sleep. I hadn’t been sleeping for almost 24 hours, and I was really totally wasted.
We had to transfer planes in Frankfurt, and so an hour and a half later, we landed in Frankfurt, and started out on a quest to find our next gate. It wasn’t quite simple since the information on the tickets didn’t really match the ones on the screens. Luckily we had more than enough time to search for the gate, and get something to eat too, because there was 4 hours until our plane to Nagoya took off.
We arrived at the gate just as the boarding had started, but as we walked down the corridor into the flight, they suddenly asked everyone to turn back, because they had a technical error, and the airconditioning system had malfunctioned. And thus it came to pass that we had to wait 2 more hours, before they finally got us on another flight.
It was cold, aboard the plane, Risa had to have 2 blankets and she was still freezing, though she easily fell asleep. And slept almost the whole trip. I on the other hand, was nodding away for a bit, and then waking up again. I had such a hard time relaxing, because my seat was broken, so it couldn’t lean back.
My back still hurts like hell..
They showed a movie called 10.000 BC, that was…a really weird movie indeed.
And after that I fell asleep for a while, and then woke up again.
And watched another movie, called something about gold or golden…about treasure hunters. When it ended I finally fell asleep of exhaution. And I woke up just as we had begun descending towards the airport.
It was really great to fly in a big plane, I never tried it before, I only ever had to fly in very small propellar planes. The ones that fly to Norway or Finland.
Coming out of the plane and into the hall, was like walking into a wall of heat. It was about 30 degrees celcius in Nagoya and the sun was shining.
While on the plane, we had to fill in some registration cards. Otherwise they wouldn’t let us in the country.
Luckily they didn’t think we looked fishy, so they just let us in.
As we went to claim our luggage, we got our first scare…
Two of our suitcases came out right next to eachother, and we took them immediately..but there was absolutely NO sign of our 3rd and most important suitcase…the one with our costumes in it!!!
for 15 minutes we stood there watching the luggage coming out…but nothing happend, and in the meantime Germany had found out that their luggage had not been on the plane with them, so it would PROBABLY come tomorrow. They were so devastated. And I was starting to loose hope!
BUT all of a sudden, our suitcase came out, and we hurried up after it. It was so great to know that it was there!
So we started towards the registration counter, where they first measured our temperature with some sort of scanner, and then we came to the next counter where we handed in the slip we had filled in aboard the plane. We came through easily. Though they took a picture and scanned our index fingers’ fingerprints. It was so strange. But finally we were inside the country for sure.
As we came out, some staff from TV-Aichi was waiting for us, with a camera, and started greeting us and filming us. Both of us really needed a shower and we looked like shit. xD But it was ok.
It had been such a long trip, almost 14 hours.
They took us outside, which turned out to be even warmed than inside the terminal. It was unbearable.
And they stoved us onto a mini van and drove off into town, where we arrived at the hotel. it was almost midday. We checked into the hotel, and got our room keys. Room 714 for me, and room 710 for Risa. They are nice and comfortable rooms, but a tad small. The toilet is really strange, it has a heated seat and a lot of buttons xD. You really gotte be carefull what you press, or water will splash into your rear end. >_<
Anyways, besides from the weird toilet, it was great to finally be able to take a bath. We had some free time until 16.30 where we would be leaving the hotel to go to a meeting with the stage managers.
This is when we found out, that our BRILLIANT act…couldn’t be used….
It was too long! They would only let the participants have 3 minutes. All this time, we had been told it was 5 minutes, but suddenly it was 3. So we had to change the whole thing.
And on our way back from the meeting, we went to a mall called Sunshine. And there we rode on a ferris wheel, it was huge! and it was really nice to just sit there and think, while looking at the view from above. We spotted two karaoke places..and we sooo wanted to go. But tomorrow there will be a big party with Karaoke too!
Then we went back to the hotel, and started working on our act. But we started to get hungry so we went outside to find somewhere to eat. But, instead we came across a Yukata/Kimono shop at Sakae Station shopping mall, where they had a 30% off sale on their Yukatas. Risa found a cute pink one, and I found one with a sakura pattern, and it had some black and some white background squares, under the sakura pattern. We also had to find an obi (belt) and a pair of Zouri (kimono shoes) for our Yukata, and we ended up with a hairpiece as well. I think we might have spent too much on this, but…It was really worth it, because it looks so great, and as we walked out of the shop, wearing the yukata outside our clothes (to the amusent of the shop ladies, who thought we were really strange to wear a Yukata like that, especially in this heat). As we walked down the streets to find a place to eat, a lot of japanese guys started to stare at us. Some even started talking to us, telling us that we were good looking and stuff.
Great fun!
We ended up eating some different types of japanese food, at a place called an “Isakaya”. Where they served a lot of different meals, all with fish in some way. Some of it was really great.
We then went back to the hotel, and started rewriting our script for the act. and editing our background music. It’s finally done..but, now it’s 6.30 in the morning and I am really getting tired!!
A video blog about today is going to come up soon!
Jya! Mata ne!
