It’s been a very long couple of days indeed!
The removal men greeted us bright and early last week on Wednesday morning, approximately 15 minutes before we finished our packing. Damn the Japanese and their impeccable punctuality. Fortunately, over the previous week of packing we had fine tuned our ability to shove a lot of stuff into a box fast, and no sooner had we closed the last box, the removal men were taking out the first load of stuff. An hour and a half later, and we were sat in the shell of what was once our home. It was around this point in time that the whole move started to sink in, Michiko and I were both unusually quiet, taking it all in.
After the landlord had given the place the once over, and returned a good chunk of our deposit (which I was very happy about), Michiko and I headed over to a hotel to rest up for the night, and have one final soup curry pig-out-tastic-feast.
Okushikasyouten....we’ll miss you dearly.
The next morning, Michiko and I parted company as she headed to the airport to catch her flight. Yes, no crappy long ferry journey for her. I spent the day in Sapporo, treating myself to a trip to the cinema to see the new Sherlock Holmes film. Pretty good too! Then I checked into an Internet café and documentary watched my afternoon away.
Then sooner than I had really wished for, 8:30pm rolled around, and it was time for a big deep breath, turn of the car ignition and my adventure to Hyogo began.
It took a smooth 45 minutes to get from Sapporo over to Otaru, where I was able to successfully pay my reservation for the ferry south. 10:45pm soon came, and before I knew it I was driving up the ramp onto the ferry which would be my home for the next 21 hours.....yes....21 hours....that's a whopping 1,260 minutes (I think) !!
I soon found a place on the floor to call a bed space, then headed up to the higher decks to find a quiet spot with a cold beer and a place to plug in my laptop...drinks and movie time!
Not too much to really blog about the journey, it was long, I watched lots of films, the sea was quite rough, I didn’t get much sleep, I didn’t puke, it was nice and quiet onboard...that’s about it.
9:15pm saw solid land back under my feet. A rub of the eyes, and strong energy drink, and another deep breath before the 2 hour drive to Kobe.
27 hours after that first deep breath was taken in Sapporo, and I was sat in the hotel room in Kobe. Tired, wired off energy drinks, still swaying from the ferry momentum, and in need of kicking off my shoes n socks, and crashing out.
What a journey! I still need a months worth of sleep...before I sign off on this blog post, I want to just take a moment to thank my wonderful wife. She has been so patient and hard working to get this move done. All the phone calls, mountains of paperwork, putting up with her occasionally grumpy husband, and just the mass amounts of love she continues to give. My rock.
Sun has now set. Bedtime. Good night.
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