Fukuoka Visa Run: Day 1

So, today is the day!

I'm off to Japan!

12 or so years of dreaming that one day I could go to Japan, plus nearly a month of setbacks, stress, and paperwork, equals me somehow ending up in Fukuoka (Kyushu).

My first question: How do you pack a year's worth of life into one suitcase, one carry-on, and keep it all within the weight limit? Apparently this question was so difficult that I spent ALL night worrying over it, adding and removing things from my new suitcase which, while originally praised with "I can fit everything in here!" now became "Dear God this weighs a ton, what do I do?!"

Sleepless and freaking out, my parents were met with borderline shrieks and hair-tearing (sorry parents), before I was finally on my way. Hugs and kisses before we rip that plaster off for a whole year, eh.

At Nick's, another panicked re-pack along with a multitude of other errands, my only respite being the knowledge that my Notice of Appointment and Visa Code had in fact arrived. Yay~

Off to Heathrow! Time for a photo break, and a jump because long and image-heavy.

Nick looking pensive.

Goodbye England!

Overall, the journey was great. A smooth flight, with good, sunny skies. Unfortunately, this meant that the fleece blanket that I strived to fit into my hand luggage (after my freezing flight to Sydney in 2010) was totally unnecessary. That, and they gave us blankets anyway. I was actually uncomfortably hot. Nobody else seemed to have this problem, and I think I scared the attendants a bit with my eagerness to accept their occasional drink offers.

K-pop on the plane. Cannot contain my feels.

Asiana Airlines provided us with a choice of a Western or Eastern dinner. Of course we chose the bibimbap.

C/W L-R: Fruit, omelette, kimchi, Sprite, soup, bibimbap, rice.

My first impression was just "wow, look how much food there is!", quickly followed by "oh, they've given us real crockery!". Nice prioritisation there, haha. Is plane food being bad a general travel trope? If so, I feel like Asiana could be the exception. This was SO GOOD. Great textures and flavours all around. I've also changed my opinion on kimchi. In honesty, I've only ever had it in British, pseudo-Korean restaurants, but still, from that my expectations were low. Now I can see the hype quite a bit.

Several hours later we had a second dinner (breakfast? Or was the last one lunch? Damn you, long-haul flights!)

C/W L-R: Bean salad, mini loaf of bread, rice with some kind of chicken sauce and bok choi, fruit..
Yay for terrible quality, half-awake phone photos.

Again, super great.

Our flight had one stopover which was, grab a hold of this irony, an hour in Incheon. Byeee, see you in a week! A bit painful, knowing that if we hadn't had all those problems with my paperwork this would be it. Our new home for the next year.

Alas, onwards to our connecting flight to Fukuoka.

As it was only one hour, I made the intelligent decision to try and watch Frozen. But with the Korean soundtrack? With Chinese subtitles. The Korean voice actors are so good though!

Anyway, it was time for one more meal, and Asiana once more delivered with another great little snack. Not that I needed it.

Ham sandwich and a sort of Waldorf salad.

That's enough for this post now. I'll continue with this in another post starting from touchdown in Fukuoka. Hope you enjoyed and it wasn't too boring!

Visa Run Posts:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• Day 6
• Day 7