After waking up late (I'm turning into such a princess), I got some pants on before the others got up/came in. We were getting hungry for breakfast, but Conrad in his single room was either lightly dozing or had just woken up when I phoned his room. He said he'd meet us downstairs, so we went down and sat in the lounge area outside the dining hall. This place has a chapel next to it (probably owned by the hotel), and there were gardens and a gazebo you could take your wedding photos in. There was a little fountain thingy as well, with half the water frozen and the other half flowing.. It looked cool so I took a picture while we were waiting. We soon got tired of waiting (a hungry clan member is never a happy clan member), so we started breakfast without him. Again it was a buffet affair. There were croissants, danishes, buns, waffles, pancakes, toast, bacon, scrambled egg, omelets made to order, as well as more traditional Japanese food. They had juices and cake and other stuff as well, but I wanted to try it all. Plus with trying to spend as little as possible, I figured a good breakfast would keep me full all day (which it did).
After breakfast, there was no packing to do, however I did need a shower, but with all the luggage packed up, I need underwear, so after going for a walk with Mum, I bought a fresh pair from 7-11, as well as socks, as the ones I had been wearing the day before, could knock a titan out at 10 paces with their smell. We got back but it was still only 11 o'clock, so Dean and I watched a couple of football matches that we'd been waiting to see. That pretty much sums up our day til we checked out at 4pm.
After checking out and waiting a couple of minutes, we were soon loaded on the bus to Narita. It's only a couple of kilometres, so we were there in no time. Problem was, our flight didn't leave til 9.20pm, so there was at least a couple of hours wait til the check-in opened. What else was a guy supposed to do but sleep? So I did, while the others went for a walk upstairs to the shops. Conrad was busy playing around with his ipad, but I curled up and slept for probably an hour. By this time it was getting close to check in time. Fortunately they opened the check-in counter early, but we could see there was going to be more frustrated Jetstar passengers. The Gold Coast flight had been cancelled this time, so there were some worried faces, until they were informed they were getting put up like we did for the night.
One thing I have to give the Narita staff (who must hate working for such a piddly airline) is they are efficient. The flight would have to have been booked out, but it only took them about 30mins to process all the passengers. With many people having skis/boards, this was actually a good effort. It was still about 3 hours til boarding, so we went upstairs and had some dinner. Nothing too flash, just a katsudon for me (although I was still full from breakfast!) and a shochu to help me sleep later on.
Unlike last time, we gave ourselves plenty of time to get through customs (a rather painless process in Japan), so we had left ourselves nearly an hour and a half to look around. We checked the liquor vendors, as well as other bits and pieces. I have to mention Liquors Hasegawa once more though. It's cheaper than even their own duty-free shops. A bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin (shouldn't it be PC'd to Mumbai Sapphire? :P) set Mum back 1580Y at LH (Even Donki had it for 1680Y). At the Narita Duty-free, it was 2000Y for the same bottle. At Cairns DF, it was $34! Double the price!!! Anyhow, after pottering around, Dean and I decided to head for a nightcap which we finished at 8.35. This gave us a good 15mins to get the shuttle to the outer wing, where our gate was.
So there we are at the gate, when we hear an announcement... The flights been delayed. Then at 8.50 another announcement saying the flight is delayed a little more. With all the delays and such, it ends up being 9.20 before we even get on the plane! Then after boarding we wait.... And wait... and wait... What's taking so long? Apparently there was a mix up with the baggage. In the end, the flight didn't leave until nearly 11pm! Add to that, Dean, Me, Whitney and Mum must have been sat in the row that got missed for cleaning, as there was drink residue, left over bits of rice and chips and fingerprints from some frolicking dirt child that had been on the flight over. Poor showing Jetstar.... They had to make it up to a lot of people, so free "Comfort packs" were given. At least the eye-masks made it easier to sleep with the guy in front of us seemingly reading all night. It wasn't great sleep, but if I hadn't been woken up for a craptastic free meal (they were really trying to get back some brownie points) I think I would have slept right up until we landed in Cairns, but that's a story for another day.
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