1st Week in japan

Well, we survived our first week in Japan!

It was a challenge at the airport with so much luggage. We knew we had way too much, and weren't sure how we were going to get on with it , knowing we were only allowed 20kg each checked, and 7 kg hand luggage. We had 25 kg each in our checked luggage, and we knew we were way over the 7kg limit in our hand luggage, but assumed we'd never had to have our hand luggage weighed before, so shouldn't be a problem. You know what they say about never assuming anything! 'Assume something makes an ass of u and me! The check in man didn't like us having 25 kgs each and demanded either excess baggage payment (10 kgs @35 per kg), or if we could reduce our total from 50kgs to 46 he would let us off. What do we do with the 4kgs we asked? Put it in your hand luggage of course. OK, still assuming our hand luggage wont get weighed, we stuff in another 4kgs into already crammed bags.

So we checked in 46 kgs between us with no overweight charges. Phew! Then its up to the immigration and security checks ... but just as we were ready to go through ... guess what. You guessed it ... now they weigh hand luggage! Just our luck. Our two hand luggage bags weighed 24 kilos - and we were only supposed to have 14 between us! Oops. We tried to talk our way out of the problem - you know the way it goes ... but to no avail. So we get sent back down to check in, to check in one of our carryon bags. Gulp. That means we'll be way way over in our checked in luggage. Imagine the excess payment costs now!

Back down at check in, the man asked us what we wanted to do. Check in one of our carry-on bags please. But you're already checked in 46 kilos, and now you want to check in another bag with 14 kilos in it? Yes, we said. And then we tried to explain that we were emigrating and thought that we were "allowed" to take extra. It was a good line (we thought), but didn't hold much water with the check in man. "Taking extra is not fair on others who stick to the rules" he told us. We nodded wisely, and looked a little sombre, standing there as if we didn't know what to do next. I fumbled around looking for a key to lock the bag. Next thing, he hands us the baggage ticket and we expect him to ask us for the 14kg x $35 per kg. But he says have a good flight, and we walk off, half expecting him to call us back!

So we end up checking 60kilos of luggage, when the limit is 40! Wow!

The rest of the flight was uneventful in comparison. The seats we had turned out to be the exit door seats, so we had extra leg room, which was great for me, considering I was still feeling a little uncomfortable after my appendix op only 10 days before.

11 and a half hours later, we're landing at Kansai Airport and we're in Japan! Konnichiwa!