Wednesday, 7th September, 2011. By now I was nearly dead on my feet, so after a good nights sleep and a leisurely breakfast, I had an hour or so to explore the Ginza shopping area near the hotel. I had this idea of "Ginza bargain" in my head. Well, the street was full of the likes of Louis Vitton and Alfred Dunhill. It was great to visit the Apple store in Tokyo too. The product range continues to impress!
Eat your heart out Kirsty. This is the Apple Store in Ginza. Four floors of Apple. Yummy!
Good to see the King protea still rules
Self portrait
Then it was a bus ride out to the airport in good time. I had to fly JAL to Beijing as it was part of what Air New Zealand gave me when I booked. Concerned about my bike I had phoned Air New Zealand prior to my booking and was told JAL would charge me about $60 extra for the bike and a my premium card was not valid with that airline. I accepted this. However on trying to check my bike in the wanted to charge me $240. Naturally I was not happy, and trying to negotiate my way out of it didn't work. I was disappointed as I had worked really hard to ensure all the bits and pieces fitted together into an economical trip price. When I went to pay however, at a separate counter they said the charge had been changed to $160, and so I didn't feel so bad as it was only $100 more than I expected.
I had a shower, some fried potato wedges and a beer and felt better immediately. Once boarded, we sat on the tarmac for more than an hour before we finally got underway.
Beijing awaits me, and I am a little apprehensive. No tour guide to take me through crowded subways, or pick up the cash falling from my pockets, but hey, let's see how it goes.
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