{"id":6907,"date":"2009-12-12T16:22:22","date_gmt":"2009-12-12T08:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/12\/12\/arrival-and-accommodation\/"},"modified":"2010-12-29T21:47:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-29T13:47:06","slug":"arrival-and-accommodation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/12\/12\/arrival-and-accommodation\/","title":{"rendered":"Arrival and Accommodation"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing to say between Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport, it\u2019s that the national carrier gets to depart from the airport\u2019s newest and swankiest flight terminal. Unfortunately, the boarding gate assigned to my flight was the one that was the furthest-most end of the terminal, i.e. gate A20. I knew something was suspect as soon as I was in T3 and saw an indoor monorail that was bringing passengers from one gate to the next within<\/em> the same terminal LOL.<\/p>\n

Hannah came along to send me off too, and we took the opportunity to take family pictures. This is only the second time we\u2019ve taken pictures with the three of us in it! You can\u2019t tell from the picture below, but Hannah was wailing just five minutes ago before the picture was taken.:)<\/p>\n

\"blog-family\"<\/p>\n

The flight itself was uneventful (SQ food was no good), but it was interesting on two counts: that the flight was packed with at my count nearly one hundred Japanese High School girls who I assume had just finished some kind of study trip here, and I got into conversation with a very friendly 45 year old Japanese passenger who sat beside me. This gentleman had just vacationed in Singapore, and is a Radio operator by trade. Awfully nice man \u2013 as he supplemented me with lots of advice about Japan and Kumamoto, and even delayed his own departure from the airport to his home for an hour to send me off on the express bus to Kumamoto City.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"blog-2009-kumamoto-DSC_4482-kkr-hotel\" The express bus journey was no joke though. It took about 2 hrs 15 minutes for the bus to traverse the 105 kilometres between Fukoaka Airport to Kumamoto Kotsu Center, after which I hopped onto a cab for a short journey that brought me to the hotel itself. And yes, as Ann\u2019s mentioned, cabs here are horrendously expensive: the short 5 minute journey cost 720\u5186, which is about SGD10. Ouch.<\/p>\n

Moreover, I arrived at the hotel at 1125 \u2013 and the hotel wasn\u2019t ready to check me in, and asked that I return at 3 pm. Ugh. So, I left the luggage with the concierge and took off for a few hours to explore the general vicinity (more on this in a latter post).<\/p>\n

By 1330 my legs were giving way already \u2013 mind you I was on a red-eye flight, didn\u2019t sleep on the plane, and was carrying a fullpack of 7 kg (MacBook, D300, lenses \u2013 I chucked in the 18-250mm after all \u2013 maps, Panasonic HD CAM and loads of other small items ) \u2013 so made my way back in the hope that the hotel would take pity on me and let me check-in early.<\/p>\n

Which they did, very nicely. I took the opportunity to check out the hotel quickly too. The hotel outside has a spectacular view of Kumamoto Castle (picture above)<\/em>, and the interiors were decorated for Christmas festivities. I was also the only person in the entire lobby wearing jeans. Everyone else was either in a suit, kimono, or in expensive wear. Apparently the hotel is hosting a wedding of some kind. Feel very tempted to try taking a few pictures of the married couple \u2013 but he\u2019s in some sort of military uniform, and I wouldn\u2019t want him to send his army buddies on me for taking pictures of his bride without permission!<\/p>\n

\"2009-kumamoto-DSC_4556-kkr-hotel\"<\/p>\n

Oh yeah \u2013 breakfasts and dinners are partially provided by the hotel, and it\u2019s Japanese cuisine everyday from tomorrow onwards.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing to say between Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport, it\u2019s that the national carrier gets to depart from the airport\u2019s newest and swankiest flight terminal. Unfortunately, the boarding gate assigned to my flight was the one that<\/p>\n

Read More Arrival and Accommodation<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[463,237],"class_list":["post-6907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-traveling","tag-japan-2010","tag-kumamoto-2009","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}