Due to complications with the visa that Sam was on, we had to fly back to the UK at the start of this month. We were, of course, really excited to see our loved ones. We definitely did not expect to be back in their arms as soon as a year. However, because of the ongoing war, and thus the inability to fly over Russian airspace, what usually is a simple thirteen-fourteen hour direct flight is either now an extremely expensive direct flight over the north poles, a trip which often results in seeing the Northern lights and thus making the price skyrocket even more, or it’s a flight with layovers. It is the peak time to be flying to and from Japan, because it is cherry blossom season, so even non-direct flights were extremely expensive. So we were left with no choice, a transfer in Malaysia is what we had to do.
For anyone whose geography is a bit rusty, I’ll explain a bit why this transfer was, at the very least, not ideal. Malaysia is a seven to eight-hour flight south of Japan. We spent eight hours on a plane, getting no closer to the UK. After that, we took over a fourteen hour flight, a trip which, if you compare, is even longer than what the direct flight from Tokyo to London usually is. Also, with layovers, of course you have to wait in the airport you land in for your next plane. On the journey back, this layover was supposed to be nine hours. In the end, we were lucky enough for it to be just under eight, but still, that amount of time is like a full business day that we spent, in an airport, jet-lagged and pining to be home.
We made the most of the time we had. We got a coffee and a matcha latte, and I wrote the start of my next book. [SIDENOTE: this book is something very different from my usual pieces, a children’s book for my amazing book-loving cousin, who was very excited about the fact I want to be a writer someday, but was very sad to hear she couldn’t read any of my books until she was older. It was so refreshing to write something new and exciting and I’m definitely inspired to work on this for a while, particularly whilst my work is very busy and intense.] When I was so tired I could work no longer, we ate some snacks we’d packed, explored the airport, and watched the planes take off and land, discussing all sorts to each other as if we were putting the world to rights (as my nan would say).
Of course, our trip wasn’t only to do with airports and visa stuff, we got to see friends and family too! We feel so appreciative for every person that took time out to see us while we were back. We love each and every one of you, and cannot begin to express how grateful we are to have so many people that care about us. It was hard, to fit time with over fifty of you in under two weeks, but we feel so blessed for every moment, so thank you for being patient, loving and caring. Thank you so much to our friends Alice and Helen, and Shaun and Lucy, who hosted us while we were in Yorkshire. Thank you so much to our other friends: Lauryn, Jack, Megan, Abby, Matt, Millie, Mike, Andy, Kai, Ellie, Amy, Rosie, Esther, James, Dan and Gavin, who arranged to see us, get caught up with us or grabbed wonderful food and drinks with us. Thank you so much to the lights of our life, our niblings and little cousin, (Mia, Shai, Jayden, Maeva, Sebby, Rosie, Jesse, Jenson and Emily,) keeping us on our toes and filling our days with love and happiness. And of course thank you to the rest of our family: Mum and John, Dad, Dad and Andrea, Nan, Nana, Nanna and Grandad, Ellen and Michael, Scott and Kerrie, Liv, Gina and Harrison, Joel and Casey, Mark, Uncle Jacey and Auntie Helen. We love you all so much and cannot wait to see you again soon! I’ll upload some of the pictures we got with you guys below, but of course for safety reasons, I’ll keep pictures with the kids to ourselves, just know it’s not through a lack of lock that they aren’t going to be showcased on this blog.
Other than the little summary of why we came back, and gratefulness to those we saw, there’s not much more I wanted to say on this blog. We spent some time with family the first few days, went back to Leeds of a week to see friends, returned to see family again, and then had a brief stay back in Leeds before heading back down to London and flying home. We got to eat lots and lots of incredible food, managed to visit all our favourite places and try lost of new soy-free vegan options (which I will miss ever so much now we’re back in Japan). We were (and still are) very jet lagged, both on returning to the UK and upon returning home. We think this is largely because of the layovers and long time travelling. In the end, we spent over two days each way, either in the air, travelling to and from airports, or during a layover. In fact, on the way back, we started travelling at 6am on the Wednesday and didn’t stop until we got home at 2am on Saturday morning! With Sam being back at work on the Monday, and me on the Tuesday, we feel so hungover from the lack of sleep and our body clocks not doing what we want them too. We remain hopeful though, and positive, determined to make the most of our first full cherry-blossom season in Tokyo. I’m not going to say it isn’t tough though, because WOW I just want to sleep for a week and recharge, but there’s no time! Life waits for no-one, and don’t we all know it!
As always, thanks to everyone that takes the time to read my blog. I hope you are loving the new look and layout. Please don’t forget to follow my facebook page (Alice’s adventures in our wonderland) or twitter (@tyiraREADS), if you want to see these posts when they go live (the social media algorithms often don’t show my personal statuses anymore to most people, as it hates that the link takes you off of facebook and it doesn’t want to share such media around, so this is the only way you’ll be sure to see them). The facebook page also has a feature to turn on notifications if you wanna be notified when I post; this is of course, optional and up to your own discretion. There’s also links on my blog homepage to those socials as well as my Instagram (@alicesadventuresiowl), Youtube (@kupajapan) and TikTok (@kupajapan). If you want any video updates of places we’re visiting, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok are the places for that, and twitter and facebook more for blog updates and notifications. With that all said and done I hope you enjoy the pictures, and do look out for my next blog post which should be coming in the next few days. It’ll be a super exciting one, showing all the pictures we’ve taken from the start of cherry blossom season.
Take care and speak soon everyone!
-Alice
