Day 16 and 17: Okinawa coma and leaving for the final leg of the trip back to Osaka

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Hello world,

This blog is going to be brief, super brief in comparison to our other entries.

Yesterday, Day 16 was spent almost entirely in bed by myself, i don't even think i drew the curtains to look at the lovely view even once... it seemed that my upset tummy, bad sleep and pushing myself had all finally caught up with me. The weather wasn't particularly fabulous or else i would have forced myself to go on lay on the beach outside. So we basically stayed within the apartment the entire day and watched TV shows such as Gotham and Spartacus, we ate noodles and just relaxed... Brad had a few beers in the afternoon on the deck but basically we just chill'd, like most people actually do on a holiday.

Today was a bit rocky as well, we had eaten breakfast which unfortunately would not stay down for me, and we began to pack up our things to check out of the apartment, Brad checked the information which stated that check out was at 11:00am so at 9:30am we got our butts into gear and started packing. We were both snappy at one another and i can only imagined that these may have been some of the reasons why. Firstly, because both of us hadn't had a good night sleep in the 5 days we had been there, Secondly, i had been throwing up and wasn't feeling well so that didn't help and lastly, each time that we had done the pack up to move to the next location it got a little less exciting, especially this time because we knew that the holiday was almost over. The cleaner arrived early at 10am which also contributed to the rushed feeling that we were having but we departed on time with heavy bags we set off for Naha airport on the public bus, we arrived around lunch time so we went to one of the airport cafes and had a bite to eat (i was glad to have held it down) and then we sat and waited, we relocated several times within the airport but we finally settled down and i was pleased getting to read a rather large chunk of my book, relatively undisturbed. We went through the usual protocols and boarded the plan without fuss. While we could have tried to go see some more sights of Okinawa, we really didn't feel up to it and could not afford to miss our flights, so we decided it was best for both of us to just wait the couple of hours at the airport and not only continue having some down time but also alone time. While travelling with the love of your life is amazing and wonderful... it is also very intense, so some breathing space from one another was needed and we both seem to have gotten some on the long bus journey to Naha and the wait within the airport.

Landing in Osaka, fine. Getting train from Kansai Airport to Shin-Osaka, okay. Getting cab from Shin-Osaka to Airbnb apartment... Bad, very, very bad. Now the cab driver should win a medal for outstanding service... he found the street but with no clear house/apartment/sign/signal/ or bloody anything... we had no idea which apartment it was. Brad, the taxi driver a neighbour guy that the taxi man asked for help, and me wandered around in the rain for probably over an hour in the right street but with not way on knowing which apartment was the correct one.... they address we had been given was 3-7-29, so 7-29 was the street... but 3, we couldn't find for the life of us. The amazingly kind taxi driver was determined to make sure we got to our destination safely and was laughing and joking with me trying to make me feel better, we hadn't eaten since lunch time and it was now past 9pm, i was kind of glad i had nothing in my stomach or else i was sure i would have been sick right in the street. I was about to give up when i thought, well looking for a fucking house number isn't working and we tried call the host but he wasn't answering, so what else do we have to go off... I'll just walk up and down this fucking street in the rain until i figure this out, this is bullshit. So i referred back to the VERY limited information we had been provided with on airbnb and i saw that it said "the key box is next to the mailbox" so i thought, right... i am just going to try every single key box i find next to a mail box and if someone pops out of their house confused thinking i was trying to break and enter... i will apologise profusely and try and explain (with no Japanese) that we are lost and it was a mistake. Before possibly upsetting the entire neighbour i walked up and down the small side alley street (which i was amazed that the taxi driver even fit his cab down) and made a mental note of any possibly letterboxes it could be. I was happy to see that there was only really one. So i entered the code we had been given, i thought that it was the wrong apartment and it didn't spring or click or anything... but Brad worked on it, and it opened and we had a set of keys! yay! now were did they fit? we tried what appeared to be a front door, but no... so we tried the garage roller door behind the letter box... I though this was a shop front and we had all completely overlooked it. it worked... we opened the garage and then in pitch black Brad and I both walked in, I asked Brad now being out of the rain to go find the Taxi driver and the neighbour who had come to help and let them know the good news... we think we had found the right place. By the time we got in said our deep Thank you's, shook hands and laughed a little with the lovely two men we finally got into the apartment and everyone went their separate ways into the cold rainy night. The apartment is lovely and newly renovated, i'd say that only a few Airbnb customers have said here, it has a traditional tatami mat lounge room that doubles as the bedroom. Brad quickly raced back down to the local 24 hr convenance store and bought our very late dinner of instant noodles, beer and deep friend chicken (i couldn't bring myself to eat it... it looked gross) With hot noodles, tea and having both had hot showers... we crawled into bed at midnight. It had been a massive and challenging travel day, and while we are becoming sad to know that the holiday is almost over, i felt extremely homesick when standing around in the rain, in a dark alley, lost, with no way of contacting anyone (having not turned on our international roaming or data to save money) not even the host for help. Airbnb has been an interesting experiment, some times it has been easy as a piece of cake, other times like last night was painful and hard. But, we will write more about that on our final entry for this blog. Thankgodness the Japanese are such lovely people... that Taxi man was truly an angel last night.

Sayonara for now, from soggy, sad and homesick Osaka... we are off to Tokyo today for our last two nights before flying home... i can't wait to squeeze our little pug Ruby and sleep in our own bed! ahhhh home. xoxo Bradaline

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