What is the cheapest way to get to...Part one - Japan

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3500 RMB for a return ticket to Taiwan??? and that's the cheapest option??? 3000 RMB to any place in Japan?! more than 2000 to Hong Kong?

06-01-2009
算了 I'm not going! But the weather in Shanghai is awful and the holiday is too long. I need to find a cheap way to get to Japan!

Why Japan? Because I've never been there and any place is better than Shanghai.
OK so there it is - a boat, from Shanghai to Osaka, it leaves every Friday around noon, and gets to Osaka on Sunday! The cheapest return ticket is 2200 RMB. I'm going!

I arrive way too early, slowly the somehow shady looking waiting hall is getting full. I guess most of the people are Chinese, the families with two or more kids must be Japanese. Chinese carry probably everything they had in the house but the dogs and cats. Japanese don't carry anything - it's being carried for them.

00 hours 00 minutes
I get the best part of the tatami floor - just next to the window. I share the cabin with nine other ladies, they try to talk to me but after a while get bored of my pathetic Chinese so I take a walk - there is a common room with a big plasma TV, instant noodles vending machine, Mah-jongg room and bathroom with showers on the first floor. I go upstairs - even better, restaurant, reading room with comfortable chairs, KTV and a bar!

We set out.

02 hours 30 minutes
I get a feeling that we will never leave this dirty, stinky river! The area looks more and more like from a horror movie - abandoned buildings, broken trees, piles of rubbish...

03 hours -- minutes
I go back to read, eat, sleep... finally the open waters - There is no signal! Hallelujah! now I can relax. The yellow Sea is really yellow.

11 hours 30 minutes
Thats amazing it's been 11 hours and there are still rubbish floating on the surface - I guess they going on holiday too.
Why am I outside??? The sea is a bit rocky and almost everybody is sick. Strange I'm not.

19 hours -- minutes
I wake up suddenly - 7am and they’re broad casting ‘soft music’ and an info about the brekfast in three languages!!! I wish they didn’t…

25 hours -- minutes
The sea is getting more blue and clean, we are getting closer to Japan.

32 hours – minutes
The sunset is amazing…

48 hours – minutes
We arrive in Osaka.

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