Hiroshima Day 0 ~ Flight to Japan

Quite spontaniously my friend Kiki and I are travelling to Japan - again. This time the main motivation was to visit two concerts of our favourite band 'Golden Bomber' (ゴールデン ボンバー) in Hiroshima. But because it is our second trip this year, we have so save a bit money concerning flight and hotel. So Kiki and I booked a flight with Emirates which had the concequence that we have to make stopover in Dubai. This is quite a diversion but direct flights were at least 300 Euros more expensive. So our trip started on Thursday. We stood up at 9 am and had a relaxed day till we left around noon to the airport of Duesseldorf. We had lunch at a Pizzeria at the airport and even the security control went smoothly. We were both so shocked that non of us bieped when passing the gate. The control man was funny and said: 'The whole journey is loused up, it hasn't bieped." *lol*

Finally our first flight went at 15:25 h via Dubai.

boadring to our aircraft

Emirates is a real good airline I must say! The service is great as well as the entertainement program on bord. The meal was great (lamb roulades with rosmarin potatoes and green beans and a super delicious caramel pudding) and I took the opportunity to watch the movie 'The Monumets Men' which I missed in cinemas.

After a few ours they feigned night in the plane. It was some kind of beautiful because we could see 'stars' at the ceiling^.^

glittering stars in the aircraft

Atfer six hours flight we arrived in Dubai. It was midnight there but outside were still over 30 degrees. The airport is so huge and modern, I was really impressed. We had to take a train to get to our connceting flight. We were even welcomed by a kind of hologram (even Kiki said it was a bit Star Wars like XD)

train station

me & the hologram XD

The airport arcades were really cool. There are many shops and restaurants and even at this time it was still very busy and crowded. We had three hours stay at Dubai so what to do with the time? We strolled around and finally I decided to change some money into the local currency to buy us a coffee at a Starbucks near our Gate.

In our area they even build a kind of oasis, that was really nice^^

view over the gate hall at the airport

Time passed by quite fast and we arrived at our gate when already the Final Call was anounced^^;
But we had even to wait for the next bus to get us to the aircraft, so we missed nothing. Though the bus travel was a bit... eerie. It drove and drove and... drove. Kiki and I were wondering if we were going to Japan by bus now. We really took a tour around the whole airport O.o

But everything went perfect and the second flight could start. By the time Kiki and I got so tired... so we tried to sleep after starting but that was no good idea for me. I got such a headache... I just can't sleep in sitting position >.< That was so bad, so I had to keep me awake for the next 8 hours when I don't want to vomit...

So I had such a hard time. I couldn't even enjoy the food. I kept me awake with watching the 7th season of one of my favourite TV series 'The Big Bang Theory'.

Kiki tried to sleep but could just doze a bit. We were so happy when we finally arrived at Kansai Airport (unfortunately even half an hour later than planned). We were both so tired and exhausted U.U

But the costums check went smoothly and we successfully got our Japan Rail Passes at the JR Airport Station. So unfortunately we haven't arrived at our final destination yet *sigh*

We had to take the shinkansen to Hiroshima. From Kansai Airport we had to take the Haruka express to Shin-Osaka Station and then change to the Hikari Shinkansen via Hakata till Hiroshima. It took us another 3 hours to Hirohima Station.

From Hiroshima Station we took the cute local street car. They look really oldfashioned but are really comfortable and cheap. The driver was really nice and told us how to pay in the car and when we had to get off^.^

My  personal highlight of this journey was that I found our hotel without diversion for the first time^o^ *yatta*

We arrived at the Mitsui Garden Hotel at 11 pm... finally!

We just stopped by the neighbouring Family Mart and were sooo happy to have a bed for sleeping now...