JAL & Meeting with Linda (cousin)

Date: Tuesday, July 14
Party:
Travel: Subway; Flight: Haneda to Oita: Bus
Lodging: Linda's Home
After waking up in the morning and enjoying some of the hotel amenities, I walked around the nearby Hamarikyu gardens. I then went on a small self architecture tour. Early in the afternoon, I made my way to Haneda, which is the domestic airport for Tokyo. The flight itself seemed a bit empty, and all the instructions were issued in Japanese. Its a domestic flight that I assume there are very few foreign tourist travel. Once the flight attendant noticed my blank stares, she asked if I only knew English, and then they ended up repeating the instructions later in English. Maybe they are supposed to do it anyways, but I like to think that the customer service is great there. When they did the cross check right before the plane doors open, the flight attendants bowed to each other.
So after I landed at Oita, I was supposed to take the bus. I walked to the customer service desk and asked how I pay for the bus and that I wanted to go to Mochigahama. Without saying anything, the service lady vacated her counter, walked me over to a vending machine, pulled out money from her own pocket, and bought me the correct ticket. I suppose she assumed I would pay her back for the ticket. I'm just used to the finger pointing, "you go there" routine.
After getting on the bus, there was only Japanese being spoken. All I knew was that I was to get off the 8th stop on the number 2 bus. Once I got off at the stop, I stood around waiting for a bit. From the distance I see Linda start running my way. I wave to her, and she waved back. When she got to me, she asked, "How do you know who I am?" My response was, "Well who else would be running towards me and waving back." We start walking up the hill to her house, dragging heavy bags up the steep climb, and in 80% or so humidity. A shower never felt so good. After wards, we go for dinner which I had the best udon in my udon-deprived life.