Round 19: Kayo, mouchoto mate kudaisai...

It's a windy Saturday morning and after brunch and a hot honey tea, I've decided to just let it out. It's killing to keep it inside of me.

It started out like this...

A few weeks ago, while chatting with the gf, it dawned on me how much she was missing me, despite having spent our summer here in Mannheim together. On that note, I spoke with my boss and after some discussion, it turned out I could merge my intern leave(which isn't much - just a mere ten days) with the christmas and new year's holidays, making a nice slot of 3 weeks.

Yes, you got it folks - 3 weeks in Japan is what I'm talking about here.

If I do fly, it's definitely going to be one of my turning points in my life - my first time visiting the land of my favourite animes, the opportunity to introduce myself to the gf's parents and family, the unique japanese culture and I suppose I could go on and on...

And so these past few days have seen extra hours spent after work looking for flight connections from Frankfurt to Osaka. The prices I found so far were just too high, mostly in the 850€ - 1000€ range. There was even a flight from Air Italia that reached the 700€ range -but offered no meals during the 11 hour flight! What the heck is that?!

So yesterday I searched again - and managed to find a decent connection with Finnair. Damage with taxes : 770€ I can't say it's a totally real bargain, but considering that I actually will be spending 3 hours in Helsinki Vantaa Airport, and Helsinki Airport being it what it is(the taxes were over 200€), I can't really complain either. Oh well.

So I called up the travel agency to enquire and double check the connections. Time and dates were all fine, i was told by the agent, who is a also malaysian and more or less a good acquaintance of mine, me after being their customer for 3 years. But, she added, there's a catch.

"Which is?" I probed.

"This is one of Finnair's cheapest flights and you know lah, companies are also smart. There are only 4 more seats left for this flight and the booking must be done today, so the ticket must be issued in 24 hours."

Stan: "....!!!!"

Now that was something I definitely did not calculate in. To fork out a whooping 770€ (USD1096/SGD1628/RM3731) in one day after getting my paycheck....sounded like a road to disaster. And I could immediately foresee days of bread and water for the next 3 weeks.

"I'll send the money later today before 6pm if I can really confirm. Thanks again..."

And so there I was, sitting in the office at 4pm with no one to consult. That really put me in a tight spot. The gf and I had previously discussed the options of me flying to her and for her to fly again to Germany and, the latter was 100€( USD142/SGD211/RM485) cheaper and more economical.

"It's ok, daijobu..." the gf spoke over the phone, in tears obviously.

In desperation I dialed up my ex-neighbour in Berlin, who is one of my closest friends in Germany. We spoke and debatted a good ten minutes before I made my decision.

Fast forward to present Saturday morning. I'm watching cartoons dubbed in german on the Cartoon Network when the handphone rings, to the OST of Bleach the anime.

"Leong, I just issued the ticket, I got your transaction last evening. You should receive the ticket on Monday."

I thanked her and hung up, feeling a strange sensation of exhilaration and apprehension...

Nihon, Kayo - here I come! :P