Enter the the Shoe Box

The shoe box

The flight was long. The seats were short. It seemed to cat that the whole world was being manufactured to a size 8. Sami Sui had moved to a vacant two seat near the window. She had curled up and was snoozing peacefully. The Jade Dragon had stretched out and taken the three seats next to Panda. Cat sat in the remaining empty row, nose to the wall, the only four seats in the plane with fixed armrests.

With glum determination Cat rested her head against the uncompromising headrest and tried to sleep.

The landing at Nakatiri Airport was uneventful. Once cleared by customs the Clan entered the land of the rising sun. Actually the sun had set, it was clammy and warm, the airport was long and not air-conditioned. "Must be power cuts", muttered Panda, "Huh" said Cat as her hair began to drop and curl with sweat.

"The Tsunami, Japan is still feeling the effects of the Tsunami," said Panda, "it was in the note I sent you". "Yes , I know,"snapped Cat, non the wiser, as she had not opened the email that she knew probably contained DETAILS.

The drive from the Airport to the hotel looked promising, a huge orange bus arrived to pick up the clan. "Looks like we are the only ones on the bus," spoke Panda quite pleased that he had scored a whole limousine bus for his family.

None sooner said, the bus stopped and a family , a very large family of Filipinos strode into the bus and took over. They gaggle loudly, fought, coughed and sneezed until two unmerciful hours later the bus pulled up at the Shinjuku Washington Hotel. To the profound dismay of the Clan the Filipinos gathered up their chicks, grand mothers, older sisters, younger brothers, maiden aunts and sleeping babies and began to exit at the same stop.

Sami Sui looked at Panda and mouth the word "Check-in". Instantly galvanised Panda strode forward and with the Jade Dragon fought amongst the tonnes of luggage belonging to the family for the 40 kilos of Clan baggage. Once scored the Cat pushed through the gaggle to make way for Panda, as the race was on to find the check-in counter before the Family. With hours to spare the check in was completed, the magnetic key cards were collected, the free shavers, combs, brushes and shower caps were collected and the Clan stepped into the lift.

It was, mused Cat one of the biggest lifts she had ever seen. It was huge, you could definitely swing a cat in here, she thought. By the seventh floor Cat discovered just how many people could actually fit in a lift that size. By respectfully shuffling backwards the lift was packed to the gunnels in absolute silence.

Arriving at the seventh floor the Clan separated, Panda and Cat to 714 and the Kittens to 732. Panda opened the door to 714, a narrow corridor in which by holding the door open for Cat to bring in the luggage meant a tight squeeze, more jostling and breathing in to get into the room beyond. Cat stood and looked at the room. The concrete block thinly disguised as a double bed took up the entire back wall. Panda put on a brave face and said, "well its only for four nights and it is only $50 per night". "Hmmm" said Cat," we must be paying by the metre".

The kittens knocked on the door, and rolled into the room, laughing, "our room is much bigger than this" they said. "Ha, ha" chortled the Jade Dragon, "you got the Love Nest". Panda and Cat smiled enigmatically. Sami Sui recoiled with "Do not go there you two, just don't need to know, ugh!" Panda and Cat continued to smile dreamily. With that the Kittens left. "Gets them every time", laughed Cat.

The bathroom was another mystery, Cat was pleased she had spent the money on a personal trainer. Getting into the deep bath was no where near as difficult as getting out. The toilet was a marvel of modern engineering, not only a disposal unit but a cleaning unit as well. Quite the novelty to feel the automatic warm rush of water.

It was now 10:30pm and still the Clan had not eaten. A 7 Eleven Family Mart was soon discovered and essentials were purchased. A small soup bar was discovered and entered. Not completely sure of what was being consumed but too hungry tired to be concerned the Clan ate something hot and salty and drank copious amounts of iced cold water.

"Tomorrow "said Cat, we meet the good sisters of St John the Evangelist, they have organised to take us around to see some of the sights."

Sister Anne is a friend of mine, we met many years ago when I was a ship's Cat.

Tired, full, and in Japan at last the Clan went back to their respective cabins. Tomorrow would be another experience.