Waiting on the date

After my trek through the snow in London all I could do then was wait.

Or so I thought.

The kind chaps at AEON informed me that I could go ahead a book my flight, as long as I remembered to run the flight itinery past them beforehand. Now I have travelled with JAL (Japanese Airlines), Virgin Atlantic and BA in the past, and they were great bar the latter.

There were also some carriers I wanted to avoid. Namely Air China, Aeroflot (Russia's carrier) and AirItalia. So I hunted high and low for a resonably priced ticket and in the end decided that a return was the best option as it was cheaper.

I found a good range on www.netflights.com and in the end discovered an excellent deal with Cathay Pacific. My itinery was okayed by AEON and my details are -

London to Hong Kong on 2nd April @ 12:35

Arrive at Hong Kong on 3rd April @ 07:10

Hong Kong to Narita on 3rd April @ 9:25 arriving at 14:55.



The good things about the Economy class seating onboard Cathay Pacific are 1. Legroom (32 inches) 2. New "Clam" seating (meaning seats are fixed and won't recline backward. The seat slides down) 3. A 9inch TV Monitor to whitter away all those hours!!!

For a more detailed synopsis and a rather groovy "virtual tour" visit the website.

http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_INTL/whatonboard/previewthenewseats

And then today (Thursday) my passport was returned, VISA and all!!!!!

Fingers crossed......

Volcano!

Major news networks reported yesterday that Mount Asama (pictured here), 145 km north of Tokyo, has erupted spewing smoke 2km into the air.

Residents living close to the mountain have been advised to be cautious, and chunks of rock from the eruption have been found up to 1 km away.

A huge eruption occured in 1783 and killed around 1500 people.

A trip to a snow covered London to get my VISA....

The Snow was about 6 inches deep!

The rare sight of a Bus !

Bravely I battled the elements....he he..




Green Park

The Japanese Embassy

So I awoke this morning to find reports on the News that London had been covered by the worst snow fall in nearly 20 years. Sadly for me, this was also the day I had intended to venture into the capital to get my VISA sorted out.

As you can see from the photos above, I made it. The bus journey up took about 2 and a half hours, which was pretty good, and I was lucky that the Victoria Line had been unaffected and the Embassy was based near Green Park tube station. For those not au fait with the London Underground system, this is one stop from Victoria.

As I slid and slipped down the street toward the embassy, the usually busy London streets were almost free of traffic. I was only in the embassy for around 20 minutes, then spent some time in the nearby Green Park.