Awoke to a decent downpour. Luckily a shuttlebus service was operating but unluckily it had the worst driver ever to obtain temporary citizenship (or enter the country illegally. Either seems feasible). Nice guy though. He gave me a $5 discount for some reason, so that made up for the mortal fear for my family's life. We decided to forgo the $13 continental breakfast at the F1 motel, and get gouged at the airport instead. All went smoothly through check in. We made it to gate 34 as printed on the boarding pass and as instructed by the attendant with plenty of time. That was until boarding time, when Veronica picked up on an announcement in Japanese only (the English version stated that the plane was boarding through gate 34). The Japanese announcement, in typical Japanese 1000 pardons fashion apologised profusely for moving the boarding from gate 34 to gate 24 (approx 10 minutes away). Powerwalk #1 of the trip while swearing under my breath. Im sure there are more of these walks to come on this trip. Anyway, we boarded, and after shooing a very sour faced lady out of my seat, got comfortable. So far so good. Cheesy ravioli bolognese was the meal on the plane with a half frozen salad with sweet chilli sauce, and breadrolls Im sure were left over from last weeks flights. $30 well spent. Got no use for Aussie money for the next 5 weeks anyway, so i might as well give it to Jetstar. So it is now 5:17pm Tokyo time, and my watch tells me we are on a bearing of 334 degrees, which is probably about right. Ironman has just finished playing on the in flight film, Angela has awoken from her sleep and Im regretting the ravioli. But surprisingly the kids are coping quite well with the flight. i never thought they would get sick of the Simpsons before i did, but they have, and we have only watched less than half a season. Amateurs. Apparently 3.5 hrs until we land in Kansai, and im looking forward to it, although that is when this circus is going to get interesting. I've memorised the phrase "sumimassen, wakarimassen" (excuse me, I dont understand). I think i'll need it.