Anyway, after like 12 hours of sleep lol...I woke up the next morning and Jim and Ed were already in the room after gathering their stuff up to say goodbye before heading home. Carlos and I had booked our bus back to London for that night just in case Momusu flew out the day after the convention ended, but everyone else booked their buses for Monday morning...so Ed and Jim had to leave within an hour or so (I don't think Jim was taking a bus, but regardless he had to leave at about the same time as Ed). Steve was flying out to Germany later on that morning (and was in Bali before coming to Paris lol, guy's all over the place :P), so this was the last time Ed and Jim would see him until whenever Momusu made another appearance outside of Asia...goodbyes are always a little sad ;___;
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Natsugaya had also shown up to see the guys off...weren't sure if we'd ever see him in person again or not, so we all thanked him several times for everything he had done for us. So many things on this trip were easier because of his help, and there really was nothing we could have done to pay him back...
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With that, Jim and Ed headed out and Carlos, Steve and I packed up our stuff and headed to the airport. We found Steve's departure terminal (with some assistance from Natsugaya, speaking French to help desk folks for us and so forth) and hung around for a bit before his flight left. More semi-emotional goodbyes, then off Steve went ;__;
Carlos, Natsu and I had discussed maybe doing some sight-seeing in downtown Paris since Carlos and I didn't have to leave until like 10:30 that night...but there were some Japanese fans whose flight left that afternoon and Carlos wanted to go see them off, so we opted against it. Money factored in as well, of course...
So we just kind of wasted time in the airport until the Japanese fans showed up for their flight...they were also with JAL, like MM, so when Carlos got word that they were on their way we went and waited for them in basically the same place we waited for MM haha
Soon enough they arrived...Shiori was among the fans leaving that day so I got to chat with her for a bit and say goodbye.
Then, on the way to the JAL departures line, all of a sudden airport staff stopped everybody from entering that area and we waited for a good 5 or 10 minutes...turned out someone had just left a bag in the line and airport staff were making sure it wasn't a bomb or something lol (it wasn't, of course :P)
Then off the Japanese fans went...we stood and waved at them, etc until they got through the line and walked through the gate, much like with MM. Right before they left, Carlos, Natsu and I did this really goofy Sayumi call/chant thing (I won't describe it in detail, but it's really really annoying hahaha...the Japanese Sayu fan who put together all the birthday stuff for her said that she apparently hates it lol, so nobody does it around her XD) as LOUD as we possibly could in unison hahaha...the entire line turned around and glared right at us lol, and all the Japanese MM fans up at the front of the line laughed and waved, and we waved back as we walked off. Kind of a fun goodbye :P
And then even more time spent just kind of hanging around in the airport. Eventually we got hungry, of course, and went to Pizza Hut (not McD's :OOO), which was decent...not great, but okay haha, and just a wee bit different from pizza here.
And then Natsugaya also had to head back home...Carlos and I walked over to the train station in the airport with Natsu to see him off. This was one of the more emotional goodbyes of the trip, and it didn't help that Carlos randomly started singing a Berryz Koubou song (Natsu is actually a fan of Berryz Koubou, another group from the same music company as Morning Musume...he just came to Japan Expo for Momusu because it was so close to him) that Natsu had mentioned he really liked earlier that weekend. The lyrics go "I want to meet again", etc etc etc...cheesy, but it still didn't make leaving any easier hahaha
We thanked Natsu again for helping us, and then eventually he reluctantly left and it was back to more wasting time...Carlos and I just went ahead and found where our bus back to London would be leaving from (same place we arrived at, actually haha) and waited for it to show up. Soon enough it did, and we hopped on and off we went. I almost immediately fell asleep lol
We went through the chunnel again (and it was uncomfortably hot and quiet, again lol), then eventually we stopped and everyone was told to get off the bus and grab our baggage...UK customs :P
Pretty simple, just walk in with your luggage, dude checks your passport, baggage goes through the x-ray dealie and you get back on the bus haha
Fell asleep right away again, I planned to just rest until we got to London...then, again, we stopped and everyone was told to get off the bus O.o
Turned out UK customs has two parts - one for luggage and one to figure who the heck you are :P
Had to sleepily fill out the same customs form I filled out when I arrived at Heathrow...but, again, I didn't have Paul's address, and I couldn't very well call him at like 4AM lol...so I just got Ed's address from Carlos since he was staying with him and hoped for the best (customs people didn't even blink an eye at that, actually).
They had two customs people working, so everybody made two lines...Carlos and I ended up at the booths at the same time. When the customs worker asked if I was traveling alone, I said we were traveling together...and that raised some eyebrows hahaha (obviously an American and a Mexican traveling from France to the United Kingdom isn't exactly an everyday thing) and they asked us some questions about what we were doing, how we knew each other, etc. They were actually really nice, and it went over pretty smooth...soon enough our passports were stamped and we were off ^^
More sleeping, and eventually we arrived at the bus station we left from in London and got off the bus. Once outside, Carlos and I had no idea where to go hahaha...so I called Paul (at like 6:30AM :P) and he sleepily helped us figure out where we needed to be (the train station we arrived at when we left London, actually...what a shock lol). Paul had texted me directions and what to do at the station - what kind of ticket I needed, which changes to make at which stations, etc - so Carlos and I figured out exactly what we needed to do, using those directions to help, before heading off.
Carlos and I rode together for part of the trip, but eventually we had to separate and I was on my own in the London public transit system hahaha...actually, it wasn't too bad. Just followed Paul's directions (I believe I got a little confused at one point, but got myself pointed in the right direction pretty quick) and that was that. Once close to the station I was supposed to get off at, I called Paul and he started heading to pick me up...then I managed to miss the station and had to turn around -___- Nothing awful, just took a bit of time...then, soon enough, I arrived at the station Paul would pick me up and walked out to wait for him.
Soon enough Paul arrived and drove me back to his place...he made me a quick egg sandwich (which tasted great since I hadn't eaten anything decent in like 12 hours haha - thanks Paul~) while I took a shower, and then we figured out what we'd do that day as I ate. My flight didn't leave until the following morning and it was still like 8Am or 9AM, so we had an entire day ahead of us to do whatever.
Hexi was staying with Paul, so after she woke up we all decided to head into downtown London to check out some fun places, including Little Tokyo :D
It was about a 45-minute train ride into London? And soon enough we arrived and just spent the day wandering around downtown London checking out the sights, eating, shopping...
I can't remember the exact order of things, so forgive me if this all seems a bit jumbled haha
The VERY FIRST thing we did upon arriving was go to a pub hahaha
It was a place Paul's apparently a regular at, very cheap and the bartender was a super nice guy. Paul covered my drink for me, what a pal~
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Went to a place that sold over-priced American candy, cereal, etc (Paul actually had me bring him a box of Reese's Puffs and a box of Lucky Charms since they don't cost an arm and a leg in the US :P), then another place that just sold random trinkety stuff.
Paul and Hexi started talking about the "Dry Cleaners" and discussing whether we should go there haha...I gave them a bit of an odd look, but knew just from how they were talking about it that we had to go. Upon arriving, it did indeed have a big sign out front that said "DRY CLEANERS"...but the inside was a Japanese bookstore! :O
They had some things other than books, actually, including some Japanese video games...saw a copy of the first King's Field on Playstation (I've been wanting that for a while since it was never actually released in the US, the first King's Field game here was actually King's Field II in Japan :P). I'll admit I was still a bit tipsy from the beer and so, without little to no inhibition, I asked the lady behind the counter in Japanese how much it cost since there was no price...then she just told how much it was in English -___-
I paid for it and we headed off haha
Sometime after that we decided to get some food. Now...a long time ago, I was talking to Paul online and he mentioned he ordered a pizza. I asked him what it was, and he said he ordered tuna and anchovies hahaha...I told him that I'd like to try that, and he kind of flipped cause everyone else he knows apparently refuses to. But it turns out you can't get tuna on pizza in the US, so I later told him that if I were ever in London with him we'd go get tuna and anchovy pizza :P
And...lo and behold...here we were, together, in London...so we went to Pizza Hut and ordered ourselves a tuna and anchovy pizza :D
It wasn't bad at all, actually...very fishy, as expected, but still quite good. Hexi had some too, actually haha
I also had some cider? Which is a type of alcoholic drink I'd never heard of...extremely light taste, almost no flavor at all, kinda sweet and very good~
Then we went to this huuuuge arcade, which was actually a little disappointing as they didn't have many games I liked...in the same building as that arcade there was also an HMV store, so we went there and I picked up The Mighty Boosh (that show Paul made me watch when I arrived in London hahaha) on DVD.
After that, we went to Little Tokyo...started off with Japanese-style crepes :D
I got the strawberry one (Aichan loves strawberries~), really good...I'd never had a crepe before, so that was cool ^^
Then we went to this huge Japanese department store thing. Down in the basement there was a place with some magazines, etc...was hoping for some MM stuff, but no luck lol
I think we may have gone to another place or two in Little Tokyo, I can't remember...
Following Little Tokyo, we went to a couple video game stores. One was only okay, didn't really have much (more DVDs and newer games than stuff I'd care about)...but the other place was AWESOME, everything you could think of including imports, etc. They had a copy of Radiant Silvergun for Saturn, even...people with import game knowledge should know that's a big deal :P
I picked up a Japanese import shoot-em-up on PS2 called 'XII Stag'...wish I had more money, there were SO many good import shoot-em-ups available but I was limited to around $30 or $40 D:
Still, it was cool to get something~
After that we went to a huge stationery store that Hexi wanted to shop at, she picked up a couple things...took a LONG time lol, didn't help that I was starting to get really really tired. Kind of a fun store though :P
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Now, in the last couple places we went to, Paul kept saying we should go to "the Casino" hahaha...I'm not a gambler at all, so of course I wasn't really interested, especially now that I was SO tired. But after we left the stationery place, Paul insisted that we go...we almost didn't, but in the end I caved and we went ahead...
We walked for a while, and then sure enough there was a big light-up sign on one of the buildings, really old-looking actually, that said "CASINO" in huge letters. After we walked in...BOY was I glad I gave in hahaha
Turns out this "casino" wasn't a casino at all, but a huge two-floor arcade with nothing but old 2D fighting games and shoot-em-ups! :OOOOOOO (quite a few imports, even x.x)
Photo 7
At first I just kind of wandered around taking in what sat in front of me hahaha, as a shmup fan/collector this was the kind of thing I had always dreamed of :P
Eventually I pulled out some of the change I had with me, popped it in a DoDonpachi machine, and sat down...it was sweet, obviously not too often do you get to play a shoot-em-up in this kind of setting :D
But, sadly, even as I sat playing the game I found myself dozing off >.<
I was just too tired to play, within a minute or two I had used up all the lives I was given from what I pumped into the machine and soon enough we left to go back to Paul's place.
At Paul's, we got ahold of Ed and Carlos to see about maybe going out for dinner...we all agreed to go to a Vietnamese (I'm pretty sure) restaurant, headed over to Ed's so we could all leave from the same place and piled into Paul's car. After a few minutes we arrived...the food wasn't cheap, but it wasn't too terribly expensive either. Still VERY good, and a nice last 'real' meal in Europe with everybody ^^
After dinner, we decided to head to Tesco hahaha...which is apparently the UK equivalent of Wal-Mart or something, I guess? Was more of a grocery though. We all wandered around for a bit, I had the British folks I was with help me pick out some uniquely British candy bars lol, then off we went.
Back at Ed's house, everyone said their last goodbyes to whoever they likely wouldn't see for a while haha...for me, Ed and Carlos. Normal "good chilling with you, hope to see you again", etc with Ed...and Carlos gave everybody else pretty normal goodbyes...but when he got to me, we just shook hands, very business-like, and he started spouting random things in Spanish hahaha
I just said "taco, burrito, salsa", etc...pretty silly haha, not sure entirely what that was about...then Hexi, Paul and I headed back to Paul's place.
At Paul's, I decided I wanted one more drink of some kind before calling it a night. Of what he listed off that he had, I opted for ginger beer and vodka haha...I'd never had ginger beer before, it was REALLY good actually.
Paul had never had that combination before, so he tried it too...said he may have found a new favorite drink lol, not sure how long that lasted though :P
And, then, I hit the sack. Had to get up early for my flight the next day...
Woke up early the next morning, gathered up my stuff, and Paul drove me to the airport. Once we arrived, I thanked him for letting me stay and showing me around London a bit...and we both agreed that we'd see each other another time, whenever Momusu appeared outside Asia again ^^
Then a quick goodbye, and I was off.
Inside the airport, no real hiccups...within an hour or so I was waiting in the terminal for my flight back to the US. I don't remember much of the flight from London to NYC...just slept the whole time, I was still SO tired haha
After landing at JFK intl, I headed to the terminal for my flight back to Indy...had quite a bit of time left, so I went ahead and grabbed a smoothie, then waited until time to board.
Once I was on the plane...THAT'S when things got weird. The wait was quite long, longer than it should have been...then the pilot came on and told everyone that there was some test the plane hadn't passed and we'd need to wait for that before we could take off, and if you got off the plane you were on your own.
Long story short, the wait took FOREVER (an hour or two, I think), and eventually they told us our plane wasn't fit to take off so we'd be switching flights -___-
This was followed by even more waiting in a new terminal, lots of aggravated people...I grabbed some pretzels and a candy bar to get me by since I hadn't eaten in like half a day. Eventually airport staff told us our flight was ready and loaded us all on an airport shuttle...then they drove us out around the various runways for a few minutes, seemed a bit odd but whatever.
Then...all of a sudden, we pulled back up to where we had gotten onto the shuttle. No replacement plane, the flight was canceled and we'd all have to rebook -_____________-
Everyone was unhappy about it, of course...I just took it in stride, this flight didn't determine my ability to see Momusu haha, and I had just had an amazing week...so I just relaxed and went with the flow :P
The airline got me another flight the next morning out of a different airport, LaGuardia (or however it's spelled), and a hotel for the night, plus vouchers for food etc. At least when airlines screw stuff up they take care of you haha
Turned out a nice group of three older people ended up with the same hotel, same flight, everything as me...and one lady in the group had traveled a lot, so I ended up running around with them for the rest of trip. They were all family from Evansville, a lady and her parents, who had just gone to Ireland for a wedding or something, I think. The lady (whose name was Dee) pretty much took care of everything, I just followed her lead.
These people were a huge, HUGE help...I would have surely screwed something up somehow had I been by myself >.<
Ended up at a pretty nice hotel, ate dinner with my new friends in the hotel restaurant and discussed our trips, etc...after that, we went back to our rooms. I spent some time on the laptop I brought before heading to bed.
Next morning, everything went SO smoothly...woke up and was down in the lobby just a few minutes before the other folks with me arrived, our taxi got to LaGuardia in record time (Dee had apparently done this same thing, at these same airports, a couple times before haha, and she had never seen that trip take so little time), I had DUNKIN' DONUTS FOR BREAKFAST - had to call mom about that one hahaha - and soon enough we were waiting at our terminal for the flight, then in the plane and on our way back to Indy :D
In Indianapolis, got off the plane no problem and called mom to let her know I'd landed, then headed down to baggage claim...my luggage was in the Delta booth since my flight got canceled and it had arrived quite a bit before me. Dee's dad's luggage (I believe?) managed to end up in Atlanta, Georgia lol...so they had to figure that out. I exchanged Facebook info with Dee (still haven't contacted her, actually >.<), got my leftover foreign currency exchanged, and went out to meet mom so she could take me home.
At the house, showed the fam all my stuff, told about the whole trip (for like 2 hours, apparently, although it felt like less to me :P) and with that, the trip was over o.o
And...now that I'm done writing about this trip, I leave in less than a month for Tokyo to go see Morning Musume again :D
Carlos will be attending the same event as me, and Natsugaya will actually be in Tokyo for all of November, so I'm planning to meet both of them there~
May or may not write about that trip, but I can guarantee it won't be nearly as detailed as this one hahaha...so, so draining to write this much >.<
Anyway, thanks to everybody who actually read through all of these entries, and even to everyone who only read a few :P
It's been fun sharing my experience with you all :D
Until next time~
- cfb
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