[in my best Forrest Gump impersonation] Life is like a peach, sometimes it is sweet and juicy, other times it’s the pits.

Hmm, that seemed like an original thought in my head, but it sounds cliche when I write it.  A quick Google search didn’t turn up that phrase (at least on the first page of results), so until proven otherwise, you heard it here first!

I never saw a purple peach
I never hope to see one
But in the skies above Japan
I surely was be in one
*ahem*

Yesterday’s visa run to Osaka via Peach Air was generally successful in that I am now legal in Korea through September 9.  The fact that my return flight to the USA is on September 10 is somewhat worrisome, but I reckon I can finagle an extra day by groveling before the kind folks at the Korean Immigration Service.  It worked before anyway.

I am happy to report that Peach Air graciously allowed the change from the name of my nephew Joshua who lives in Reno, NV to that of nephew Justin who was actually traveling with me, without incident or additional fees.  Justin said something to the counter person in Korean which I suspect was along the lines of “my uncle is old and stupid, please forgive him”, but he denies it.  Ah well.

I had never flown on a low-cost carrier before and it turned out to be pretty much what I expected.  Peach Air features a one class cabin configuration and that class can best be described as “steerage”.  Who knew you could cram so many seats into a little Airbus A-319?  When I sat down my knees were firmly pressed against the seat in front of me.  Thankfully, everyone on board seemed to have the common decency to not recline.  Going over the middle seat next to me was empty so I appropriated that space to stretch my legs.  No such luck coming back however.  What got me though was that the seats were about as thinly padded as those on the subway.  I could actually feel the knees of the passenger behind me in my back the entire trip.  Well, the flight was only 1 1/2 hours and I figure a little discomfort now and then builds character, right?

I will say this about Peach Air, they are good at providing the limited service they offer.  The plane was boarded by seat number (A/B/C) versus row number.  I’d never seen that done before and it did seem to go quickly.  On both legs the doors closed early and we departed on time.  And the flight attendants were cute, even though their English was essentially impossible to understand.

Upon arrival, Japanese immigration asked where I’d be staying in Osaka.  I said “the airport”.  I couldn’t explain it any better than that, so he had me put my return flight down as my Japanese destination.  The customs folks were similarly nonplussed with my answer to the question “what is your purpose for visiting Japan?”.  I said “shopping”.  They asked where I intended to shop and I responded “the airport”.  The agent then asked incredulously “what are you going to buy?” and I said “cosmetics for my wife”.  Which was the truth.  He finally shook his head and let me in.

We now had six hours to kill at Kansai International Airport.  Peach Air flies into terminal 2 which appears to be a re-purposed hanger.  They are also the only airline using that terminal, so there is not much to see or do there.  We took the shuttle bus to the main terminal, but it was frankly disappointing as well.  I guess Incheon has spoiled me.  Being hungry the first order of business was finding some food.  I’m not big on Japanese cuisine so we settled on a place that served “individual” sized pizza and beer.  And we had six of each.  The shopping was also limited (I suspect the big duty free stores were beyond the international departure gates, which we couldn’t access since we were flying from the other terminal).  Suffice to say, everything on Jee Yeun’s shopping list was unavailable in any of the shops I checked.  So, we killed the remainder of our time drinking beer at eight bucks a mug.

As I mentioned above, Korea did not take issue with my same day departure and return and granted me another 90 days.  So, sixteen hours after leaving my apartment I was back home dead tired but with the satisfaction of having accomplished my mission without incident.  I’d call that sweet and juicy!