On route to the South East Koi Show

 As mentioned in another post I left Nagaoka this afternoon on the 4.39 shinkansen and an presently sat in the Toyoko-Inn at Narita airport, a new hotel for me and a very pleasant surprise compared to the usual ****hole that is the Holiday Inn, a hotel I absolutely detest but has always been convenient.  My room is a veritable suite, double bed, relaxing chairs, mini kitchen area, desk and plasma TV, quite frankly there is enough room to swing a whole pride of lions, all for less than 6000yen!  Oh and it included free curry rice for supper and free breakfast in the morning!

However, that is not the highlight of my room, the highlight is the air conditioning unit.  In itself this particular air conditioning unit is probably nothing special, I'm sure very middle of the range, if not an economy model.   The reason this air conditioning unit is so special is that it is the exact same model that is in my apartment.  Ever since January 10th 2008 when I moved into my apartment I've battled with my air con and effectively it has been changed, with a lot of swearing and cursing, twice a year when winter became summer and the summer became winter, i.e. hot or cold.  I've had native Japanese speakers visit my apartment who are bamboozled by the instructions and remote control unit.  Some 32 months since being in charge of the said air con unit I have finally found, courtesy of the hotel 'services guide', some instructions for the remote control that are in English.  All summer I've been trying to make my air con unit blow cold air like the one in my room now!

As pleasant as my hotel room is, and as delighted as I am with my new found understanding of the air con, you can't escape the fact that airport hotels are the most boring places in the world, effectively in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do or see, unless you like watching planes take off.

Therefore I will be happy to check out tomorrow morning, take the short courtesy bus trip and board my plane for Heathrow Airport, next stop, although not strictly true (i'll have several of my mum's home cooked dinners before hand - one thing I miss), the South East Koi Show.

The last Koi show that I visited in Europe was the 2007 South East Show, quite where those 3 years have gone I'm not sure.  Really looking forward to the weekend, a chance to catch with lots of people, some I've seen on occasional trips to the UK or here in Japan, some I've not seen for 3 years or more.

If you are visiting the show the please be sure to come and say hello.