At Singapore’s Chengi Airport

Finally, the time passed midnight and I was hungry by now, so I went to a nearby fast food restaurant of sorts and ordered chicken. I was very nervous because it had been a long time since I had spoken to anyone face-to-face. The person I was talking to was Indian, so it was hard to understand what he was saying because his pronunciation was so difficult to understand. I ordered chicken wings and rice. This was about 1000 yen.

Chicken at Singapore’s Chengi Airport

It’s crazy expensive. Well, it’s an airport, so I guess it can’t be helped. I wondered why they used US dollars for the currency, even though it is Singapore. It’s like Turkmenistan, I thought. And sure enough, when I looked at the Currency app, there was a separate app for Singapore dollars! And so it was about 90 yen to 1 Singapore dollers, unlike the US dollar! So this was a surprise. So it’s not that expensive. However, the chicken wings and rice I ordered cost about 1,000 yen, so it was expensive for the quantity. While eating it, I felt like I am in Singapore. The Chengi airport in Singapore is relatively easy to get to, and even though it is a very large airport, it was not that difficult. Next time I come back to Singapore, it will be really easy because I already have a map of where everything is.

As I was eating my meal there, a group of German-looking people were sitting at a nearby desk eating. I don’t think there are many people who eat at 11:00 a.m., but there were a few. I thought they were very malnourished. I felt that I shouldn’t eat at this hour, but I knew that I had to eat at least one meal a day or else it would be bad for my health, and above all, I wanted to eat something, so I did. To my surprise, my teeth hurt when I ate. I wondered. While I was eating, the German family’s child (wife, husband, and child), who was about 2 years old, started crying. The mother was trying to stop him from crying by shaking him or giving him toys, but the husband was just eating his meal without doing anything. I was sad, imagining how this child would turn out in the future. When I thought about it, I realized that there are not many families who try so hard to make their children stop crying, and I realized that I was born into a happy family.

With my stomach full, all I had to do was wait. But the flight was delayed by 30 minutes to 3:00 a.m., so I had nothing to do but sit in my chair and do something to pass the time. My brain was not working, so I had no motivation to do anything.

So I decided to call Léa. Léa is a French friend of mine, whom I met on an app called Tandem in May of this year when I had just started studying French. We have been communicating with her through voice messages frequently recently, and one day Léa asked me if I wanted to call her. She said we should do it when we go to Georgia, but I was already too bored, so let’s do it now! I said, “Let’s do it now! Then I realized that Lea would be having dinner in half an hour, so now would be a good time! So we decided to call each other. But I was very shy. It had been a long time since I had made a phone call. Besides, this was my first live communication with her. But at the same time, it was a lot of fun! I felt that people are very important. People with whom you can talk about trivial things like this are really important. I was going to do it on the bench, but there were people next to me, who probably understood English, and I felt embarrassed if they knew and saw that I was embarrassed by my first phone call (the Japanese way of thinking has not gone away since I left Japan less than a day ago), so I decided to call while walking, carrying my heavy 10 kg bag. I don’t remember what we talked about, but I said in French that thanks to Léa, I can speak French now, and that I really appreciate her. Come to think of it, that was the first time I ever spoke live in French! Wow. That’s nice! It’s so funny that the first place I communicated live with French people using French is near the small shop in Terminal 1 of Singapore’s Chengi Airport lol.

I talked with her for about 20 minutes, and then I had to go because I was about to leave, so we said bye-bye. We talked about school and what we were doing today and so on. I tried to speak in Japanese as much as possible, since she is learning Japanese, but she didn’t seem to understand me, so I spoke in English. After all, it is quite difficult to talk on the phone like a native speaker, isn’t it? But She was happy, so I am glad.

After that, I decided to buy water because I knew I couldn’t do without it on an 11 hour flight. New water, since my old water was almost finished. But it was crazy expensive, costing about $3. Really. Well, I guess it can’t be helped.

At about 2:30 or so, it finally opened up and I decided to go through the baggage check. Surprisingly, the baggage check was a real pain in the ass. I felt that the security was really strict, because I had to go through the baggage check again, even though it was a transfer place. So I had no choice but to go through the luggage check again. Then, the guy there, who I guessed was Singaporean, said in Japanese, “Mizu. No.” I laughed a little. Then he quickly threw it away. I said “okey” in a cool way, as if it was not a matter, but I was quite hurt. Because I had just bought a brand-new bottle of water (about 350 yen) for that purpose, and it was thrown away. I didn’t expect to be thrown out there. I was thinking, “What are they going to live without water then? But apparently, there was a water station afterwards, where everyone had their own bottles of water. This was a real surprise to me. I felt to myself that I live so behind the times. I didn’t know about this. Everyone had their own bottles and poured water into them. But I hadn’t my bottle, so I gulped it down. I was so embarrassed.

Finally, a flight to Greece.

I was in 37A, and thanks to my early entry, I was able to put my large bag in the baggage compartment. If I had not gotten in early, I would have been in trouble. There was a lot of trouble, like “My baggage is fragile, so don’t push it,” or “Whose baggage is this? Can I move it? Some people were so introverted that they couldn’t rely on others, and they were just stunned. The crew wasn’t there at the time. So again, I’m really glad I got in early. I really feel that.

Then the plane takes off. Next to me are two Greek girls about my age. They are really strong. Really. They usually put thier arms on the border of our seat and pushed me, and I was overwhelmed. Europeans are strong! Especially, Greek people are assertive and strong in their actions. That’s why I really admire these people I meet. I think that people who are assertive and carry themselves like that are really attractive.

So they both put on eye masks and fell asleep right away, and I also put on an eye mask and went to sleep. I felt a sense of closeness after spending 11 hours in the same seat with them lol. I felt sleepy as soon as I took off, or rather, I was already too sleepy to do anything about it. So I finally managed to fall asleep. I fell asleep so quickly that I didn’t wake up until 5 hours later. My legs hurt so bad that I probably slept the wrong way. First I slept for five hours! Then, a little while later, I felt sleepy again, so I decided to go back to bed, and got another 4 hours of sleep! It was a real surprise, and getting 9 hours of sleep on an 11-hour flight was a real discovery! I had never been able to sleep on an airplane before, but it was a great discovery that I could sleep when I was really tired.

Finally arrived at Athens Airport Airport in Greece after 11 hours

The plane landed safely and arrived in Athens!！As soon as I arrived, I had to wait for passport control. It took about 40 minutes. It was unbelievably hard to walk with a 10 kg bag. I had an image of Russia, so I was expecting the passport control to be like that, but it was completely different and really open. Everyone was smiling and saying “Hello! I thought it was nice to be in Greece. I wondered what they would ask me, or if they would ask me about my ticket without visa, but they never asked me anything at all.

So they stamped it and I finally got to enter Greece! It’s a Schengen country, so EU countries can stay here for 3 months without a visa, so wow! I am in the EU! I am so excited about this moment. I was thinking of going to the Parthenon when I arrived, but I had to buy a SIM card, which is supposed to work in the EU, but since I was going to Georgia and not the EU, I couldn’t use it. So I decided not to go to the Parthenon this time, but to wait until the next time. So I went to a nearby store. There, I found Greek Vogue and many other magazines, which was really attractive. I had never seen Greek Vogue before, so I thought it was really cool! I thought. I thought about buying today’s newspaper, but I had a lot of luggage, and I have to reduce my weight to 8 kilograms. So I gave up. What I have learned is that from now on, I must keep my luggage within 8 kilograms. This is a must, because SCOOT Airlines allows me to travel within 10 kg, but Turkish Airlines only allows me to travel within 8 kg, which is not good. I have to reduce it somehow, which will be quite a challenge since I have to put 2 kg in my jumper, but I’ll just have to try. So I was enjoying the Greek airport. I found a Burger King and finally decided to go there. I wanted to go to Burger King yesterday, but I felt it was too expensive, so I decided not to go. But today it was 11 euros, so it was even more expensive. I should have thought 11 euros was cheap.

I received my order and ate it, but since the Pepsi was a liter and the fries were more than twice the size of a Japanese L, I thought it was a bit too much and should have cost 11 euros. I wondered if this was the nature of Greece. I thought it was too much.

Burger King in Greece.It’s crazy big.

I stayed here for another 5 hours or so, writing my diary and replying to friends via Voice messages. There are quite a lot of Greeks here, and they are characterized as loud, free-spirited, and easygoing. I guess. There were many paper crowns in Burger King. High school students, college students, and even old men and women in their 30s were wearing them as they ate their food, so I thought everyone was in a good mood. I thought that is so sad and nonsense that Japanese people would never do such a thing because they thought it was too childish. Greece is very interesting. Especially the Greeks. I have never been involved with this race before, so I am really intrigued by them. After leaving Georgia, I will visit Latvia, France, Czech republic. After that, I’m thinking of coming to Greece. But I thought it would be better in the summer. So I thought I would come back to Japan once and go there after that. Today’s flight leaves at 3 am. It is 9:00 in the morning in Japan. Well, I’ll do my best to endure until then. I am almost there!

This agony of waiting at Burger King all the time.

I’ve been at Burger King for over 8 hours, and I’m thinking that I’d like to create a platform where I can post this journal of mine, so I’ve been coding for that. But I was worried that the waitress might get mad at me soon, so I decided to change places.

Working at Burger King

I went to check the terminal in advance to make sure I would not miss my 3:00 p.m. flight to Turkey, and I found a machine that charges 1 euro to weigh my bag. So maybe the message is that they are incredibly strict about weight. So, I had no choice but to change 2,000 yen into euros. At the time, 1 euro was 144 yen, but when I changed it at the exchange, it was 169 yen. This is not good.

So I got 3 euros worth of coins, which was good. I want to keep it within 8 kg. Then I changed the place to eat, and they were selling some kind of sandwich, which I thought was an interesting Greek food, so I decided to buy it there. I was very surprised and at the same time very happy when the clerk said in Japanese, “Arigatoo gozaimasu.

So, I’ve been doing sales activity near there and working on the current project. But I am so exhausted that I can’t think straight.

What a surprise…no flights!

Then one day, at about 11:00, I looked at the electronic board and to my surprise, there was no 3:50 flight to Istanbul!!!! Why? I was in a panic. At the same time, I was non-sweating. Why? So I hurried to ask the Turkish Airlines receptionist. So I asked him, “Why is this itinerary not listed on the electronic board?” I asked. And he said, “Oh, no, it’s cancelled! That flight has already been canceled in September!” I was told, “Oh, really? Seriously, hey! What am I going to do? What am I going to do? 。。。。 So I wandered around the deserted Athens International Airport, and I couldn’t help but get really upset. Seriously, cancelled? Why would they cancel? I really don’t get it. So, let’s contact them via wi-fi, then that’s because of the Russian influence! Then there is no Tbilisi from here? And the internet problem happened. That doesn’t work! Because, I think Wi-fi has been used too much and it has been restricted. I can’t even connect to my computer. It’s over… The quickest solution is to buy a local SIM card, get a means of communication, book a hotel, and rest around Athens. Then I’ll book a flight back to Japan. Oh no. But it was a pleasant feeling for me. At the same time, I thought, ahhhhh, I’m alive! I thought. Anyway, I was panic so I bought a bottle of water anyway, which cost 1.2 euros. Then I decided to go to the SIM card shop on the ground floor. And to my surprise, the guy at the store was there, but the gate was closed, and when I asked him, he said he had just closed. I asked him what time they open tomorrow. He answered 8:00 in the morning. I was disappointed. I felt like a refugee. Really. It’s hard. I had no choice but to sleep on the bench. At the airport in Greece. Twenty years later, Athens airport has become a place of memories. It’s already a place of memories. Really.

Humans become desperate when they think they might die. This is instinct.

But then it occurred to me: communication. The Internet was no longer available, the flight had been canceled, and the only thing left to do was to communicate and find out what the solution is. I went to the information center and asked why the wi-fi was not working. I explained impatiently, but they said they were sorry, too, and that they didn’t understand. They told me to check the internet there. So I went to the free computer in the back and looked it up. But I don’t even want to. I can’t move my head. I don’t know what to do anymore. So I had no choice but to try again, but the wi-fi wasn’t working. Speaking of which, can you check to see if this flight was canceled? I asked. So the lady did. From what I can see, there is no flight number for that flight. In other words, it was canceled. So I asked the lady to find out how to get to Istanbul on the earliest flight. She told me that there was one tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.. She wrote down the flight number and told me to go upstairs and buy it. I went back to the information center on the second floor and asked where I could buy the tickets. The man said in Greek accented English, “G something or other,” and told me to go straight and left, which I did. I didn’t see anything, so I decided to go to the only blue counter. So I showed her the paper and luckily, the lady nodded and listened to me, which was really kind. So I asked the lady to find out how to get to Istanbul, Turkey. Even I asked her if there was any way to get to Tbilisi in the shortest amount of time. She answered Today. “Really? So I decided to buy that flight. I asked her how much it would cost, and she said 322 euros, or 48,000 yen. Too much. I paid 58,000 yen from Japan to Tbilisi, but 48,000 yen from Athens to Tbilisi. But I had no choice.So I had to buy it anyway. So I gave them my credit card and my passport to register. But that was a breath of fresh air. Really. I’m too poor for money, but I have life for now. If I buy a SIM card and stay in Greece, I might run out of money and die before my next flight to Japan. I am glad that I have my life for now, because I could not get a business credit card in time in japan until my flight to Singapore, so I can only use up to 200,000 yen per month. So now I have 140,000 yen, which I can no longer use. And I only have 20,000 yen on hand. LOL. So I have no choice but to die. But hey! I wanted to act now, no matter how poor I am! So I’m okay with that now. I’m like, “I’m sorry. So now I was able to buy a ticket, and I asked the lady how many kg I was allowed, and she said 8 kg. So I ended up getting ready for Tbilisi and putting all the heavy stuff in my jacket, like that character throwing the grenade. So I put everything I could think of into my coat. Finally, I went to the counter to check in. So they asked me if I had booked a return flight. I told her that I had booked one to Latvia. Since I was the only one there, I measured my baggage and it weighed 8.2 kg, but I figured they would give me a little extra weight even if it was over the limit. So they didn’t say anything about my luggage. I was glad. Well, I cheated lol. So she found my ticket, and I finally made it to the baggage check! And then passport control. At the passport control, the immigration officer was playing a game on his cell phone and said “Hello! and then, oh, Japan! Japan! Konitiwa! I was told. What a free passport control officer lol. When they returned my passport, they said thank you in japanese, and I said thank you in japanese too. This was the only thing that made me feel good. Recently (in the last 2 hours or so). So I finally got through and now on my way to Tbilisi. Arrival is supposed to be at 4:00, so I have to buy a SIM card first. Still, it was the biggest crisis of my life that made me really glad to be alive. Here, if I had money, I could have quickly booked a hotel and stayed there, but I’m poor now, so I can’t do that, and I’m wondering if I have no choice but to die. But, let me tell you, the more human you become, the more interesting life gets! In other words, the closer we get to the “human” way of life back in the Paleolithic Age, the original hunter-gatherer days, the more human we are there. If everything is easy with money and you know the plan ahead, there’s nothing to be enthusiastic there! So I’m really glad I had this experience. It was a great experience for me. And I had been intimidated by communication for the first time in a long time, but now I was all out of my skin. I can do anything now. I can do anything. Yes, I can! All right! I’m off to Tbilisi! Next month is so hard life because of lack of my remaining money. Once again, I’m thinking how amazing the bottom line of human beings is. Yeah. Humans are amazing! As civilization has developed, we are the most advanced creatures in the world. Next to nature. Besides, 48,000 yen saved my life this time, so when I think about it, 48,000 yen is a small price to pay! I thought.

I think it was a great experience and I was able to input that buying a cheap ticket can backfire on me. Next month will be tough. Ah. But the average monthly income in Georgia is 30,000 yen, so I get to experience the Georgian way of life! I’m excited to think so! I’m going to have fun! It’s more like being human that way!

Plus, I’ve never bought an airline ticket on the same day before, so this is how it feels to buy an airline ticket on the day of purchase. It was such a strange feeling. But it’s nice, isn’t it? I want to be a person who can buy a ticket that day and go to another country. Someday I’ll be like that!

Then I got on AEGEAN in Greece. There, it was a direct flight to Georgia, so it felt like there were a lot of Georgians there. There was in-flight food, and it was usually good. Plus, it smelled like coconuts, which made me love Aegean Airlines!

Aegean Airlines In-flight Meals

After that, they served me warm bread (Greek food) there, which was very good. Then I didn’t sleep very well. I was in the middle. So, in the end, I arrived in Georgia in about 3 hours.

In Georgia! Finally, after 2.5 days, I am at my destination!

When I arrived, it was bad.long lineMaybe it’s because there are Russians entering the country every day this time of year, but there are really too many Russians entering Georgia anyway. So, about 40 minutes. It was like an attraction line. Finally, I was able to enter the country. I don’t know because I am Japanese, but they didn’t ask me anything. Some people were questioned by the police or refused to enter the country. I really feel sorry for them. After entering the country, I immediately bought a SIM card. 17 lari for the SIM card, so about 800 yen. Not so expensive! After I bought the SIM card, I tried to convert Japanese Yen to Lari, but the exchange rate was so bad that I had to cancel.

So I ended up calling a cab to take me home. What a surprise, it cost me 40 lali, so it was very expensive. After I finally arrived, I had to find my flat. So, with the help of a piece of paper I was given, I went in and out of a small garden-like area many times in the dark, and finally arrived at my flat. It was really scary, but I think it was a really good experience because you can’t experience something like that normally. It looked, well, nice and close to a supermarket.

And so I finally arrived at my flat in Tbilisi. It had been a very long journey.I had finally fulfilled my dream of living abroad.