Prologue: Day 0 (5th Oct, 2010)

I woke up this morning at the ridiculous hour of 5.30am, but I don't mind, because I woke up to go to THE AIRPORT!
I've wanted to go to Japan for about 8 years (since I started learning Japanese in high school in 2003), and its finally happening.
Bags were all packed yesterday, so its pretty much just eat breakfast (last night's leftover bolognese), shower, and go.

I got to the airport around 8.30, checked in, had a coffee. Uneventful. The sky was looking really overcast so I was hoping for a bumpy take off, but no such luck.

The first flight was from Melbourne to Beijing, a 14 hour flight. I got lucky enough to be seated in the emergency exit aisle, so I had a ton of leg room. Kinda felt like I was in first class. It was also right by the plane's toilets, which made for some entertaining people watching.
There was this little boy of about five or six, who for whichever reason had to go to the toilet about every half hour. I'm not exaggerating. He'd sort of shuffle up to the toilet from somewhere at the back of the plane, push the doors to see which one is open (hadn't grasped the concept of red/green signals on toilet doors, I guess), and then go in and do his thing. And sing. When he came out, he had a look of pride and accomplishment on his face that you couldn't match if you'd just climbed Mt. Everest in a wheelchair, then he'd march back to his seat.
The guy to me right on this side was a psycho. When they were serving the second meal, he apparently wasn't happy with the options they had, so he flipped his top and went off at one of the flight attendants. I don't know the details because he was yelling in Cantonese, but completely went nuts. Not so sure what he intended to achieve, given that he's being offered what food is on the plane, and the next closest food source is, well, a long way away. He also asked for a pen paper so he could write an angry letter.
He had 2 minute noodles for dinner.

When I arrived in Beijing, I went to find my hotel that I'd been told was included in my airfare, because it was a 9 hour overnight layover. After much wandering around and confusion from trying to talk to people with whom I have no language crossover, I came to the realization that there was no hotel for me to stay in. It was also really hot, and I had been wearing the same set of clothes for about 20 hours; so I was a bit keen for a shower and a change of clothes. No luck, and no luck.
I did find a restaurant that was still open at midnight and had a very nice pork/rice/veggies meal for the equivalent of about $12. So my rumbling stomach was tended to.