"Sir, Can I see your boarding pass?"

Konnichiwa!

So after a long journey we have made it to Kay's Parents house in Kyoto.  But not without a little bit of drama of course.  Let me explain.  Our itinerary had us flying from Vancouver to Beijing where we had a one night layover before flying from Beijing to Osaka.  We were checking in all the way from Vancouver to Osaka and were given all of our associated boarding passes. The airline put us up in the IBIS hotel in Beijing.  Not a luxury resort by any stretch but there were no roaches or blood stains to I was happy.  So. while checking into the hotel the agent asked me for my passport and boarding pass so she could confirm when to wake us up for our flight in the morning.   "Sure", I said.  "Just a second, it must be in my back pocket".  "I know it's here somewhere" I said now starting to get a bit concerned.  My concern is not because I don't have a boarding pass for the hotel agent (I knew our flight time the morning) but because I would need this boarding pass for the flight itself.  The boarding pass is gone!  The Absent minded wonder strikes again!!!!  So, after sorting out our rooms Martin and I decided to talk with the front desk about calling Air China regarding my boarding pass.  As it turns out they can not / could not / will not call air china and suggested we head back to the airport to sort it out.  We were about a 10 min cab ride to the airport and so we headed out of the hotel to the spot where the cabs were and that is when the fun began.  We walked the 5 mins to where the cabs were supposed to be and tried to hail a cab but were instead approached by a "service car" driver" (one of may waiting there) we later learned.  After 5 mins of charades trying to explain where we wanted to go the driver wanted a ridiculous amount of money to take us.  So, knowing that is was not a big deal and the boarding pass could be sorted out in the morning, we gave up on the idea of going back to the airport and instead thought it a good idea to put that money into drinking beer so we wandered back to the hotel for a cold beer.  The next morning after taking the shuttle bus back to the airport we sorted out the boarding pass problem (which was no problem at all) and hopped back on the plane to Osaka.   A good start to the trip!