Kansai airport

After touching down at Kansai airport, being tired and itching to get to Kyoto I did not appreciate the lengthy procedure at immigration and customs office. I was prepared to have my picture and fingerprints taken , but twice while queuing at customs the officer closed the desk just in front of me to search the luggage a passenger more thoroughly. Every time I had to join another queue – at the tail end. The young bio-informatics scientist of Osaka University returning from a congress in Spain, my neighbour on the plane, meantime waited patiently. He had promised to help me to get on the bus, and by doing so he had to get out of his way as he used the train for his destination. This at the very beginning of my trip would be a fine example how helpful the Japanese people were – only the young man was Malaysian. When we exchanged business cards – my first "meishi" – he made me promise to call upon him if I would run into difficulties during my stay in Japan.