Part 1
Flight QF79 – 16:18 JST
As much as I like to say Japan is quite close to Australia, the 10-hour flights that departs at 9 am are really quite brutal. For an international flight in Australia the advice is that you need to arrive 3 hours prior to departure, that is 6am plus add in commute time into Melbourne Airport that is leaving the house at 5am. Plus you then also need to have a shower before you hop on a plane so you end up having to wake up at 4:30am. However, this is amplified even further with the pre-trip anxiety, where you are going to bed at 3 am. It is just perfect because it meant I really got no sleep before the flight to Japan.
That being said I was having really awesome dreams of the Tokyo subway network; it was as if the Tokyo Subway Map were being super imposed on the roof like the chess board was in the Netflix television show ‘The Queens Gambit’. I was rapidly trying to recall which where the Toei subway lines (Asakusa, Mita, Oedo, Shinjuku). Working out Tokyo train fares has a bit of an art to it, yes, I am aware I could just use IC card but this is not actually the cheapest way especially when you are using the network as much as I intend to.
The 5AM traffic through things like the light tunnel on city link was alright, though some of those petrol tankers and ads I thought were a little bit targeted and crass. Our signature hat unfortunately did not make it in the car.Flight QF79 – 16:18 JST
Our time at the airport was relaxed. We had a bit of Sunflower Scheme 🌻 assistance from QANTAS to get through security. The best thing about this was not having to stop in the duty-free area and having someone to distract me through the often times overwhelming airport (3-year-old Jeremy going to Brisbane was right about that). I was shown where the gate was and was shown, the best place to wait quietly for my flight that was rather low stim. I am really grateful that airlines are offering this service it is one less thing to worry about when traveling.
The flight boarded from gate 9, I don’t know if it were slightly late but we took off at around 10 am ish. I managed to get some good sleep during the middle section of the flight. For food I had the beef. I do still ascertain that I like QANTAS as an airline even if their food is not as great as JALs. Honestly, JAL miso soup is the best inflight meal I’ve ever had.
We also debuted out QANTAS pyjamas on this flight finally. We will touch over the story of slightly misplacing our sunglasses needless to say crisis averted.
To be continued…
Part 2
Akihabara 23:12JST
As we reached the last hour of our flight, we were able to see Mount Fuji out the window. According to the cabin attendant this is something that you can only see during the Japanese summer half of the year as otherwise the flight lands in too late in the day and it’s dark. It always baffles me how the last 100km into Narita can take often like 30 minutes. As we were touching down into Narita a couple of tears left my eyes.
Once I arrived at Narita I had an escort through the airport. They were also an L2 learner of Japanese so it was quite fun. We were speaking in Japanese and it was really good practice. I think it took me about an hour to get through immigration.
After that I made a dash for the Keisei mainline train to Ueno departing Narita terminals 2 & 3 at 19:52. Compared to the Skyliner this takes about an hour and 20 minutes so it’s about 30 minutes longer however there was no wait and I could go straight away. The Keisei Mainline trains have no space for big luggage so you need to hold your bag but my overnight bag could go on overhead racks. But the train was quite nice and I felt comfortable. I arrived at Ueno at about 9.10 local time. I exited Keisei Ueno via the Yodobashi camera shop and then walked through Ameyoko to my hotel.
Checking into the hotel was a relatively uneventful thing.
Then went to Katsuya for their katsu curry. After that I had a bit of a headache so went to try to go to Lawson’s to find some paracetamol. Unfortunately, convenience stores in Japan don’t really sell paracetamol so I had to make do with a can of Tully’s coffee. I texted mum some more and then had a bath and then recorded this with my audio recorder and now I’m going to go to bed.
Today was a really fun day. Coming back to Japan does bring back quite a few emotions but I do really enjoy this country and I am so glad to be here.
(Thanks Annabel for proof reading)