Return to London

There was a spectacular sunrise over Tokyo as Vera and myself left the hotel at 6am in a Green Onions taxi bound for Haneda Airport.
Having said goodbye to Vera who was on a BA flight, I checked my bag in for the coach-share Japan Airlines flight although booked through BA. There was a long queue at the security gate, but it kept moving and I was through everything in an hour.
The reason I'd booked this flight was because it was leaving at a reasonable time, 11,30, and would be a daytime flight flying from east to west with the clock.. However, I'd received an email some months before saying that the flight had been brought forward 100 minutes, presumably due to the inability to fly over Russia and the Ukraine.
The Boeing 777 took off 30 minutes late at 10.20 and flew east before reaching the International Date Lane when it was 22.00 on both sides although one day apart. The plane turned north and flew through the Bering Straits before turning east over North Alaska and Canada, reaching 80 degrees north and maybe even further north at one stage. The daytime flight had turned into a night-time flight. After overflying Greenland, the flight continued south-east, reaching London Heathrow after 14 hours at 15.30 still on the 6th, 9 hours behind the time in Tokyo. The flight had covered 7000 miles at c500 miles-per-hour, and covered 225 degrees of longitude which, together with 135 degrees on the outward flight, meant that I had circumnavigated the world.
On the flight, I'd listened to Rubinstein play Chopin, and Klemperer conduct Schumann's Rhenish Symphony. The silver service and food was very good.
The temperature at Heathrow was 11C, about 10C cooler than Tokyo.
I took the Elizabeth Line for the first time from Heathrow and then the Northern Line to Waterloo, arriving home soon after 17.00, 58 days after leaving the flat on this great journey.

Approximate distances covered: 1st Part - Intrepid - 1660 km
2nd Part - Intrepid - 2660km
3rd Part - On my own - 830km
4th Part - Inside Japan - 1250 km
Total Journey - 6400 km = 4000 miles.
Nights in 19 hotels: 38.
Nights in 11 ryokans and minshukus: 17
Nights in temple inn: 1
Total nights in Japan: 56.

Japanese set breakfasts; 11
Japanese set dinners: 14Læs mere