Haneda

As we flew on our first short hop to Munich, before connecting to Tokyo, the brilliance of flying Lufthansa became immediately and consistently apparent - the Germans are ruthlessly, fabulously efficient. The check in process, boarding, food on board and the like was all done with a minimum of fuss...unlike the huge queues and ridiculous wheely suitcases evident in British airports! We even had time for a sneaky pint in the layover 😊

As daylight dawned and breakfast was served on the plane, we flew the final few hours over Russia, Mongolia and Japan. Vast swathes of these countries are astoundingly, alarmingly flat... perfectly square and rectangular fields with the odd solitary house dotted amongst the vast dusty-coloured landscape and frozen lakes. The weather was nonetheless beautiful and we could see Mount Fuji on our terrifying approach into Tokyo. We swung south past the city before turning west and dropping to a scarily low altitude over the water before the runway finally hoved into view.

We did spend a little time on the pan once we had landed - the evidently irked Lufthansa pilot let us know this was because the parking space booked to us was currently occupied by another (presumably tardy) aeroplane!

A brief lavatory stop in the airport has perhaps set up the trip nicely - the toilet had more buttons on it than the entirety of my kitchen. The toilet door also suggested that in an emergency, Disaster Prevention should be contacted...what kind of emergency in a toilet needs Disaster Prevention?! We spent some time in the airport trying to work out the way to the hotel via Tokyo's fabulously complex subway system, aided by some very friendly locals.Read more