28-12-13 – You’ll have to bear with me a little while I play catch up on these blog posts

So I thought it would make sense to ease into the Japanese experience by catching the same flight Ben so I didn’t need to deal with the initial language barrier and logistics to get to my final destination.

With both of us with snowboard and large amounts of luggage in tow, I ordered us a car to come pick us up from mine at 5am in the morning for the 8am flight. I made a bit of a balls up with the online checkin so had to change my seat next to Ben’s on arrival at the airport.

From packing my bags to checking in at the airport I was in a proper flap. I can’t remember the last time I felt such a sense of nervousness. I think mainly due to the thought of forgetting something essential for my 3 month trip. Ben was looking at me like I was a man possessed as I do the pocket pat panic dance on 3 separate occasions for my keys, phone and wallet behind from closing the front door to my flat to checking into the airport.

After a quick browse in the shops we headed for the lounge for a bit to eat and a much needed 6am glass of chardonnay. A quick browse of the morning’s business periodicals laters and it was last call for our flight. Oops!

It was Ben’s turn to look a little concerned as I tried to  unconvincingly look him in the eye and tell him it would be fine at which point we both increased our pace to a brisk walk to the gate via the transfer train.

A glass of champagne, breakfast, 6 Johnnie Walker and ginger ales, 2 films a nap and fillet steak dinner later we had landed in Haneda airport at 4.30am local time the next day.

Pretty quiet at the airport so early in the morning so get to immigration and customs pretty quickly. I discover at immigration that my previous research that UK passport holders are allowed a 6 month automatically visa is not entirely true. 

The immigration officer not very helpfully or knowledgeable tells me I only have a 90 day visa and I’m just going to have to change my flight which on reconnection to the world confirm through the embassy website  is not the case and I just need to go visit an immigration office to get it extended.

Next challenge. Get our obscene amount of luggage from Haneda airport to Ben’s apartment. We opt for the easier option of the taxi rank. My first experience of Japanese efficiency.

There are taxis as far as the eye can see and if I squint enough I can just about make out a mini people carrier that might just fit our luggage, but the local protocol insists that the taxi’s must be used in order of arrival to the rank. With no impending queue to utilise the endless number of taxis it was going to be a long wait for us to even get a chance even checking if that people carrier would have enough capacity to fit us and our luggage.

The front most taxi drivers and the taxi steward huddle together and appear to discuss what a pickle we are now in and Ben and I look on and weigh up our public transport options.

What seemed like ten minutes later the taxi steward pulls out a laminated card with 5 different numbers on it and shouts out “JUMBO TAXI!” to which to my ignorant ears Ben replies in some local tones, words and gestures of agreement and elation.

Within 90 seconds of Ben calling one of the numbers, a people carrier appears and the driver proceeds to load our luggage to his vehicle in what appears to be a process of complete trial and error as if he had never had to load luggage into his taxi from an airport pick up before. I step forward to try and give the guy a hand when Ben murmurs some advice from past experience “You just have to let them get on with it”. Not out of selfishness I should add, more the indication that no matter how we try to help they need to go through their own process to make it work.

No more than 30 minutes later we have arrived at Ben’s apartment. We repack our bags, shower and head for Nozawa Onsen.