Long Day(s)

Konnichiwa from Tokyo!  We have arrived, it was a mega long journey, but we are here, in one piece with without too much trouble.

We were up at 2.30 on Saturday morning in order to get the 6.55 flight from Manchester to Heathrow.  The only good thing about that was that the roads were completely empty.  Tom was worried that we might oversleep and miss our flight, so it took him quite a while to settle.  We explained that we had many alarms etc etc, but you know what it is like for a 5 year old - they have stressful lives!  Anyway his body clock obviously works well, because he got me up at 2.22am asking what the time was?  This meant that I had enough time for a shower before we all got up, packed the final items, filled the car, grabbed our first breakfast of the day (malt loaf) and then set on our way.  As I said the roads were empty so we made good time, checked in (strange: we tried to check in on the computer yesterday - it wouldn't let us, but when we arrived it was baggage drop off only - so we checked in via the computer terminals in the departures lounge which was quite straight forward, so why we couldn't do it at home is a bit of a mystery.  To check in we had to give phone numbers of next of kin - I have never been asked that before - anyway, all was done with ease).

We then went through to the departures lounge and had our second breakfast of the morning: beans on toast for me and a pastry and strong coffee for Matt (Tom at this point was flagging and couldn't face food).  Our flight left on time.  It is only 40 minutes from Manchester to London, but believe it or not, we got served breakfast - so our third breakfast of the day was a bacon sandwich which we all devoured.  

Thanks for coming Grannie and Grandpa

At Heathrow we ignored all the transfer gates and went landside and got ourselves to Terminal 3 departures where we met up with Pat and Bob.  We had a 5 hour wait for our flight to Tokyo.  It was a nice meet up.  Tom certainly enjoyed his time showing off and entertaining his grandparents.  A case of not seeing them for a while and then 3 times in a week.  We made a base in a pub and had our 4th breakfast of the morning - toasted muffins with butter and jam.  We were feeling a little miffed that no lunchtime items were on the menu yet - our tummies were very much wanting something other than breakfast.

Tom and a plane

After saying goodbye and thank you to Grannie and Grandpa we went through immigration and into Terminal 3 departures - it was heaving.  Landside was a lot more civilised.  We only just managed to find 3 seats together whilst we waited for our gate to be announced.  Believe it or not we all got hungry again - so we munched on some sandwiches before heading to the gate for our flight to Tokyo.

Concentrating with headphones

We were booked on a Virgin A340.  It was OK - but we were spoilt last year on the A380.  Everything felt cramped and old. Tom however, was well behaved as always, and being that little bit older he was more able to entertain himself.  He watched part of the Lego movie and part of Frozen, he had two periods of sleep (it's getting harder for him as he's too long now to stretch out - and the flight was full!), think he managed about 3 hours in total.  Matt and I managed nothing - but that's usual for us.  We aren't the best sleepers as it is, put us in a cramped seat, there is no chance.  I spent most of the flight in tears - watching Philomena and then Educating Yorkshire (a TV programme that Matt recommended and was about a boy trying to overcome a stammer to do his English GCSE) and then I watched Frozen to see what all the hype is about (I wasn't impressed!).

Well done Soffie Bear

We arrived in Narita on time, flew through immigration, our bags were the first to come through (that never normally happens to us) and we didn't get stopped at customs (the Tom effect - he still has it).  Then the Narita Express to Tokyo Station (Tom was mesmerised by the scenery flying past - his face stuck to the window - it is certainly nothing like home!)  Then a local train to Shinbashi.  By now it was only 11am and we couldn't check in at our flat until 1pm, so we had lunch in a bakery (very yummy: sausage in bread for Tom, chicken karage bun and sausage in bread for Matt and a eggy pizza bun thingy & a edamame and cheese bun for me).  As we had all our luggage with us and time to kill we decided to get a platform ticket and find a base for ourselves on a platform at the station where we could spot local trains, express trains and shinkansens.  This worked well, Tom was more than happy and time passed quickly.

We then headed to our flat, we found it with ease, were met by a lovely lady.  The flat is amazing - about double the size of the apartment we had last time, furnished with everything we need - including all shampoo, laundry soap etc etc.  We have a FANTASTIC view over Tokyo Bay, we overlook a Docklands Light Railway sort of tracks, and are opposite a boat terminal and have a great view of The Rainbow Bridge.  There are boats moving all the time - including one 'Pirate Boat' that a certain young boy was very excited about.  We are also right in the centre of town, Tokyo Tower is in walking distance, Odiba (the entertainment district is in view from here), and Ginza the posh shopping district which we won't visit but everyone seems to have heard of is in walking distance.  How much more convenient could it be?  At night time, it is very pretty with the bridge lit up and a big wheel in Odiba lit up and boats with pretty lights darting about.  I think we will spend a lot of time out on our balcony enjoying it.

We all had a shower and then collapsed in our beds for a couple of hours.  We then forced ourselves up and went for a walk around the local area to see what was around.  We were looking for a supermarket but couldn't find.  Never mind, we found a food court below the World Trade Centre after doing a lap of it we asked Tom what he wanted to eat and he chose...curry!  So curry it was with a nice cold beer - it tasted so good, although my legs felt a little wobbly on the way back.

We found a Lawsons on the way home (very important as that is where you purchase Ghibli Museum vouchers from - we were unable to get any in the UK as all the foreign tickets had sold out.  We were told to try to buy some locally instead).  After a couple of false starts we got them - yahoooo, so we finally told Tom who was very excited. 

Then, back to the apartment and bed for Tom.  We managed to stay up until 10pm and then headed the same way.  It had been a long day!