Thursday 6th & Friday 7th March 2025

Aki up at 0730. She brought me tea in bed. Read some Dickens before getting up for porridge. Aki had a zoom meeting. I did some ironing and finished my packing. Lovely, sunny day. Emptied the fridge for lunch. Headed for Heathrow...caught a No.91 bus to Cally Road, then Piccadilly Line to Heathrow T3. 

Kath ahead of us having flown down from Newcastle this morning. Got ourselves through security and found Kath waiting in the seats outside Boots. Bought some water supplies, and a neck pillow. Flight departed on time. We hadn’t been able to book seats together. I found myself sat between two Japanese chaps toward the rear of the plane. It was an uncomfortable 13 hour flight. Watched Ralf Fuentes in Conclave and read some Dickens. Only managed an hour or so’s sleep. By the time we landed in Tokyo my knees had atrophied, my hernia was giving me gip, and I had stomach ache. 

It was slow getting through security…Kath slowed us down as she hadn’t filled in a Landing Card, nor Customs Declaration. We staggered out into the concourse and got the Monorail, and from thence jumped into a taxi to the hotel…but got dropped off at the wrong establishment and had to flag down another taxi. It was gone 2000 hours by the time we got to our rooms. Tiny accommodation with barely enough room for our baggage, let alone more than one human being! We repaired to a little local ramen joint across the road for dinner. Very tasty…then back to the hotel and bed…