Day 1 - Saturday 22nd April 2023

Today we would be leaving Sydney to fly to Tokyo with Japan Airlines (JL52). The flight was due to depart at 8:15am and we were told to get to the airport three hours before the flight.

We'd set the alarm for 4:15 and we were out of the hotel by 5:15. The hotel's web site boasts that the terminal is only 181 steps from the hotel. This is probably right but once you reach the terminal, you need to go up the lift (or escalators) to departure. I thought we'd then have to walk a long way to find the JAL counter but it was right there at the top of the escalator.

There was no queue for the business class check-in and almost none for economy either. However there was a long queue for security and no priority queue for business class. It was 5:45 by the time we got through.

At the check-in, we were surprised when she told us that we weren't allowed to have any airtags in our checked luggage and so we had to open our bags there on the floor and rummage through to find them and remove them.

The Qantas lounge was not crowded and we settled in to have coffee and breakfast. Luckily we would be boarding via gate 8 which was close to the lounge. We left the lounge at 7:45 and the plane pulled back from the terminal at 8:25 - about ten minutes late.

We both had window seats in business class - one behind the other. It was a 1:2:1 arrangement - one seat near each window and two in the middle. The seats were at a 45 degree angle and had lap-sash seat belts like a car. Instead of shutters, the windows had a button the dim the glass.

Although it was a cloudy day, there were enough breaks in the clouds to get a view of the coastline and the southern suburbs after take-off.

We were amazed when they served a substantial meal about 30 minutes after take-off. It was like having lunch (or more likely dinner) at morning tea time. We'd already had breakfast in the Qantas lounge and really didn't need any more food.

They brought us an entrée and then another one which I thought was the main course but they then brought the real main course which was a delicious beef dish. They offered me wine but I naturally declined at that hour of the day. I also declined the dessert because I was more than full.

It was going to be a long flight (about 10 hours) and so thankfully there was a good selection of movies and other entertainment on the screen in front our your seat to fill in the time. I had been wanting to watch Top Gun Maverick and this was an ideal opportunity to do just that. It was a great action film.

Later I watched the film about Whitney Houston - another one that had been on my to-do list. Helpfully it came with Japanese subtitles.

The JAL menu listed a few items you could order at any time during the flight. So at about 3:30pm, I was getting peckish and so I asked for a tuna sandwich and a glass of pinot noir.

For most of the flight, we'd been travelling at 40,000ft according to the map on the entertainment monitor. As we approached Tokyo and descended through the clouds, visibility was limited because of the clouds and perhaps smog.

Instead of heading straight towards the airport, we headed north before swinging around and we landed soon after 5pm local time (6pm Sydney time). The stewardess apologised that the plane was five minutes late because we'd been diverted to a different runway. It just goes to show you how punctual the Japanese are.

Also perhaps that explains why the pilot hit the brakes so hard when we landed. Anything that wasn't secure went flying. Perhaps this was a shorter runway than normal.

Carol had warned us that it takes forever to get through immigration and she wasn't wrong. The queue at immigration was very long. It wound back and forwards many times. My guess is that if it had been a straight line, it would have been at least 500m long - probably about 750m.

Customs was OK and the taxi queue was poorly organised but not too long. However, we had difficulty explaining to the taxi driver where we wanted to go (Century Southern Tower Hotel). He did eventually find our hotel after a 30 minute journey into the city. By that time it was 7:15pm local time.

We'd been to this hotel on our previous trip to Japan. It is in a very tall building. Reception is on level 20 and the guest rooms are above that level. Suzy had asked for a room with a view and they did just that - our room is near the top of the building on level 33 with a fabulous view of the city below (panoramic king room).

The room is big enough and has a small lounge area but (as might expect in Japan) it isn't spacious. The shower is in the bath and it has a typical Japanese toilet with a heated seat and a row of buttons to control other features.

Originally we'd planned to order room service for dinner but reception told us when we were checking in that there was no room service tonight. So we had a sit-down dinner in the hotel restaurant instead. It was a good meal with a great view. The wine was expensive. I ended up ordering a bottle of an Italian red wine for 5500 Yen.

It was good to get to bed after such a long day.