It usually starts months and months before, with us comparing ticket prices for flights to Japan. Finnair being the quickest, with a short jump to Helsinki and further to Tokyo. The trouble is that they know that too well, which is reflected in their prices... We settled for SAS this time - wife and son tried it out last year and were pleased with the arrangement. Copenhagen is quiet enough which is good with two kids that want to stretch their legs after the first flight. And not too far in the wrong direction, as the flight to Japan usually takes the route back over Stockholm again. Fair enough when going there, though really a pain when going back as you would like them to just stop by at Arlanda to just drop us off after a 10 hour flight. Another plus is there's only one passport control to pass for transfer, compared with all of us having going though a full security control at Schiphol last time, to get to the connecting flight.
We had a good farewell from our two closest neighbours as we left at about 10 o'clock on the 18th. I'd visited them the evening before to tell them about our trip and how we had arranged with looking after the house and cats. Now on the morning when filling up the taxi with baggage they came out to wave us off. Nice to have such neighbours.
Arriving at Copenhagen, we seems to be sent off to the end of the airport for the next flight. Actually there were more gate numbers after our one, but all desolate. Good, as it left lots of room for the kids to play around and me not too embarrassed by them being a bit loud doing it as there where no one there to hear. It though stuck with me as a sign that economy is not back on its feet, or people just found other ways to meet and communicate.
In SAS's A340 planes they have a quite neat screen at every seat to view movies, play games and see flight information. There is a game controller, though you can make the general selections on the screen itself. Kept at least Simon busy for several hours - with my assistance, Eme also. What I thought was the nicest thing, being a bit into airplanes, was that there are cameras in the front and at the belly of the airplane. So landing at Narita airport was a treat, following it through the screen.
Arriving at Narita in the morning is really quiet. It seems only our flights members to go for the customs and retrieving their baggage. We had a hour to kill until the airport bus to Seiseki-Sakuragaoka was to leave. Going outside, we felt the warmth of the summer still here.
Around 30 degrees, though with the extra effect of humidity of 60-65 %. Bless air conditioning! Very happy the bus had one as we were off for a 2.5 hours trip. Even though it takes a while, the first stop is actually where we get off. And it takes us right into the center of Tokyo where the expressways usually goes high above the other traffic, sometimes a couple of storey up. Quite an experience! Though I couldn't stay awake to enjoy the scenery more then a couple of minutes in total, as I was catching up on sleep lost during the flight. And so were the rest of the family.
(The pocket camera just didn't feel like traveling. It gave up on us, though have served us well. Pictures to come, with new camera)
