Above: Waiting to leave my hometown Kuching.
I left Kuching at a civilised time of 1040 for Tokyo via Kuala Lumpur on AirAsia and then AirAsia X. The two hour transit in KL gave me enough time to fit in a quick light lunch at the lounge before boarding the flight to Tokyo, the world’s largest urban area with 36 million people. [Shanghai is a bigger city because greater Tokyo comprises several jursidictions]. So, this is the world’s “Biggest Smoke”?
I was lucky enough to get 3 seats for the 6h flight which went quickly enough. We landed at Tokyo’s Haneda airport 20 minutes early ahead of the 2230 scheduled arrival time. I had been worried about a delay and subsequent hassles with the shuttle bus to my hotel.
Walking from the plane to the immigration area, I couldn’t notice the large number of toilets all the way through the route. Checking one of them out, they were large with many stalls and urinals. Perhaps the designers know that many people are bursting to go after long flights. Or people here have small bladders?
The airline had run out of arrival cards so the crew only handed out the customs declaration. Even with filling the arrival card out inside the terminal, I was out of the airport in no time. It was a brief wait in the 7 degC late night for the complimentary hotel shuttle to the JAL Express Haneda Hotel.
Due to the late night arrival into Haneda, I didn’t want to risk public transport into the city centre as they generally stop at midnight. I thought it would be wise to stay the night in the airport area instead and make my way to my central hotel in the morning. Fortunately, I managed to book one night at the JAL City Haneda cheaply – the rate was cheaper than that for the surrounding nights.