Ok, I'll do the usual and copy over my blog with a few changes...
Pretty soon we left the coast of New Guinea behind and the northern hemisphere was just over the horizon.
Such a quick flight to Tokyo from Brisbane. Nine and a quarter hours. Perfect. A snack of fried rice about an hour out.
Al had been back to talk to our travelling companion a couple of times. As it was announced we were about to descend one of the crew came and asked where our friend was sitting in economy. There was an empty seat behind Al and the crew had decided it would be good to bring our friend
View attachment 128918 up with us for landing so that we could all get off the plane together. How nice. She was apparently very confused when they first approached her but eventually understood.
Fantastic view of the coastal plain as we approached Narita. Rice paddies as far as the eye could see with roads running between them. Acres of small solar farms. As the ground became more solid emerald green golf courses. The Japanese love their golf.
With my new Qantas/One World emerald status our bags were tagged first and they were amongst the first half dozen bags out. Yay! Our third's bag wasn't out that much later. Through immigration in minutes. What a breeze.
First stop was the Japan Rail office to activate our rail passes. We had bought JR East and South Hokkaido six day rail passes
JR East-South Hokkaido Rail Pass. These gave us any six days in 14 on JR East Shinkansen in northern Honshu and on to Hokkaido and all other JR trains as far south as Odawara and in southern Hokkaido. It suited our plans just about perfectly. The N'EX (Narita Exress) into Tokyo was day one. We also needed to pick-up our tickets for the trains to and from Hokkaido that I'd pre-booked but that we needed to pick up before 9pm the night before travel. Lucky we arrived on time!
We caught the N'EX to Shinagawa where our friends picked us up. How nice!
It was about a 15 minute drive to the embassy. Beautiful apartment befitting our friend's post. We're so lucky to have somewhere so amazing to base ourselves.
Went to a local yakitori restaurant for a late dinner and welcome beers. I love yakitori. Nothing better than salted chicken bbqd on a stick. Yum!! It was a fantastic end to a great first day of our Japanese adventure.