We had an excellent flight with Air China – bring your own food and entertainment but otherwise really comfortable with great service – via Shanghai to Narita Airport.
Our very orderly hotel near Narita Airport provided both the sight of a robot whose purpose we still haven’t identified and a great bus service back to the terminals this morning:
We wondered around the airport, admiring its sense of calm and order – a sense which pervades Japan, in our experience, and makes travelling relaxing and easy. We enjoyed the following shopping experience which, like all things Japanese, was made as easy as possible for the consumer:
There’s a thesis to be written about how cheap airlines in different countries deal with checking that passengers with carry-on obey their rules: in the UK, everyone tries to wing it; in Peru, a couple of people police the departure lounge and fish out culprits whose luggage looks too big; and in Japan, everyone lines up at a series of scales to have their luggage weighed so that they can get a little tag to say they’re okay:
A quiet flight to Nagasaki Airport, an even quieter journey on the bus and we’ve reached our first destination along with blue skies and a strong sense of calm and ease reminding us how very relaxing it is to be in Japan.
A quick trip to Dejima (of which more tomorrow) produced the first sign, reminding us how many dangers we might be confronted with despite the air of calm:
And another first for us (aside from the toilet in our room at the hotel which is even more advanced than those we’ve experienced in Japan):
A third first – not toilets this time – was a delightful encounter with an elderly man who came and gave us two bars of what we thought was chocolate as we sat admiring the sunset outside a cafe:
Turned out to be coffee-flavoured bean paste ,,, maybe don’t try this at home.
Proper culture starts tomorrow …
Miriam and Sue.
What a fascinating blog, I love hearing of everyday differences in various countries. You made me laugh re the robot and the organised Japanese. I can just picture it now. Have a wonderful time for the rest of the trip and looking forward to hearing more later
Hi Katie! Yes, definitely more to come – hard to walk down a street without exclaiming ‘ look at that!’ Quirky and gripping…
For some reason I never got this one – doesn’t make it less interesting!
Maybe a Nagasaki/ Berlin blip? Glad you found it interesting anyway….
I’m feeling the peaceful vibe already – nice contrast of your sunset with all the disaster pictures. And ok, I’ll bite – what is an ostomate toilet? And what cool features on your hotel toilet? (we may need to reno our bathroom)
Well, the clue to the ostomate toilet is in the name and the tiny sign – it’s a toilet that will help people with stoma bags and, before you ask, no, I don’t know how. M has now done a short video of the toilet in our current room and its features so won’t give away its secrets quite yet ( they involve lid and flush, just to give you a clue).
Most toilets do involve a lid and a flush so no secrets being given away here
Well, yes, you’re quite right of course – the only difference here is that lid opening and flush ( and indeed light going on) are all automatic, generated I guess by sensors of some kind. The toilet doesn’t then ask you to rate its performance, thankfully…
Hello, good to see you are comfortable and calm in Japan, and that you are being well cared for in the Japanese way. Hopefully you won’t need to escape from anything more unusual than unsolicited gifts while you are there. The robot at your hotel is very interesting. It will have been a hospitality robot, likely a Toyota Human Support Robot or HSR. So you could have asked it for directions, or to get you a taxi, or even help with your luggage. Or to get you a coffee. How you ask it anything in English could be a challenge.
Well, indeed! Not sure those helpful claw hands could have held the phone to read or listen to Google translate. On the other hand, I guess it always knows how to answer those ‘ no, I’m not a robot’ questions…
Peace, calmness- sounds just what you need
Oh, it is, it is. The sense of order is simply wonderful – don’t get me started on their arrangements for domestic rubbish collection ( there are many photos of this so may perhaps be an entire future blog post)..
I loved looking at the map you posted. Good to see your route.
How nice to be in a calm-feeling country. You’ll have a lovely time.
All very good so far, Blaize – not having even the slightest idea what people are talking about probably also helps..
A wonderful start to your travels…. Interestingly though I can’t say that my train station and airport experiences in Japan last year gave me a sense of calm…xx
Well, we weren’t actually trying to book or catch a train so that probably helps. The airports, though, calm and very quiet…
Shanghai! Don’t suppose you had a chance to go and look at the city otherwise you would have mentioned it. Japanese bean paste sweets are a mystery aren’t they? A friend once brought us back a beautifully packaged box of them – each one exquisite to look at and every one of them with the texture and taste of congealed mud. Still a lovely gesture.
Sadly our time in Shanghai was brief and spent in the business lounge at the airport so difficult to form much impression. And yes, those bean paste sweets are a bit of an acquired taste ( though we’re warming slightly to the chocolate/ coffee ones we were given.) Sometimes, it’s probably just best to admire the wrapping and go no further I feel.