Uisuki and Daiou’s first step onto Japanese soil this morning. Well, figuratively at least – doing a Pope John Paul II and actively kissing the tarmac seems to be thoroughly discouraged!

Following the long but uneventful and fairly comfortable flight (come on - it’s 12 hours – how comfortable can you be?) we landed at Haneda International Terminal and soon began the fun experience of getting through security. Despite being one of the first flights in, the queue was already doing its best impersonation of a Disneyland theme pack and snaking all over the hall. Still, what can you do? Slight panic when we realised that we hadn’t been given landing cards on the plane but actually there were lots of stations to stand and fill them in.

And then rejoin the queue which had doubled in the meantime!

Top tip: get the landing cards on the plane and fill them out on board! Numpty.

Anyway, after about 45 minutes we eventually got to the stressful, potentially deal-breaking bit and showed our passports to the nice 12-year-olds behind the desks. No alarms sounded and no armed guards fast-roped from the ceiling so we relaxed a bit. Not sure what we expected but it’s still a bit of a stressfest!

While we’d been queueing the JAL staff had taken all the remaining baggage off the carousel and lined it all up neatly for the non-Japanese customers. Nicely one – much appreciated. Even then, it definitely helps having Protection Racket bags as they are easy to spot!

We were all ready to go get the trains but there’s another baggage check first. 5 more minutes in a queue then. To be fair though the guard took one look at my “Scottish Idiot” hoodie, laughed and quickly waved us through. Worth the £20 then. Tracey cringed a bit. Not for the last time!

Next came the JR Pass and the Pocket Wi-Fi. Unfortunately neither office was open. I knew they wouldn’t be but I actually had expected to spend longer getting through security and baggage reclaim so we had a good 30 minutes to wait until the Ninja Wi-fi office opened and over an hour for the JR Pass Office. Slight chuntering.

Tracey went to find a seat while I waited in the already forming queue for the Wi-Fi. And it opened exactly on time as expected. As last time, all sorted very efficiently and courteously, I spent about 5 minutes including reading through the letter from JRPass.com about the mix up over the dates. 1 day rental is morning to night not morning to morning so we would have been 1 day short. Long story short, they agreed to waive the extra day fee and said that Ninja Wi-Fi could contact them if there was an issue. Note – we did get a reminder later in the trip with the original return date but after a short discussion by email it was all sorted out. No problems!

Then came the queue for the JR Pass.

This, to be honest, is the one part of the whole process that really needs improving. And yes, it’s just for tourists so I get that perhaps it’s not the greatest priority, but with the Rugby World Cup and Olympics coming up it needs reviewing. At time or writing you can’t get the JR Pass when abroad. You have to buy a voucher that you change for the JR Pass once you are in Japan. Fine. But the Haneda Office doesn’t open until 7:30am and flights land well before this. Also, it’s quite small and only has two or three counters and it takes a good 5 minutes per customer to get the process done, even with the really helpful (and understandably slightly stressed) member of staff handing out the forms and clipboard so you can complete the paperwork before you go in. By the time we joined the queue it was already winding round the corner from the office and had “1 hour from here” signs in front of that. And it did take about an hour. Mild, rising to moderate, rising to heavy chuntering. By the time we got our pass the queue was biblical so those people would have easily been waiting an hour and a half to two hours.

No, to be fair, there are signs saying that this is the busiest office and you are advised to use the ones in Tokyo instead. But if, like us, you aren’t going into Tokyo and want to go straight out to somewhere else in the country you’re a bit stuffed. Also, if it’s your first time in Japan, finding the other offices might be a bit of an…”adventure”.

There do seem to be moves afoot to change the rules so you can get the pass before you get to Japan but at present this is the deal. It’s not great, especially after a 12 hour flight and (again in our case) facing 3 more hours on the train. Minor divorce.

Anyway, after this we used the free monorail to get into the city and begin the trek out to Sendai. If I had a magic wand I’d extend the monorail to Tokyo station since that’s where you get the Shinkansen, but the furthest you can get on it is Hamamatsuchō which is three stops away. Not really a big deal and we had discussed it when we planned the trip. It just looked a bigger deal after travelling/queuing for 14-15 hours, being knackered and dragging a case each. Ah well – suck it up!

Short hop then to Tokyo Station and all we needed to do then was book the Shinkansen, find the platform and then relax for a few hours. Hmmm. Booking the tickets actually was fine since we’d been there and done that. Finding the platform though…painful memories of Shinjuku Eki last year came flooding back. Still, at least this time there were plenty of station staff to ask so not long later we were on the correct platform waiting for our train.

Being suddenly surprisingly hungry (or at least I was) I suggested we get Eki Ben (packed lunch for the train). Tracey was “not hungry”. However after a slightly more major divorce and a “discussion” that low blood sugar wasn’t exclusive to people of the male persuasion, two Eki Bens were scoffed down, accompanied by vending machine coffee and, in retrospect, a remarkably poor choice of a Highball at 9am. Whiskey in the morning is not recommended. At all.

10 minutes later and with blood sugar restored (and, in one of our cases, with slightly crossed eyes) we installed ourselves in the Shinkansen and headed for Sendai. Love the Shinkansen. Always bang on time, clean, comfortable, quiet, fast – all very very civilised.  So for the next 2.5 hours we watched the countryside speed by and poked each other awake occasionally (stop writing your own script!) so we didn’t fall asleep and miss the stop. Highly unlikely since the warning jingles would wake the dead.

Sendai Eki (I’m going to use “Station” and “Eki” interchangeably so get used to it!) is all very pleasant and pretty easy to navigate. Thank god because we were like wet rags at this point. And the first thing I saw was an advert with my favourite singer Matsu Takako promoting Royal Bread so extra points there.

So all that was left was a short walk to the hotel and check in then?

Nope.

Neither.

I said in the day one blog about checking the scale of the map. Yep. That.

What followed was a VERY long walk through the town centre and several shopping malls. One of the malls is called “Clis Road” which was written in Katakana as クリス ・ロード This literally stopped me in my tracks as my name is クリス・ ロー　and I did a proper double take.

I pointed out the coincidence delightedly to my better half…who was rapidly disappearing into the distance muttering about sharp things and my anatomy. Oops. Ok, onward then…

Much more walking and dragging of cases until we eventually, and very thankfully, stood in the lobby of the hotel. The staff were very helpful and courteous and quickly booked in our bags…but no check in until 3pm.

It was 12pm.

I think if “The Purge” was an actual thing, my life expectancy at that point would have been measured in fractions of a millisecond.

Nothing for it then but to find something to do for a few hours.

We retraced our steps back to Kotodai Park which we’d passed earlier and bought some nigiri balls, One Cup sake, beer and some cyder (basically lemonade) and sat on a bench in the park like latch-key kids eating lunch. At least the weather was good.

Feeling a bit more human and with the tension back down to Defcon 3 we had a good old womble around the shops and alleyways off the main drag for an hour or so to get our bearings, before hiking back to hotel and crashing out for three hours. Never been so happy to see a bed!

Shower and a change of clothes and off we went again, in a much better mood this time, to find what last year Tracey christened ”Ping Pong Ramen” after our first experience in Gyouza no Oushou (Gyouza King for want of a better translation). And what did we find in Ichibanchou? Gyouza King! Happy happy bunnies, almost ran through the door and once seated (it was heaving!) we stuffed ourselves with Gyouza, Yakisoba and Crab Omurice washed down with several beers and sake. Phenomenal!

While eating we were also invited to take part in a special live performance of the famous participation play “Drunk Ojisan in Restaurant”, involving lots of stilted conversation and increasingly firm intervention by a member of staff. Just an observation - the conversation "but we are just having a chat" and "OK, but you have to leave now" (repeat verbatim ad nauseum) is the same in any language when it's between a very VERY drunk middle aged guy in a restaurant and a teenager who isn't paid nearly enough for this shit. Still, although it was a bit awkward it was never remotely threatening and it all adds to the local colour I suppose!

Uisuki and Daiou had their first photos taken with the local lads (who’d been watching the drama play out with a mixture of interest and amusement) and then back to hotel via a combini for more sake, snacks and a much needed proper sleep.

Not a bad start to the holiday, once all the travelling was out of the way. Would I do the same again? Probably. But I’d triple check walking distances and check-in times first!

Let's see what tomorrow brings....

Later note:

Erm, naughty Uisuki and Daiou might have accidentally caned the entire bottle of a rather nice Shochikubai Tokubetsu Junmai (1000 yen, about £7.50 thank you!) by mistake. Not sure how these things happen really. It's a mystery, wrapped in a mad riddle, wrapped in… Oh sod it, it was a tad too easy to drink so obviously the brewery's fault. Wonder if Lawsons is still open....

Even later note:

Unsurprisingly, yes. Yes Lawson's was still open. Or at least one of them was.

Let's face it, if you shut your eyes, spin round and throw a brick you'd hit a conbini in Japan. 

You'd be arrested though.

Living the dream; sitting in hotel yukata and drinking sake from bathroom cups.

Loving every single second!