We can’t go anywhere now, so we might just as well reminisce. And on this day, last year: we started our trip to Japan!
We decided to split the trip and go via Helsinki: London-Helsinki with Finnair, and Helsinki-Tokyo with Japan Airlines, rather than taking a single long-haul flight with British Airways.
What a difference it made!
The Finnair plane was immaculately clean and flight attendants were not miserable!
Changing in Helsinki’s airport was incredibly easy. We just had to walk to a nearby gate, and had plenty of time to spare, which we spent browsing various shops, admiring the design and buying nothing (we were very conscious that we still had a full trip ahead of us!) 😂
I don’t think I was ready for the next flight: food came in various “installments” (with a table cloth), there was sake on the menu, and the bathrooms not only were immaculately clean (even after several hours into the flight) and were equipped with TOTO automatic toilets, but they ALSO had windows! 😲
It was all so dignified and civilised!
Appetiser 
Bento 
Salmon 
Desert 
Breakfast!
It was really nice to see Mount Fuji right before landing:
Next up: fighting jetlag in Tokyo with comfort food and beers 😂
Posts in this trip:
- 8/5/2019: Tokyo via Helsinki
- 9/5/2019: Jetlagged in Tokyo
- 10/5/2019: Tokyo to Matsumoto
- 11/5/2019: Narai – Japanese Coffee, Korean BBQ
- 12/5/2019: Matsumoto to Kanazawa
- 13/5/2019: curry for breakfast, a sugar tree, a pretty new café, sake tasting and excellent kaiseki dinner in Kanazawa
- 14/5/2019: a fancy izakaya, a visit to the sake district, okonomiyaki and more sake in Kyoto
- 15/5/2019: a vegan Buddhist breakfast, Kyoto temples, a yudofu lunch, and a monumental kaiseki dinner
- 16/5/2019: back to Tokyo, a hidden coffee parlour, music, stationery, and beer and snacks in Shibuya
- 17/5/2019: Asakusa, Ginza, kaiseki dinner, and vertigo-inducing cocktails
- 18/5/2019: Art in Waseda; views, yakitori and beer in Ebisu
- 19/5/2019: Art and soba noodles in Roppongi, hipstering in Nakameguro and Daikanyama, and kaiseki dinner in Ginza
- 20/5/2019: we find a Valencian bar near our hotel, fabric shopping in Nippori, sake tasting, tonkatsu for lunch, and beer with old friends
- 21/5/2019: an atmospheric walk, hanging out in Katsutadai, and a delicious last dinner
- 22/5/2019: back to London, via Frankfurt