Travel god desert me travelling to Tokyo

From Tokyo March 2009

It had to happen eventually – the travel gods deserted me on my business trip to Tokyo… After the tragic crash of a cargo plane at Narita airport, we where informed a few hours before we where due to land that we’d been diverted. Naively thinking it was like being diverted from Heathrow to Gatwick, I wasn’t concerned – it was a business trip and the car would simply pick me and my fellow travelling colleagues up from a different airport. Little did I know! We landed uneventfully at Central Japan Airport, an airport build offshore from Nagoya. After some time sat in the plane, the ground staff presented every passenger with 20,000 Yen, at the time I thought this was generous compensation for the inconvenience. Having quickly cleared immigration, we gathered at the airport railway station. At this point we considered jumping in a taxi – something that with hindsight would have been a very expensive time consuming choice. Luckily we had the technology to seek advice from our colleagues in Japan – get the train to Nagoya and change was the advice – it was dawning on me that a travel adventure was about to begin – in a land where I couldn’t even guess at the meaning of the signs, and after a 14 hour flight… We boarded our first train. EasyJet would have been proud of describing the airport as “Nagoya” airport – about 40 minutes later on what had been a very fast train – frequently exceeding 150 KPH, we arrived at Nagoya’s central railway station. Here we had a choice – bullet train or "commuter” train . It was now dawning on me how far from Tokyo we where. Rather than being diverted from Heathrow to Gatwick, we’d been diverted to the equivalent of Newcastle or Liverpool or even Paris! On advice, gratefully received, from our local colleagues we navigated the process of purchasing Bullet Train tickets. The wonders of Blackberries – and here I admit most of the good work was done by Dan. So we found our way onto the Bullet Train – for a journey I now know was 342km – which took 1½ hours. If we’d know that the “green car” was the equivalent of first class, rather than some greener way of travelling – maybe you have to pedal! – we’d have selected that. The 20,000 Yen wasn’t looking so generous – it had cost most of that to get to Tokyo. The final leg to the hotel was simple – jump in a taxi and show them the name of the hotel…  All of this completed without my iTouch which I’d managed to leave at home before I’d got a clue how much I’d miss it! The rest of the trip was uneventful, hard work, but straight forward. Our hosts showed us some great placed to eat authentic local food. Topped off by some of the best steak I’ve had the privilege to eat. Subtly different from top quality steak in Europe, but wonderfully cooked in front of us and presented. The restaurant also offered great views across Tokyo from the 37th floor of our hotel. The only pity was that I dragged my camera half way across Japan, and only managed to get a few pictures out of the hotel window! Having said that it was a great view of the Tokyo skyline. Travel in the reverse direction was, I’m thankful to say simple and uneventful – no diversions to Newcastle or Paris…