Well, here’s my first official check-in from Japan – and my prevailing sentiment about 12 hours in is a heady mix of both knackered and elated at this point!

Long-haul travel has two absolute truisms in my case, namely:

Firstly, I will barely sleep the night before, and will invariably wake up at 12am, 12.30am, 1am, 1.30am, etc. ad nauseum, convinced I’ve missed my alarm / flight, before the actual allotted hour finally rolls round…

Secondly, for reasons unknown, I have literally zero ability to sleep on a flight – no matter the length of the journey… I seriously envy the lucky majority, who seem to possess the easy knack of somehow dropping off as soon as the lights dim, waking up bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ultimately refreshed at the other side.  I – by comparison – inevitably spend each and every sloooow, painful second of the journey dry-eyed and ram-rod wide-awake, watching endless airline movies of ever diminishing quality and slowly losing the will to live (first world problems, I appreciate…).

This effectively means I’m usually down 2 nights of sleep already before the trip has even begun – and why should Japan be any exception to the rule here….?! 😉  

And so it was, on this occasion (as with many others before it…), that 14 looooooong insomnious hours after departing Heathrow on Monday*, I landed bleary-eyed at Tokyo’s super-efficient – yet, conversely, ridiculously over-manned – Haneda Airport. I’d expected a bit more of a slog than usual to clear immigration here – Japan is still very much all up in COVID’s grill at the moment (or is it vice versa…?), and I’d had to download about 103 various QR codes (ok, well, all of two…) on this front before I came, plus don a face mask for the first time in a good long while on landing. But nope, everything was super orderly and efficient – and I was pretty much done and dusted from landing to luggage to leaving the building all within about 15 minutes, which has to be a new record I think!

From here, I successfully managed to navigate Japan’s delightfully eccentric public transportation system downtown to central Shinjuku – only to find it piddling it down when I got there (fortunately for me, the weather’s due to brighten up from tomorrow though). I wasn’t about to go sightseeing in the rain off the back of best part of two nights’ sleep deprivation and a 14 hour flight, so instead I did the only sensible thing I could possibly do under the circumstances: namely hitting up some local pussy and then getting nekkid with a bunch of strangers. Not quite the start I’d intended for this blog and – with that unexpected kick off – in hindsight I’m slightly regretting sharing the link quite so far and widely at this point! 😉

I am being flippant, of course – everything was, naturally, all above board and eminently respectable.

First stop in actuality was the Cat Café Mocha Lounge in Shinjuku, where a much needed matcha tea and a bit of cat love from the various residents soon lifted my flagging spirits.

(Do excuse the Burglar Bill hat, by the way. I’d donned it on the rainy walk to my accommodation to dump my bag, and ended up with irredeemable hat hair for the rest of the day as a result – hence beanie constituting a running theme in today’s pics as a result.)

Second stop was equally as wholesome as the first: namely a visit to the newly opened Thermae-Yu natural hot springs (onsen in Japanese) spa hotel, for a seriously relaxing dip in the restorative natural waters (swimming costumes strictly taboo for onsen bathing in Japan, apparently…). I then followed this up with an absolutely mind-blowing shiatsu pressure point massage (which, in fairness, I only fell asleep during just a liiiittle bit…).

No photo opps from this second little excursion for obvious reasons though (sorry to disappoint!). However, I did take the opportunity to take a few futuristic toilet pics on my travels. On further inspection, I can’t say I’m a particular fan of the ‘water fountain’ feature per se, but can definitely see the sound effect button having its practical uses from time to time… Moreover, I have to say that I’m going to find it seriously hard to ever go back to a non-heated toilet seat after three weeks in Japan, that’s for sure… I’m utterly spoiled for any other toilets now and forever more, I think.

As for now though, at the time of writing it’s coming up to 8pm local time. This brings us to the time we’ve all been waiting for, which – almost needless to say – is (drum roll sound effect) – MOTHERFRIKKIN’ JAPANESE CAPSULE HOTEL TIME!!!!!! I know you’re all excited; I’m feeling somewhat giddy myself here too.

Naturally given my first entry, I clearly had to spend my first night in a capsule hotel – or my 10 year old self would never forgive me (I may even have had to rescind my Blue Peter badge too, who knows…?). For all the obvious reasons (i.e. all the attendant noise and discomfort involved in sharing a stack of 6 ft by 4ft coffin beds alongside all and bloody sundry), I am only planning to do this for one night and one night only, before officially de-camping to – shall we say – somewhat less confined surroundings in the morning. My oh-so-cunning plan here was that it would make sense to schedule this stay for when I was already at peak knackered state, when I have half a fighting chance at a decent night’s sleep as a result (famous last words, very possibly…).

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, so cue obligatory photo montage of capsule hotel in all its various aspects – inclusive of beds, bunks, lockers, bathrooms and my own Bob the Builder silly hat look. I’m on the top bunk; there’s a (very modern and clean) shared bathroom down the hall, and a coffee machine for the morning – so, in short, I’m all set! And good job too, as I’m pretty much dead on my feet at this point…

And so it’s a case of sleep well and wait for good luck (家宝は寝て待て) as the Japanese supposedly say!

As for now, stay tuned for the next riveting adventure of Sarah in Japan, coming soon to a WordPress blog near you…

* Flight spent watching (in chronological order): The Menu, She Said, Fantastic Beasts, Everything Everywhere All at Once, King Richard and Nope…