Melbourne to Narita

Mar 29

Mar 29 Melbourne to Narita - We're on our way to Japan

Japan Diary Day 1 - 29 March 2019

Check out Episode 1 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

Hi, I’m Shane. Join us, Shane, Michelle, Georgia and Brandon, as we undertake an epic road trip around Japan. Almost 4000 km across the islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Three of the main islands out of four home islands. No Hokkaido on this trip unfortunately. An epic journey chasing cherry blossoms, dango, wagyu, gachapon and volcanoes. From freezing Nagano snow to sweltering under the Kyushu sun and everything in between.

The places we stayed in on the March / April 2019 road trip

This will be our fourth trip to Japan. Michelle and I went to Japan for the first time way back in 2010. Actually we stayed overnight in Narita once on the to and from Europe back in 2007. That was when we decided we’d have to come back. The airport food was some of the best food we’d ever had. If airport food was that good how good would it be everywhere else? We weren’t wrong. We were back for trip number two in 2012. Georgia was two years old and Michelle was around 24 weeks pregnant. The family had grown again for trip number three in 2015. Georgia was now five and new kid Brandon was about 18 months old. That brings us to 2019 and trip number four. No increase in family size this time. I’m older, Michelle is older, Georgia is 8 and Brandon is 5. After three trips you’d think we’d know it all and been everywhere. Ha, nothing could be further from the truth. Every time we scratch the surface it seems more opens up and the less we know. Japan is the most amazing place in the world.

Leaving on jet plane

After finishing packing at around midnight and 4 restless hours sleep the alarm, Brandy, woke us at 3.55 am asking if he could get up now. Five minutes before the actual alarm was due to go off. I could have done with those extra 5 minutes of sleep.

We showered, dressed and dragged the bags, and kids, outside just in time for the taxi which arrived at 4.40.

15 minutes and $29 later we arrived at Terminal 4 and dropped off our bags. Exactly 40 kg. I think we will go for 25 kg each next time. Travelling to Japan at this time of year is a lottery weather wise. We had to take enough cold weather gear in case it snowed. We were going to the mountains so chances were we would need the heavy snow jackets and boots. Travelling to warm places would allow us to travel so much lighter.

We bought coffees and a cup of milk at Brunetti's. The milk was for the muesli we brought for breakfast on the plane. After a 10 minute walk to the gate we found we weren't allowed to take hot coffee on board. So we drank them at the gate while waiting in the long queue.

The gate service person saw our milk in a coffee cup and asked us to ditch it. After I whinged that it was just cold milk they said that cold milk was okay. At least I was able to have my muesli on board after we boarded. A day without my muesli is like a day without muesli. Boarding was 6 am. I reckon the only time I ever see 6 am is when we’re flying somewhere.

It was an uneventful 2 hour flight to Cairns on JQ944. The day before our flight was cancelled so we had to take a domestic flight to Cairns to join JQ25 in Cairns. Well, except, just as we landed in Cairns Georgia threw up a little. Luckily she hadn't been hungry so she hadn't eaten so there wasn't much vomit because she did get some on the floor. Better at the end of flight than the beginning.

Cairns Airport

Because the first flight to Cairns was a domestic flight Instead of the originally booked international from Melbourne, Cairns became a 4 hour wait instead of a quick stopover. But we had to collect our bags and do the whole customs international thing which killed some time. There was also a bit of a walk between the domestic and international terminals. Not a long walk but just enough time to savour that sweet tropical heat and humidity. It was awful. Apparently people come to Cairns for holidays. It’s too hot and humid for my delicate disposition. Nice place to transit but I don’t think we’ll be holidaying here any time soon. At least when we got to the waiting area it was air conditioned. We still had a 3 hour sit though.

We thought having an egg and bacon roll from the Cassowary Cafe but 15 bucks is a bit rich. We got a couple of coffees and $5 croissants from Hudson's though. The cafes at Cairns International are fucking expensive. But captive audiences can't be choosers I guess. Airports in Australia have a licence to gouge. Everything is expensive in Australia so I guess in some respects airport cafes are not exceptional.

We went through the passport scanners and facial recognition photo thing at customs. The kids and Michelle all went through okay but the facial recognition failed for me and I had to be manually processed. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. After our carry on bags were scanned Michelle was picked out for the chemical wanding. She is always singled out. Me rarely. Michelle every single time. One time the security guy had to run around me and kids to get to Michelle calling out “Ma’am Ma’am”. Another time when she was very pregnant and carrying little Georgia she was again singled out and I was ignored. We’ve often speculated why, but it is fairly obvious Michelle looks like a drug mule or terrorist. Yeah right.

About a half hour before the flight due to leave at 12.15 pm we joined another long queue at the gate. It moved quickly though. Maybe because it was mostly orderly Japanese.

It was 30 degrees and humid as fuck in Cairns so I was glad to be back on an air conditioned plane.

The flight to Tokyo - Narita

After the doors closed on the plane I was pleasantly surprised to find no one sitting in the middle seat next to me. On the previous fight I was rubbing shoulders with the guy next to me who covered himself and my arm in an itchy jacket. So having room on the longer 7 hour flight was almost as good as being upgraded. Michelle, Georgia and Brandon were in the 3 seats across the aisle from me on both flights. The airbus was a 3 3 configuration for the Melbourne to Cairns flight and the 787 Dreamliner a 3 3 3 config to Tokyo. That’s the only downside of travelling in a Dreamliner as a family of 4, we can’t all sit together. Otherwise for a budget airline like Jetstar the flight was pretty comfortable.

On the Narita flight we ordered sandwiches. At $9.50 they were way cheaper than sangers from the airport. And quite good. We had the deli sandwich trio. Later Brandy had a toasted ham and cheese. Also $9.50. Also quite good.

The air con on these flights was good. Quite cold. Nothing worse than being stuck on a stuffy plane where you can barely feel the air con.

I listened to Spotify. I wrote this diary entry up to this point as we overflew Guam with 3 and a half hours to go.

7 and a bit hours after leaving Cairns we landed at Narita.

Narita Airport

We cleared customs and passport control and made our way to the terminal shuttle - the free bus between the terminals. The very first time we came to Japan 12 years ago we were on our way to Europe and did an overnight airport stopover. The food we had at the airport was sensational enough for us to decide we needed to come back to Japan. And we’ve been coming back ever since. This is trip number four. Michelle found out that the world’s only Michelin starred airport restaurant, Sushi Kyotatsu, was in Terminal 1. This was going to be our only chance to try Michelin starred airport sushi. We needed to get from terminal 3 to terminal 1 post haste. About a 10 minute drive away. We landed about 7 pm and Sushi Kyotatsu closes at about 8 or 8.30. We dragged our luggage and kids on to the bus and set off. We got to terminal 1, the largest of the 3 terminals, with no idea where to go. It was just on 8 pm and the on-line airport guide said last orders was 8.30. So we asked a person at a car rental counter if they knew where the sushi restaurant was. Level 3 somewhere, the woman said, and that it was behind passport control. Of course it was. Bugger. There was no way we could get there. There were lots of restaurants where we were. But they were all closed or closing. We raced around trying to find something open and finally found a noodle place that was still taking orders. In fact ours was the last order. A couple of bowls of udon noodle soup with onsen eggs on top was 2500 yen for all four of us. This included a couple of pieces of tempura prawns and eggplant. What a bargain. Compare that to a lousy egg and bacon roll at Cairns airport for 15 bucks. After being up since 4 in the morning and travelling almost 10000 km this was one of the best meals we’ve ever had. It really filled a hole. We were in Japan

Since we were hopefully hitting the road early the next morning we thought we’d find a convenience store for breakfast supplies. We found the terminal 3 Lawson and stocked up on yoghurt, junk food, milk, melonpan, and pancakes with butter and maple syrup. God I love Japan. God I love Japanese convenience stores. It had been almost 4 years since we’d last been in Japan but this was like coming home.

Narita View Hotel

Then we braved the cold to find the hotel shuttle bus. It might have been late March but it was still freezing. 20 minutes later we’d checked into the Narita View Hotel. We had decided that on this trip we wouldn’t go straight into Tokyo like we usually would. We’d stay in Narita for the night and head straight out to Yudanaka in the morning. We would leave Tokyo to the end of our trip. There was no point spending an hour or two going into Tokyo for one night. We picked the Narita View because it was the cheapest airport hotel we could find in Narita for a family of four. That was going to be the issue with this trip. Doubles and triples are easy to find. Quads not so much.

At reception I was handed the pocket WiFi package which had been delivered for us by Tocoo. Tocoo is a car rental aggregator that makes booking a car a breeze. Generally 10 to 20 percent cheaper than getting a car direct from, say, Budget or Toyota. When we ordered the rental car from Tocoo a discounted pocket WiFi was included. Later I realised that the ETC card that we’d also ordered from Tocoo hadn’t been given to me so I went back to reception and they managed to find that too. The ETC card is an electronic toll card used on the highway tollways instead of cash. At the end of the trip you send the card back to, in our case Tocoo, and then you’re billed for all the tolls. It is about 30 percent cheaper than paying cash at the toll gates. Nearly all Japanese rental cars have an ETC device. You just have to pre-order a card to insert in the device.

We had a small room but reasonably sized by Japanese standards. Garden view on ground level in the garden wing. I could see a wedding chapel outside in the garden. Yes, many Japanese hotels have wedding chapels. One time we stayed at a hotel in Kyoto and in the large rear lobby they had a reconstruction of a quaint English style stone church. How many weddings do they have at these places? We’d heard there was a similar chapel on the 14th floor of a hotel in Osaka. We had 3 beds in the room. Two king sized singles and a large fold up. Michelle and Brandon had one bed, I had the other and Georgia the portable.

Quaint replica of an old English church on the top floor of the Monterey Hotel in Kyoto - 2010

Narita View is a big hotel. Lots of guests coming and going, even late at night. Many of the guests dragging bags down hallways and back again, hogging elevators and looking for their rooms. When I was on my way to and from reception to pick up my things I’d encounter the same people staring at a piece of paper going from elevator to hallway and back. I ran into one woman who had eventually found her room but she was going back to reception to demand a room change because her neighbours were too noisy.

Welcome to Japan.

Epic Family Road Trip Japan on Youtube

Check out Episode 1 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.

Check out Episode 1 of our Japan Road Trip video

Some of the pictures on this page are by Michelle. Essentially the good ones. Michelle retains full copyright and they can not be reproduced without permission. To contact her about licensing and using the photos contact her at Michelle Newnan Photography