Flying from Japan to Germany

Happy first of September! I wrote this on our flight to Munich, thinking I would post in a day or two. That turned into a couple of months. The temperatures still feel like summer, but school has begun. Reading this now takes me back to July, in all the best ways.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your international flight departs from Haneda airport in Tokyo, I have a few tips for you. It is smaller than Narita and more crowded. The international departure is not as organized (few signs, unclear signs). If you have little kids, you automatically qualify for priority security check. At the customs area for exiting Japan, Japanese passport holders and non-Japanese ones split into two groups. However, the Japanese group gets facial recognition scans and exit through an automatic gate. Little kids are deemed incapable of going through this properly and so must stand in the foreign passports line regardless of whether or not they are Japanese citizens. 

The nicest thing about Haneda is the flight observatory. It’s a nice rooftop area where you can see planes take off and land. Plus, there are plenty of nice restaurants and cafes. Terminal 3, where we left, has a drugstore that sells things beyond what your would expect  – cool eco bags, artisan goods, interesting toys even. For everyday essentials, there is a slight markup, but nothing as criminal as what your would find at U.S. airports. No bottles of water for $5 when you are desperately thirsty. For souvenirs, the price is comparable to what you find anywhere else. Japanese airports are the best for souvenirs. 

As our habit, we boarded last to minimize time sitting on the plane and allow for last minute toilet runs. Our plane was a 3-3-3 formation. H offered to sit with the kids in the middle aisle for as long as his sanity would allow. I sat next to them across the aisle. 

E"s professed hunger. She was really excited about her economy meal...until she started eating it. Food on Lufthansa economy is not a highlight, though the service is excellent!

Taken by E

The passengers are mostly German and Japanese. The Japanese crowd on the plane are a bit less well-coifed than your average Tokyoite, and more casually dressed. I wonder what their stories are and why they are going to Germany. Also on our flight is a couple sitting in front of the wall panel at the center of the plane. They have a baby, and I guess that they are there to take advantage of the bassinet that can be attached to that wall. We did the same thing (five years ago now!) when we traveled to Japan and Greece with E. The joy of discovering that an in-flight bassinet existed! It felt like a free seat, or a free upgrade, though we still envied everyone else who did not have a baby on their hands. I nostalgically observe this couple whilst thinking about how difficult it was then, and how time can so drastically change your perspective. After a couple of hours, the dad is up with a baby bottle in hand, searching for hot water. 

Our flight is over 14 hours. It is perhaps the longest flight I have ever taken, because we now have to fly around Russia. I think fleetingly how it now seems easier to manage an infant than two little kids; the grass is truly always greener on the other side. But I remind myself that we may one day be traveling without kids, and that that might seem difficult in its own way with 14 hours stretching on endlessly with no demands and no live entertainment. 

Calm times