We had an early flight, 9:35am, out of Haneda airport, and stayed nearby at Hotel JAL City Haneda as they have a free shuttled service that will get you to the airport in the early hours. Before sitting on a plane for 14 hours we explored the area around the hotel, and visited the nearby Anamori Inari Shrine.

With the multiple fox statues, and rows and rows of vermillion torii you would be right in thinking the shrine is reminiscent of the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine in Kyoto. Both shrines honour the Goddess Inari, whose messengers are foxes, and traditionally was prayed to for good harvests. Today many businesses donate torii to the Inari shrines to pray for good business, you can see who donated each torii, and when, by reading the black writing on each torii.

We got to the airport by 6am on the very convenient shuttle bus, and the airport was a ghost town! Although the borders had opened a few months prior, February is one of the least popular times to travel to Japan. Many of the shops in the airport were still permanently closed due to COVID, and the rest don’t open until either 8 or 9am. We wandered through the empty shopping area before going air-side.

It was a beautifully clear winter day, and we were rewarded during take-off by clear view of Tokyo, and of Mount Fuji! I wasn’t content after 8 days of Fuji, so this last peek was lovely.

Due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the flight route had been changed, and so instead of flying back west towards Europe we flew east, and flew over the desolate Arctic, which meant stunning views, particularly over Greenland, it made me long for snow again already.

What a wonderful three weeks of snow, hiking, and adventures. I definitely want to visit Japan again in the winter!