In the days leading up to our flight we were getting worried, a massive typhoon was predicted to be hitting Japan the day we were due to land. We were flying out of London early on the 15th of August, so on the 14th we were rapdily refreshing the JAL and Haneda website to see if our flight was going to be cancelled. Other airlines started putting out statements and some domestic flights were cancelled the day we were arriving. JAL did not release a statement and we had to go to bed with our fingers crossed. The next morning we got up at 3am, and JAL had still not released a statement, but many domestic flights were now completely cancelled for our arrival day.

We arrived at Heathrow and got parked with little stress, but issues began when we went to self check-in and my husband was directed to the desk. We were told my husbands seat on the plane had been broken, and we needed to move seats. I book a year in advance and choose two seats by themselves, so we don’t have to deal with any strangers. We were offered emergency exit seats at the front of the economy cabin, or two middle seats. We obviously took the emergency exit seats, but hoped our original chair would be fixed before boarding. We sat around until boarding, and at the gate was told the seat was unsafe and so we had to keep the new seats. I know many people love the extra leg room, but for me the emergency exit seats were rubbish, nowhere to put any belongings, the media screen is so low that you couldn’t look down at it for 14 hours, and the toilet was right in front so there was always a queue of people in the “extra leg room”. It was quite a miserable flight, but we were grateful to be able to get through the typhoon.

The landing was very rocky, as soon as we came near the Tokyo coast of Japan the clouds were intense, and so was the wind. We landed at Haneda at 5:30am and as soon as we stepped off of the plane into the bridge the humidity hit us, summer in Japan is a special kind of hot! It was my fifth trip to Japan in the summer, but each time it is surprising how hot and humid it is. As we had landed so early it was going to be a while until we could access our hotel even after booking early check in. We hadn’t eaten since leaving London so our first stop was the conbini to get onigiri, crisps and pocari sweat. The shops within Haneda started to open around 8am, and so we enjoyed a shopping spree. The rain was starting to come down at this point, the typhoon was just reaching us.

In 2023 many of the shops were still closed due to COVID precautions, but most had opened back up by August 2023. There was the usual tourist bits and bobs, but also some really interesting shops, and we bought a number of souveers and saw lots of lovely things that were out of budget (such as enormous Pikachu and a beautifully made dratini). There was also some nice art pieces in the shopping area, including an enormous ema with a pheonix and Mount Fuji.

We left the airtport around 10:30am via taxi, and the rain was absolutely tipping it down at this point. It was only a 10-minute ride to our hotel, JAL City Haneda, but the taxi driver pulled up the wrong hotel. There are, annoyingly, two JAL City Haneda on the same street, one with the moniker west-wing, but they aren’t clearly labelled, and our hotel was further up the road. I ran across the road in the rain (after waiting for the crossing light) and got two umbrellas to help us in the storm. We arrived at the hotel, and even though I had confirmed early check-in and the cost, the room wasn’t ready, and I was told maybe we could have a room an hour later. Luckily, another staff member walked over and said a room was ready, and after 24 hours we finally had a place to rest.

The typhoon was number 7 of the season, and was rapidly approached the eastern coast. We fancied stretching our legs after our lunch and thought the rain “wasn’t that bad”. We were sorely wrong haha, being British we thought we could manage a bit of rain, but it soon became absolutely torrential. No surprise, as being right by Haneda meant we were right by the ocean, it was the first time rain tasted so salty! Within 10 minutes, even with our waterproofs on we were soaked, and our waterproof shoes had been filled with water as the rain pelted our legs and ran into the shoes. We squeched back to the hotel and got changed and decided the day had come to an end. Time for sleep before the road-trip started the next day.