Urrghhh. I’m pooped! Yuko and I came back from a rather brief trip to Japan last night.
We left for London last Tuesday, flew out on Wednesday, arrived in Japan on Thursday and got back to the UK yesterday (Monday).

The excuse for this was that one of Yuko’s old school friends had her Wedding Reception on Saturday. So, despite feeling somewhat guilty for the massive Carbon Footprint created… it was nice to catch up with friends, family and Japanese food/booze!

Wednesday

I love Virgin Atlantic (most of the time). If you are going to kill the planet, at least do it with a company that treats you well ;)
We managed (accidentally) to time the trip just before my Gold card for Virgin’s Flying Club expired. It’s just expired now, and I am a mere Silver person now. Anyway, Gold meant that despite having Economy tickets, we could use First Class baggage check-in, fast track through immigration, and then have have use of Virgin’s rather extravagant Clubhouse. Woohooo.
Shame it went a bit pear-shaped after that. There was a three hour delay of use sitting in the plan, while the Virgin Engineering teams were waiting for paperwork from Airbus in France to come through to confirm that the regular maintenance done on the plane was indeed safe, allowing the airport authorities to let us leave.
We made up some time during the flight, but it meant that we arrived in Japan two hours late.

Thursday

Somewhat rushed. Off the plan, catch a bus, get a taxi, drop of luggage at parents house, straight back into the taxi and into Machida! Yuko had an appointment with the hairdresser that couldn’t be changed. Once that was all done, we couldn’t be bothered to head back to the parents… so it was a case of checking into a ‘Love Hotel’ to get have a shower and cleaned up before meeting up with an old work colleague from my time in the AsiaPac division of my company.
We met up with my friend, and enjoyed and evening of Yakiniku at the fantastic Ichi-raku! This was a favourite place of ours, and somewhere we took family and friends when they were in Japan for our own wedding. Afterwards we went off to an izakaya, for a quick sip of sake, before heading back to the parents.
Since arriving in Japan, and all during the day, Yuko had been suffering a real severe case of Reverse-Culture shock. Saying thank you to the bus driver when getting off it is not really the norm in Japan…. to say it in English!!! :) Also, she kept apologising (if she bumped into someone for example) in English as well.
When we got back to the parents house, it was time to meet the new family member. Yuko’s parents got a dog (miniature Dachshund… just like everyone else in Japan) a month ago. Yuko’s dad got out the booze, and was keen to catch up over a few drinks. So despite being shattered, we were up till 2:30 in the morning.

Friday

No time for a massive lie in, though getting up at 09:00 wasn’t that bad… a bit of brekkie, before heading back into Machida. Yuko ‘had to’ go to the beautician place to get herself sorted for the wedding reception, so I spent the next hour wandering around Machida.
Lunch was at Yoshinoya… as tasty as ever. Then we headed into Ginza. I got myself a copy of Leopard, as it’s cheaper to buy it in Japan compared to anywhere else. While at Ginza, sorted out some stuff like closing bank accounts and other dull mundane things.
Back to Machida for some Xmas shopping. This included getting an iPod touch 16Gb. Some big savings there. In the UK, it costs £269. When VAT-free, that worked out as £228 (actually, it was selling for £226 in Dixons in Heathrow). Now, in Yodabashi Camera in Japan, that model was selling for 48800 Yen (£203 based on exchange rate of 240 Yen = £1).
Even better was the fact that, as a tourist, rather than a foreigner with a residency in Japan, meant that I could buy goods Duty Free in Japan. So, we told Yodabashi we’d like them to take off the 5% ‘Consumption Tax’ please, meaning that it cost us 46360 Yen. Thats about £193!!! RESULT!!!
The only downside was that we should have brought it from a larger store in a central store in Tokyo, who are maybe used dealing with us pesky foreigners. The store assistant took ages to fill out the forms, which I could have done in about 3 minutes (as the forms were in Japanese and English). Ahh well, at least he profusely apologised in that typical Japanese manner for taking a long time.

With Xmas shopping done, it was time to head home. There, we had some Nabe and Sashimi. Lovely!!! It was Kiritampo Nabe, which I’ve really missed eating. Yuko’s older step sister joined us, along with niece, who is now 5 years old.

Saturday

Up early, and off to Hakone region. At this time of year, it was absolutely beautiful with the red and yellow leaves on tree. Yuko enjoyed herself being able to catch up with old school friends. The wedding reception was apparently non-conventional in manner places, and it was only afterwards I discovered this.
After just three or so hours, it was back on train home. That evening, we went out for food with all the family. So, as well as older sister and niece, were were also joined by older brother and niece and nephew.

Sunday

After squeezing as much stuff in our suitcases, and leaving some stuff to be sent on later by Yuko’s parents in the post, we said goodbye to the folks. We then headed off to the Matsudo/Kashiwa area. First, we met up with Yuko’s ‘Kimono wearing’ teacher who was keen to hear about Yuko’s life in the UK. We got treated to rather nice and posh Japanese traditional food. Very tasty, but it was a shame in a way, because it meant our original plan to have a big bowl of nice, simple but very tasty ramen for lunch never happened :(
Once that was done, Yuko and I chilled out for a bit before meeting up with Yuko’s best friend. We then went to eat in one of our favourite restaurants from our time of living in Matsudo. That proved to be a little disappointing in a way though. A lot of the staff who used to work there had left, and it just wasn’t the same anymore. Not that it wasn’t good, just different and didn’t have that ‘buzz’ about it anymore. :(
Afterwards, we headed off to Yuko’s friends house, where we got treated to some more food and chat. Good to catch up, but meant that we didn’t get to bed until 2:30 again, and we had to get up at 06:00.

Monday

The journey home. Virgin Gold card comes to the rescue, with the increased luggage weight limits. (30kg per person). Thank God, as we had a 21Kg and 29Kg case (bloody hell, that latter one was a real pain to carry around).
Arrival in the UK was relatively painless, though the trains were typically shitty near Severn Tunnel junction on the way back. Welcome home ehh???!!!