Day 3 Tokyo-London 8/4/08

packed and checked out of hotel. staff called cab for us but due to rain they were hard to come by. started to get a bit nervous at 9.20 as the train was leaving for the airport at 10. cab finally came 9.40. staff were very apologetic and helpful. found ourselves in a cab with a non english speaking driver who didn't understand "tokyo station', 'tokyo train station', 'train' etc so we wasted some more time while he went back into the hotel to ask the staff. he dropped us off across the road from the station and as we'd only seen it once at night we didn't know where to go. finally worked it out and ran across the road in pouring rain. found the ticket office (9.50 at this stage) and joined the queue. things were looking pretty dire but to our relief when we were finally served we found out there was an additional train at 10.30. from there on smooth sailing although i think we were the very last people to check in for the flight. our seats were right at the back in the middle. i made chris sit next to the elderly japanese woman. sat on the plane 50 minutes before it finally took off. this leg was with British Airways so i was started to feel like i was in england already. Got to Heathrow not too late. was expecting chaos at terminal 5 but it was deserted and everything went really quick. Got to hear my first whinging pom of the trip when the first heathrow express was cancelled, then the second (an explosion in a tunnel?) anyway, half an hour later we were on our way and sat in first class for 10 minutes before we realised our mistake and walked shame-facedly to the next carriage where we belonged. Got to paddo station and was a quick walk to the hotel. room beautiful and tiny. too tired to eat out so got another sandwhich (a definite theme of the holiday) from another mini mart. well and truely ready for bed at 9.30.