A very early start led us to our most traumatic journey in Japan. The driver of the Green Tomato airport link was very very tired. I am grateful for the accident that slowed the motorwat to a standstill admit forced him to come off and wake up a bit. He was weaving, braking at the last minute and blinking frantically. Not reassuring behaviour.
The other bonus (apart from not dying horribly) was that we got a crazy back street tour of a bit more of Japan, the highlight of which was the driver pointing out of the window and saying “rice growing fields” as if this was news. Cue slightly hysterical giggling.
Keith and one of the other passengers were desperate for a wee by the time we got to the airport and it had taken so much longer than scheduled that we had to arrange drop off by when our planes left. We were last and still had plenty of time- but there was running for the toilet!
Our flight had been delayed by just over an hour so we spent our last yen on some souvenirs and presents and then went to the gate.
The flight was long and dull but fairly uneventful. We were disappointed but not surprised to see a large pile of clouds where Mount Fuji was alleged to be. It is the wrong time of year to be mountain spotting and apart from a speck in the distance from the top of the Skytree we have not been lucky.
The children can not countenance sleep when watching films is an option so they were square eyed and exhausted by the time we got to Amsterdam. Our late flight had meant a missed connection and now we faced a 5 hour wait for the hour flight back to Manchester. The children had been awake for about 19 hours by this point and they were entirely beyond reason. We tried food- which worked briefly, and lying down on loungers- which allowed Danny to get about an hour. The inevitable safety announcements woke Mila every time she dropped off and caused much upset (understandably as it was very frustrating).
The flight to Manchester was very full and there was a late party of young Dutch men in 2018 Liverpool t-shirts carrying 8 packs of Jagermeister. This did not fill me with hope for a peaceful flight, but in the end nothing kept me awake and I happily snored through the 45 minutes we sat on the tarmac while they retrieved the suitcases of the people who had failed to make the flight. Then I snored through the entire flight, not even stirring for free food.
I believe Keith did the same but the kids stayed up again (1 on either side of me), choosing reading this time over sleep.
Keith’s Dad kindly collected us from the airport and whizzed us home.
Our last job was to unpack the suitcases as they had got very wet sitting on the tarmac in Amsterdam and then collapse. The adventure of a life time was over and we were finally allowed to go to bed!!