Toronto to Tokyo

You might have guessed from the title of this post that I’m in Tokyo. And if you weren’t able to figure that out, then why the heck do I even bother putting titles on these things? My destination is right there after “Toronto to” in the title.

After an almost thirteen-and-a-half-hour flight from Toronto, I landed at Tokyo Haneda Airport close to 26 and a half hours, clock-on-the-wall time, after I left. The International Date Line played a role in that.

(The flight was scheduled to be 14 hours, 10 minutes. I don’t know if Air Canada pads its schedules so that on the rare occasions when planes leave on time, as mine did, they arrive early, or if the headwinds were weaker than expected, or if the travel god smiled upon me. It likely wasn’t the travel god thing. We’re not on speaking terms.)

Thankfully, though, it was a non-stop flight. Otherwise, it would have been even more gruelling.

That’s one of the advantages of living in Toronto. It’s the largest hub airport in Canada. As such, I can get to many of the world’s major cities without connections. I did have to change planes in Vancouver when I went to New Zealand and Australia. And there are some smaller cities in Europe where I’ve had to change planes at a European hub.

And, while I do have to make a connection to get to some cities, there are very few major cities in the world with international airports that I can’t get to with at most one connection.

I don’t mind flying. But I hate connections. In addition to having to deal with what are usually frenetic, cattle-herding-like airports, I typically worry intensely about missing my connection when I do have to change planes somewhere. The less that happens, the happier I am.

I didn’t get to my hotel in Tokyo until about 5:30 in the evening. That didn’t leave me much time to do anything worth writing about. However, I wanted to post something because some regular readers of this journal—I think there are three—know when I left. I didn’t want them to worry about me if I didn’t check in here.

Worse, I worried that they wouldn’t notice my absence at all and, after a time, forget I even existed. But, never mind that.

This is not my first time in Tokyo. I was here in 2018. That was on the last trip I took before starting this journal. So don’t bother looking for anything about that trip in these pages. On that earlier trip, in addition to visiting Tokyo, I went to Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. I’ll be making return visits to those cities this time, and adding three more places to the itinerary.

Despite my late start today, I managed to get in a walk before scavenging dinner.

Tokyo Tower

I don’t think I made a great choice in my Tokyo hotel. It’s in the middle of a business district, and not within an easy walk of many tourist attractions. However, it is beside a railway station with a line that acts like an above-ground version of a subway. That line conveniently serves most of the major areas of Tokyo. Plus, a station of one of Tokyo’s many subway lines is only a few more steps away. So I think it will work out.

One tourist attraction that is within walking distance of my hotel is the Tokyo Tower. I walked over to it after settling in.

The walk sent me through the train station to the other side of it and then took me through some pedestrian lanes lined with small restaurants and lots of character. After that, it traversed some more mundane streets before putting me in front of the Tokyo Tower.

The Tokyo Tower, built in 1958, is clearly derivative of Paris’s Eiffel Tower. It was originally erected as a radio tower with observation decks. The radio transmitting functions were taken over by a much taller tower, Skytree, elsewhere in Tokyo.

At night, the Tokyo Tower is lit up dramatically, making it an impressive sight.

The Tokyo Tower’s observation decks are open until 11:00 p.m., but because it was already dark when I got there and because I was already beyond tired, I decided not to go up today. I might take in the view another day. We’ll see, dear.

That’s it for today. I’ll try to do and say more in the coming days of this four-week trip. Catch you then.