Homeward Bound

Tuesday 10 June

Our last day in Japan so we had a leisurely breakfast and strolled up to the Noritake Gardens in Nagoya, these are on the site of the original kilns of the pottery and are provided by the company as a service to the community, an original kiln has been preserved in the gardens.

In the gardens there are museums, shops, a gallery and a display of all the Noritake products which these days extend to industrial products as well as their pottery. On the lawns were parked nine Ferraris and Lamborghinis and many photographer as well as interested by-standers, the value of these machines could reduce the national debt of a third world country.

From the gardens we returned to the hotel to collect our luggage and walked to the station to catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo, a two hour trip.

At Tokyo station, for a while, we ran around like “headless chooks” trying to find the platform for the Narita Express to the airport. Tokyo station is like a rabbit warren with many levels of platforms for JR trains together with various Metro lines which converge here.

After asking station attendants, security staff and policeman, all who gave different directions, we eventually found the platform with minutes to spare.

We are now sitting in the JAL Sakura business class lounge and in about two hours we will board our flight to Sydney, we were booked to fly direct to Melbourne but Qantas have cancelled this flight, I don’t know if they have stopped the Narita – Melbourne flight completely or just on a Tuesday. What ever the reason it’s a pain as we both hate flying through Sydney as it’s a total waste of time having to transfer to a domestic flight to get to Melbourne.

Any way in about fifteen hours we will be home and ready to bore you witless with tales of our trip