July 12, 2023
Flying home
We are looking forward to (and hoping for) a leisurely trip home. Our flight times seem reasonable - we depart Itami Airport at 7pm and have 90 min to connect with our flight to Canada at Tokyo Haneda Airport. Thankfully, we shouldn’t have to deal with our luggage and immigration as we did when coming to Japan.
We have a late check out, 2 pm from our room, we are going to have lunch at the hotel and then wait for the driver we hired to take us to the airport. We want to get there early and get our trikes checked in.
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1 year ago
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Itami Airport is the original airport for Osaka. Neighbours protested the sound pollution they would suffer if the needed expansion was done here. As a result, Kansai International Airport was built further from the city on reclaimed land, and Itami remains as a domestic hub. We will fly from Itami to Tokyo for our connecting flight to Vancouver.
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As expected, it was a mad dash to make our plane. We ran to the bus, which was at the far end of the airport, the bus took about 10 min, we raced through immigration (yeah!) and we made it with time for a bathroom break and…
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We have flown with ANA, All Nippon Airways and we are very happy with their service. It is a joy to fly with a crew who are so professional and who work tirelessly to ensure that their passengers are comfortable and looked after. We have never seen a crew work so hard as this crew of Japanese flight attendants.. They never stop. If you get up to go to the bathroom and they see that one is busy, they will jump up and find one that is vacant. It is this work ethic, their pride in a job well done and their support/respect for their team and passengers which embody one of the things we love about Japan. Convenience store staff, subway workers, cleaning staff, professionals….no matter the job, we rarely saw workers who appeared to be bored or disinterested in what they were doing. There is a perceptible sense of respect and pride, for themselves and what they do…as well as for the team and the customer.
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We found a good way to get to Tsawwassen. I had read that the airport worker who directs people near the taxi stand will arrange for a van to come. It arrived in a few minutes and the fare was $55. We will stay at a hotel and take the ferry home to Saltspring Island tomorrow. Unlike tonight’s sailing of over 3 hours and multiple stops, tomorrow is a direct sailing.
In Tsawwassen I went in to a convenience store to get a few things…the floor was filthy, the clerk was uninterested and I left feeling sad that our country has much to do to try to regain this sense of pride and generosity in one’s job that we enjoyed in Japan. I recalled the busy productive environment of Japanese Convenience Stores where workers were keeping the shop tidy, taking care of customers, greeting all who enter and leave…were generally engaged in their job and service to their customers. Feeling jet lagged and with a huge sense of counter-culture shock, I didn’t buy anything and took refuge in our room. Sleep seems like a better option. I felt impaired wandering in the real world. Too much too soon.
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
Your appreciative comment means a great deal to us.
You summed up our experience very well as it was indeed at times tough, yet always extraordinary. As fellow cyclists we know these times. We hope to return to Japan in the fall.
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We love our Azub Ti-Fly 2o's. The smaller wheels means a smaller fold-great for flying, etc. We have a Shimano Steps 6100 motor with the largest battery that Shimano makes...excellent range. We have always ridden with Arkel panniers. They are made in Canada. Unfortunately, my panniers (RT-60) that are designed for recumbents are no longer made by Arkel. Mary Ellen has Arkel GT-42. She loves them. You do need rain covers for these panniers.
If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Have a great trip!!!
1 year ago
I was especially interested in how you fared with trikes, as a LWB Stratus rider. I have a friend who gave up this year on plastic wrapping her diamond frame bike for travel to/from Europe. Even though she carried the airline's written policy on plastic wrapped bikes, the hassle finally became too much. She is in Germany as we speak, flew United (didn't have to pay their new $200. bike fee), but also had her bike in a box. She prefers the plastic wrap, and thinks the airlines always handle her bike carefully because they can see what it is. But . . . .
Thank you for the excellent journal, with all of the details and the photos!
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Shipping your own battery is possible. However , there is a lot of red tape and it can be quite expensive.
We have never been questioned about the size of the motor. Yoshi did say that anything over 250 watts is not legal. Grin technologies, from Vancouver used to sell batteries that you could legally fly with. They are called Ligo batteries . Each battery is below the legal 100w/h . You stack them together to form the size of battery you want. (36 volt motors only).
On All Nippon Airwys you are given 100 lbs of baggage allowance . However, each piece of baggage has to be no more than 50lbs. The first trip we shipped our trikes in very large e-bike boxes. The trikes were totally dismantled to fit in the boxes. We were not charged for overweight baggage, even though we we clearly overweight. Twice now we have folded the trikes and didn’t use a box. We were both charged $200 for our trikes. You could say that your trike is a mobility device and perhaps you won’t be charged. The Japanese authorities have never requested any registration for our trikes or the batteries.
Cheers,
Barry
10 months ago