01.-03.03.2018 OVER THE MOUNTAINS, OVER THE SEA

Today, we went to the airport for our flight from Hiroshima back to Tokyo Narita. We thought that since it was only a domestic flight, we won’t run into any problems. Boy, were we wrong.

It wasn’t possible to check-in online, so we had to go to a check-in counter at the airport. The woman was able to find our booking without problems, however it took her _forever_ to check us in and told us afterwards: “Your flight might be cancelled”. Gee. Cool. Thanks.

We waited a few minutes while she tried to find out more, asking us if we had a connecting flight on the same day. Since we didn’t, she then told us that she’ll maybe have to book us for on flight to Tokyo Haneda Airport instead, which is pretty damn far away from Narita and our hotel, but it would have been okay as well.

After a few more minutes she was still unsure if we could board the flight, but our luggage most likely wouldn’t be on the same flight (priority for passengers with connecting flights on the same day). She wrote down the address of our hotel and promised to make sure it will be delivered there tonight.

A bit later, we were finally allowed to drop off our luggage: It had to go though an x-ray machine first, then it got a tag and was put on the pile with all the others. Curiously, only people who didn’t look Japanese had to do this, others just went right to the counter – I don’t want to misinterpret anything at that point though, there might be a very non-discriminating and sane explanation for that… lel.

After scanning my backpack, they took me to the side and at this point, I was already feeling a bit frustrated by the whole situation. But I have to admit, it was definitely my fault for forgetting a lighter in one of the outer pockets. After another scan though, they wanted me to open up the whole backpack and look inside the pot, where they found a suspicious liquid among other things… you’ll never guess what it was: a goddamn mosquito spray. I had to explain to them for a long time that I’m not trying to poison or blow up anybody with it, one of the guys was being problematic until the other one was like “come on, you can see the mosquito symbol here” and that was thankfully it.

We then went to the normal security check, after being told that “yes, your flight will not be cancelled and you will be able to board – still no idea about your luggage though”. The check went fine and we got a sweet little paper certificate afterwards. Afterwards, we explored the huge duty free area (two kiosks selling nothing but sweets and some drinks) and looked at every one of the 4! gates very closely.

After sitting down, we were really relaxed again, because even if our flight was hella delayed, it was at least definitely going today. Then however, I was approached by a security guy and told to go with him (aye noooooo). They had run another scan on my backpack (?) and now suddenly, the powerbank was not okay in the checked-in luggage. Just fyi, that same one actually fell out during the first test, so they must have seen it on the scan and then with their own eyes again without saying anything – thanks security guys.

Fortunately, I could just put it in my carry-on backback, however by that point we were sure that our luggage won’t come with us, regarding it was still in security check when we are close to boarding already.

We sat in the last row of the plane and in the rows in front of us weren’t passengers, but suitcases, pretty funny to look at. At Narita, a pleasant surprise waited for us: While getting off the plane, we could already see our backpacks being unloaded!

Extremely relieved, we took the shuttle to our hotel (a proper one this time, we had a room for ourselves!) and ate dinner close to the hotel.

The next morning, we took the shuttle to the Airport at 07:30, so Manu can catch his flight. Since we were there really really early, we chilled out in a café until it was time to say goodbye.

I took the subway to Tokyo, to the hostel we stayed at in the beginning. However, when getting off at the station, I suddenly realised that my wallet was gone. Properly and totally gone. And then the most exhausting hours of this whole trip started: I had a lovely time (about 1/1.5 hours) at the staion masters office, who made the impression that he understood everything I was saying, writing down or showing him, however when he finally had organised a translator on the phone, it became evident that he didn’t understood a word I was saying. He did try his best though and called lots and lots of people and stations etc who might have found something, but no luck. He eventually pointed me to the nearest police station and gave me 2 numbers to call (of 2 diffferent subway companies, who both might have a chance in finding it).

At the police station, I spent another hours or so only to fill out a missing items report – they didn’t really speak english either and let me talk to a translator again, who was reading a script, writing down my answers and giving them to the police woman, who then told me to write down exactly what I told the translator on a sheet of paper again (totally efficient).

Since they couldn’t help me any further, I then finally went to the hostel, where I told the whole story to a staff member, Monika. She was an angel and called all the subway companies for me (there were 3 of them in the end) mulitiple times. Unfortunately, we had no luck either and so my wallet is still missing… Thanks to support from my beloved family however, I am still able to continue my travels approximately the way I planned it, here’s another THANK YOU SO MUCH to you <3.

I spent the whole remaining day at the hostel, talking to lots of different people – for example a German girl who will go on a pigrimage lasting one month on some Japanese island, a pretty amazing thing to do.

In the morning, I came across another minor problem: Air New Zealand Online Check-in wasn’t able to locate my booking with the booking number of my roud-the-world-ticket. I am not sure what would have been the normal procedure, but I’m pretty certain I should at least get some kind of information beforehand regarding my flight, but I got none. So I called customer support and after waiting for 9 minutes (which were probably pretty expensive), the woman on the phone was able to provide me with a Air NZ booking number for my flight. However, that one wasn’t recognised by their website either, but at least I now had some kind of confirmation that I was going to be on that flight.

Spending the whole morning at the hostel as well, I got talking with an Argentinian, who was flying from Narita at approximately the same time as me, so we decided to go to the airport together.

The flight was quite alright and I can now definitely confirm that Air New Zealand has by far the most interesting Security Information videos. The entertainment system was also a lot more modern than the one on the Swiss flight to Tokyo – bigger and more sensible touchscreen and you could order drinks and snacks directly from the tablet.

On the flight I was finally able to get a beer again, as the whole time in Japan I wasn’t of drinking age yet – yippieeeee 😀