Day 1 - Wednesday October 25, 2017 - Melbourne to Nagoya
Nagoya
An early morning flight to Brisbane and on to Narita – it’s going to be a long day by the time we make it to Nagoya.
An uneventful flight up to Brisbane, notable only for the gentleman sitting one row forward/across the aisle — John Eales. Reminded us of a previous flight to Brisbane where we found ourselves behind Nathan Sharpe – when they stand up, all of a sudden, you feel rather small ….
Transferring in Brisbane is a bit of a pain as (like Sydney) you have to get a bus from the domestic to the international terminal. Unlike Sydney, where the transfer is airside, in Brisbane you have to go on the landside bus, which means you have to go through security again — for which there was a long line. At least the passport check is now automated (and no more ‘green departure card’ to fill in) and quick — let it scan your passport then stand on the spot and stare at the screen and (hopefully) the gate opens. That worked much better than our attempt to find the Qantas Lounge – it took us about 10 minutes and eventually we had to ask; signs pointing to various other lounges but not a single one (that we saw) for Qantas until you finally find the lounge entrance tucked away in a corner.
We left on time … which is always good. Good service from the QF crew … champagne pre-departure, a couple of G&Ts before lunch (champagne for A-M), the lunch we had pre-ordered, cheese and biscuits (+ port) for dessert (or two ice cream sandwiches in A-M’s case) … what’s not to like? Time to settle back …
We arrived on time at 7.10 pm, though as usual at Narita it took a while to taxi in and we ended up at the satellite part of terminal 2, requiring a bit of a hike to get to immigration. However, there wasn’t much of a line when we got there so it didn’t take long to get through. With only carry on, straight to customs and we were on our way. We managed to find the JR East Travel Centre easily enough and exchanged our JR rail pass vouchers for the real rail pass and got seat reservations for the Narita Express to Shinagawa and from there on the shinkansen (Hikari # 537) to Nagoya. We haven’t used a rail pass on previous trips, opting for individual tickets. The pass provides unlimited travel for 7, 14 or 21 days on JR trains (21 days in our case) and as we’re planning several day trips will be somewhat cheaper than individual tickets. The only downside is that the pass is not valid on Nozomi shinkansen trains – they’re the fastest, making the fewest stops so you have to use the slightly slower Hikari (or even slower Kodama) trains. The trains don’t necessarily go any slower but the extra stops slows the process though not by much in the overall scheme of things.
I was hoping that we would be able to catch the 7.50 pm Narita Express and we made it with a few minutes to spare. We should arrive at Shinagawa at 8.59 and the train to Nagoya leaves at 9.37, so hopefully a leisurely transfer and time for a coffee or a drink. We’re due into Nagoya at 11.24 – it’s supposed to be a fairly short walk to the hotel, assuming we can find our way and don’t get lost. We’ll be ready for bed by the time we get there as it’s been a long day.
The 12-car Narita Express splits in two when it gets to Tokyo so, if you’re going further, you have to make sure you’re in the correct part, depending on where you’re going. As always, Japanese trains just work, arriving and departing on time. At Shinagawa, we stopped in a Starbucks for a coffee before heading down to the platform. Car 12, seats 15AB; find the correct spot on the platform and wait for the train to glide in. Having done this a few times now, I think we have it figured out. The trains are 16 cars long with 20 rows in each car. Heading west (as we were) car 1, row 1 will be at the front – so row 15 will be towards the back of car 12, so get the door next to car 13, not the door next to car 11. Off we go and 1 hour 47 minutes later we arrive in Nagoya bang on time – 360 kilometres at an average of 202 kms/hour which, as we made four stops along the way, isn’t bad.
The hotel website had very good directions of how to reach it from Nagoya Station, which we were able to follow without any problem. The one surprising thing was the number of people around, in the station and on the way to the hotel, at 11.30 pm — lots of ‘salarymen’ on their way home after an evening in the pub.
The room is fairly small and the bed firm but, as it’s on the 24th floor, has a decent view.
