Twelve hours really was long. I'd never realised in my whole life just how long twelve hours is. I wanted to see the Earth, so I'd picked a window seat, but it didn't go the way I'd imagined. First of all, the window was tinted glass, so I had to press a button if I wanted to see outside. Everyone had also fallen asleep within the first second, so I thought that if I pressed the button I'd wake them all up and they'd hate me. The plane was flying too high as well, so all I could see was clouds. Even so, nobody was sitting in the seat next to me, so I was able to stretch my legs out and get some sleep. To begin with I wanted to watch films on the seat screen, so I watched Blue Giant and the latest Ant-Man in Japanese. Both were pretty decent. There was a magazine too, so I read a little of it. I also wrote my blog and some notes for Fukuoka.

I had the tempura set meal. It was really delicious. No wonder the food on JAL (Japan Airlines) is rated so highly. The flight attendants also came round with green tea and iced tea from time to time. After that I slept for an hour, and the moment I woke up there was a daifuku sitting on my tray table. After that they didn't bring any food at all, and I was starving. I thought I might have missed the second meal, but at last it came! With two and a half hours left until our scheduled arrival, the second meal turned up. I really was at death's door.

From Haneda to Fukuoka

I was told I had to make a connecting transfer to catch my flight to Fukuoka. The hour that followed was seriously stressful. I had to get my luggage and take the metro from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 within 20 minutes. On top of that, there was nothing at all to help carry luggage, no trolleys or anything. If you picture a foreigner in a bustling Haneda station carrying two bags while pushing a huge box along in front of him, you'll understand: it was pretty embarrassing. When I put the box on the big escalator, plenty of people stood there staring in disbelief. I only just made the metro. A few seconds after I got on, the doors closed and I let out a huge sigh. By the time I reached the gate, I was drenched in sweat and completely exhausted. Compared with the flight from London to Haneda, the hour and a half to Fukuoka didn't feel long at all.