0700 My alarm goes off. I try to get up quietly so as not to disturb Laura for a second morning running. Everything was packed the night before, so I just have to clean, dress, and feed myself. Outside it is pissing down, which means I need to decide on getting the aircoach (wait at the Shankill bus stop in the pissing rain) or drive (trek up the M50 braving floods, rush hour traffic and road works).

0800 It has stopped raining, and seems to be clearing, so I decide to chance the bus. There is a huge flood on the way. I hop a wall into an adjacent housing estate to avoid some joker drenchimg me at the start of a 22 hour journey.

0840 – The aircoach is late as usual. I board and buckel up. I have switched to always bus seatbelts after nearly crashing when I was leaving Tokyo the last time.

10:00 checked in. Tried to organise an upgrade with my points, but was told I had to try in Copenhagen. Through security, and I run into huge men in green and yellow track suits with Quantus logos. Must be the Wallabeys. I saw them yesterday but I would need Laura to recognise individual players. I buy noise reduction headphones for the flight ahead.

11:00 On the flight. Down in steerage (grumble), aisle seat (grumble), obese man sitting beside me (grumble, grumble). Feel realy tired, so I sleep. Then read. Then try out the new ear phones. There is better sound from these new sennheiser’s straight away, but the difference with noise reduction is impressive.

14:00 (13:00 Dublin) Arrive to CPH. Go through passport control to get to SAS lounge. I ask about an upgrade. I am told it will cost 30,000 points, which is okay as I have over 360,000 and they will start to expire in 2010. But the decision will be made at the gate. Grab a coke, some nibbles, and my email. Then down to the gate. Figure it is better to be early.

15:55 At the gate. The man says economy flex is all gone, I can only upgrade to business class. “That will be fine”. I feel I could do with a bit of pampering, I never spend the points on anything anyway (when you take nearly 100 flights a year for work, geting on an airplane for fun doesn’t appeal) and I need to go straight to the office when I arrive so a decent sleep is neeeded.

16:30 Ensconsed in seat 8A. Loads of space forward, backward and to the sides. I thought the guy beside me, who also came from Dublin, might start a chat but we sit in silence instead. It can be nice to talk to someone on a flight. The problem is stopping talking to them if they are boring/weird or if you just want to sleep, read or watch a film. I reset my watch to Tokyo time (9 hours ahead of Dublin). It’s easier to handle jet lag if you start thinking in terms of your new time zone as soon as possible. All the times from here are Tokyo time.

01:30 (16:30 Dublin) Served a pretty good meal that left me stuffed. How often do you feel full on an airplane? There are two cabin crew in chefs outfits, but I doubt much of the food is prepared on board. The inflight film slection is poor, maybe only 12 to choose from. If you are lucky enought to get an Aer Lingus flight with VID they will have a better selection.

02:30 (17:30 Dublin) somewhere over northen Finland/Russia, I settle down to watch Pixar’s Up. It’s pretty good. Also very good are the noice reduction headphones. I am comfortably watching the film and listening to the dialog with the volume only 2 notches above silent. You really hear the background hum drop when you turn on the noise reduction circuit.

03:30 Somewhere over the White sea. The film isn’t over yet, but I reckon it’s in my interest to go to sleep, seeing as we will be woken fro breakfast about 8ish. I press the buttons on the seat and it lies alomost flat, and at an angle about 15 ° from horizontal. It isn’t perfect, but it is a long way from an economy seat. The last time I flew out here I got 2-3 hours of poor broken sleep.

08:00 over far Eastern Russia, the cabin crew turn up the lights. I slept pretty well allthings considered. The blanket is more like a light duvet so I felt quite warm. And it is a little awkward to turn over when you have a seat belt on over the blanket (it stops you from sliding under the covers to you need to re-position them when you move). But I do feel rested. Breakfast is served. Again loads of food with a choice of hot dish. I go for scrambled eggs. They are not great. I make far better ones myself. I finish watching Up (gets a +2 from me, well worth seeing).

10:20 We land in Narita International airport. My verdict on travelling business class – it is considerably more confortable than steerage. I am not 100% sure it is 3 times better, in line with the treble air fare though. More research is needed The final benefit of flying up the front is being amongst the first off. I am the second person through immigration. Collecting my bags takes forever though. They are very slow to come out. The customs guy wonders why I have such a big bag for a business traveller, but I am away fro at least a week and maybe more as I might return through Sweden. I am waved through. There are a load of Japanese skiers on the flight. Must be a team coming back from the alps.

11:35 Outside the terminal it is 13°C and raining. I hop on the bus to Tokyo City Air Terminal, or TCAT. That will take about an hour to get me to the city. There is WiFi on the bus. I must check my email. Scratch that earlier comment. There is a sign saying there is WiFi on the bus, but there is no connectivity.

12:45 Reach TCAT. Change to a Taxi – “Tokyo Dome-u Hotel” (the Japanese have a habit of adding “u” to English words I am told) and I am off. It continues to piddle down rain. The journey takes about 15 minutes. I stare tiredly at Japanese men in black suits and white shirts. Another class of workers are the ones in uniforms, usually wearing hats, white gloves and face masks. They attend to the suit wearers. Arrive at the hotel, check in. Smaller room than the last time, and a lower floor. Nice view of the Tokyo Dome mind you. Shower. Change. Check email. Post this, and then head to the office.