From Tokyo to Nuremberg

Our last tourist highlight for the time being is the journey home from Tokyo to Nuremberg. To be honest: There is of course no direct flight from Tokyo to Nuremberg. Our flight route is again due to the best price and takes us from Tokyo via Zurich to Milan. From there we continue on to Frankfurt the next day, where we take off for the last flight to Nuremberg.

From Tokyo to Nuremberg

But we are still in Tokyo. When researching the cheapest way to get from the city center to Narita Airport, there is an alternative priced directly after the Airport Express: again it is the company ATT (Airport Taxi Transfer), which offered to take us directly from the hotel to Narita. The price includes the four of us adults, our three large suitcases, the four smaller trolleys and our hand luggage. Airport Taxi Transfer charges the equivalent of around 117 euros for this service. If we calculate that we first need a taxi from the hotel to the train station and then add the tickets to Narita, the price difference is really marginal

So the transfer is ordered online, and the driver actually arrives at the hotel on time, loads our suitcases into the really large car and takes us safely and quickly, despite some traffic jams, to the airport in northeast Tokyo. He explains the slow traffic to us by saying that many of the people who work in the city during the week also have apartments there so they don’t have to commute every day. On the weekends, however, thousands of people retreat to their homes in the countryside to relax over the weekend.

At the airport we were once again pleasantly surprised by the commitment of the lady at luggage reception. After we have packed all the things we might need during the trip from Tokyo to Nuremberg into our hand luggage, it would be practical not to have to carry the large pieces of luggage all the way to Nuremberg. The problem is that we use two different tickets for the flights home. One of them goes via Zurich to Milan and the second from Milan via Frankfurt to Nuremberg. Nevertheless, after a lot of trying, the employee manages to label the suitcases accordingly.

The advantage of this procedure is that we also receive printed out boarding passes to Nuremberg. So we don’t have to check in again in Milan for the last leg of the journey from Tokyo to Nuremberg, but can go straight to security tomorrow.

A helpful employee is waiting for us at baggage claim, who will then accompany us to our seats on the plane. He first leads us to the fast lane for security and passport control, which he then lets us go through all alone. But at the end he is waiting for us again and leads us to the ANA FC Lounge. Compared to the other FC lounges that we have already experienced, this one is extremely quiet, but also relatively sober and “clean” in a not really pleasant way. In addition, the selection of food and drinks is not exactly diverse. 

But we will definitely be so pampered again a short time later on the plane that a complaint about the offer here would be absolutely inappropriate. That would be tantamount to complaining about the fact that in our home country you only get one dumpling with the roast pork, but you can’t even eat it whole. According to the traditional Franconian motto: It was good and plentiful, but it could have been better and more!

We are picked up again from the lounge by the bustling Japanese man. He leads us through a completely deserted underground corridor to the gate, does the final checks for us there and releases us at the door of the plane into the care of the flight attendants.

They then spoil us with champagne and everything else our hearts – and stomachs – could desire. The captain also greets us personally and explains that due to severe storms we cannot fly directly over the North Pole today, but have to take a detour via the north of Canada, Greenland and Iceland to Zurich.

But we would have the chance to see the northern lights during the section over the Behring Sea. So I ask the cabin crew to wake me up if the Aurora borealis be visible. And I’m actually brought back to reality from a deep dream to actually see a few glowing curtains in the black sky.

If these northern lights are a fascinating spectacle, the following is also extremely astonishing:

We fly out of Tokyo at midday, shortly afterwards it becomes pitch black, we overlook the north of Alaska and Canada, see the northern lights, then over Greenland it is light again and after a short, bright phase, it turns dark again when you arrive in Zurich and it’s deep night again in Milan. Very unusual to experience twice day and twice night in just over 14 hours!

In Milan, an airport with extremely long hiking trails, we take a taxi to the Holiday Inn Express, where we had already booked the overnight stay before the trip. Although we slept really well on the plane on the way here, we fall into our beds, strangely exhausted, and wish each other a good night!