This is the trip I was confessing to feeling guilty about in the November review...

Stuart McDonald recently wrapped up a really good series on "Rethinking Travel" with some notes on changes he personally is planning to make. On flying, he has this to say: "First let’s cover domestic flying. My rule is, if I can get to the destination in under 48 hours on the ground, no flying... On international flights, I’m taking a different approach. For every 1,000 km flown, I have to wait a week before getting on a flight again... The 1,000 kilometres equals a week is arbitrary, but it felt like a good starting point."

Kuching to Fukuoka via Singapore clocks up just over 5,000 km. So it's a good thing we're staying more than five weeks... Our trip distance to Europe next year will be well exceeded by the number of weeks we're staying. So it's just the coming-back-from-Fukuoka thing that's not really satisfactory. We should be back in Sarawak for five weeks, and we won't be quite. So we'll have to pay that back later in the year.

Anyway, the journey...

By yesterday evening (Friday), we'd packed our rucksacks (just 8 kg apiece, which we're quite proud of), and taxied to Kuching airport, where everything now goes so much quicker and easier than it did last year. We just had to show our covid vaccination record (this is a Japanese requirement, and if you don't have at least three vaccinations, you need to do a covid test to get in).

We flew Scoot, and it's a bit weird how they corral you off down the far end of the airport, cut off from any shops and cafes. But hey, there is a vending machine, and a long stretch of corridor, so you can walk up and down, and admire the new murals.


Scoot is connected to Singapore Airlines, and if you're flying on to another destination with them, they present you with a free in-flight goody bag. Most of it was a bit too carbohydrate-heavy to really work for us, but never mind, it's the thought that counts. We abandoned our unopened Cokes and Pringles on a seat at Singapore airport, thinking others might want to avail themselves of the opportunity. I hope the discarded items didn't end up getting blown up by the bomb squad...

A couple of hours' layover at Singapore airport meant lots more paces. We were amazed how busy it was. The world is definitely flying again...


Then it was five-and-a-bit hours to Fukuoka. Overnight, of course. Never great, but this is just how the planes are scheduled. We had an aerial view of the sunrise, and of the network of mountains and islands that surrounds the city.

The arrival procedures were a bit of a surprise. We'd done our homework, and signed ourselves up with Visit Japan Web. If you submit your covid vaccination record in advance, they'll issue you (assuming it's satisfactory) with a QR code, which is supposed to facilitate things at the airport. And it did, initially at least. We were able to zip through the first holding bay (equipped with lots of desks and health officials) just by producing our codes.

But then everything really slowed down... I always think of Japan as being a relatively easy country to enter, and we never had any problems on our previous two visits. Well, it's not easy any more...

First up, immigration. Long queues, in the kind of low-ceilinged hall that every immigration authority in the world seems to favour. It's crowded; it's stuffy; it's confined -- everything the health leaflet you've just been issued with tells you to avoid...

At stop No. I, you have your photo and index-finger prints taken; stop No. 2 is immigration proper, where we were both quizzed, politely but fairly lengthily, about what we were doing in Japan for 39 days... I don't know if this process would have been even slower without our pre-arranged QR codes. Maybe it would.

But then you still have to get through customs. We'd acquired in advance a QR code for that as well. But you still have to have your passport scanned, do the facial recognition thing, and fill in your customs declaration all over again on the screen. Finally, you have to walk, unmasked, through an electronic gateway (not quite sure why).

Wow... I don't know what's prompted this change of mindset. Maybe covid.

Anyway, freedom at last. So we get some money from the ATM, find it's given us only enormous notes, and sheepishly buy something from the 7/11 to get change for the bus... We are reminded how wonderful Japanese toilets are: heated seats even at the airport, and waterfall sound effects to discretely cover any noises you might be making (it's only the women who get these, apparently). We ride the bus to Hakata Station (Fukuoka's airport is not far from town). We take one look at the railcard-collection queue (looooong), and decide to put that job off until tomorrow.


As we'd expected, it's cold and windy. But it's also rainy, which was a bit of a surprise, as winter is supposed to be fairly dry here. And we have several hours to put in before we can check in to our accommodation... Time to hit the streets then, which are full of interesting things:










We also spent a while cruising the Hakata Riverain, an upscale museum-and-shopping complex (that's where the mural at the top comes from).

Next, we completed our first supermarket run. Hallo Day is our nearest. I like supermarkets in other countries. So familiar, and yet always so distinctive and culturally specific. This one is full of things I have no idea what to do with, but still pretty much has everything we need.

By the time we'd done all that, we could check in. It's bijou, as Japanese flats tend to be, but it's really designed to maximize the space available, and I like the way it's organized. Tiny hall; galley kitchen, complete with basic cooking equipment and -- our favourite -- a washing machine; little bathroom with another of those super-duper toilets (no sound effects this time, though); a bedsit with lots of storage; and a little balcony:



It has been a pretty exhausting day, but I think we're going to like it here.