What a great idea it has been to stay at the Fairmont..it’s super quiet, comfortable and ideally positioned in the main terminal. With the Atmospheric River creating havoc, and the prices of “budget” hotels in Richmond climbing, the Fairmont makes sense. No need for a taxi if we can’t fit on the shuttle with our trikes.
This is great…we are a 5 min walk from the food court and the gate where we will check in.
Happy to be on our way. Great job Barry on packing our trikes so carefully for the journey. It has been sobering to watch the news this morning and see the damage from the Atmospheric River that came through yesterday and through the night. Relieved we didn’t fly yesterday.
We have flown on the Japanese Airlines, ANA (All Nippon Airways) and JAL (Japan Airlines), and both have been extraordinary. As usual, we arrived early at the check-in area as we like to deal with our trikes before things get too busy. While waiting in line, the JAL manager spotted me standing with my walking sticks and wanted to know if I have mobility issues and if my trike is a wheelchair. I explained that both of my knees have issues and that I use the sticks for support and walking distances. The trike gives me the freedom to ride and tour long distance due to its configuration and motor. She offered me wheelchair assistance for the duration of the journey, as well as for Barry since he recently injured his foot and can’t put much weight on it. And just like that, we were both signed up for Wheelchair assist with our trikes classified as mobility aides making their transport complimentary.
Love this tradition where JAL (Japan Airlines) crew come out before checking us in to give their customers a welcome message which is followed by a bow of respect. This also happened when we take a ferry in Japan. Upon departure, the office staff and grounds crew all come out and see us off in the same manner. Somehow, I don’t see BC Ferries adopting this procedure!
Nearing Narita (Tokyo). As the flight crew warned us, we experienced turbulence for most of the flight. We both slept for maybe an hour. Pretty tired. Hope we can make the connection to Osaka as we are running late. Thank goodness for the wheelchair assist as our passage through immigration should be expedited.
It was a stressful experience getting to our connecting flight to Itami Airport (Osaka). We have never been to Narita Airport and had no idea where to go. Luckily we had wheelchair assist and Barry and I were greeted by two older gentlemen waiting at the plane to take care of us. The first challenge was that the flight was over an hour late and secondly it was a very long distance to get to immigration and even farther to reach the Domestic area where we needed to check in for our second flight to Osaka. Immigration was packed with travellers from other flights and even the priority line was busy. Somehow we got through. But next we had to pick up our luggage and trikes and head to another area of the terminal for our domestic flight to Osaka. We both felt bad that the men helping us were probably older than us. Picture this, each man used one hand to push the wheelchair and their other hand to pull a buggy containing our trikes and panniers. We offered to push the buggies, but they refused. Anyway, we made it to the domestic desk at the cutoff time and somehow the crew got us checked in and our luggage and trikes were loaded on the plane as well. Whew! If we had been on our own, we would certainly have missed our connecting flight.
We stayed at the Air Terminal Hotel in Itami and fell into bed. We were too tired to do much else.. The hotel is integrated into the terminal with easy access by elevator from the shopping area. It is very quiet and clean…a good option.
The hotel offers breakfast at a nearby restaurant in the terminal and it was excellent. Congee with tofu skin and a yummy sauce, delicious grilled salmon and pickled condiments. Next step, put the trikes together and ride 25 km to our hotel in Osaka.
Here’s the happy girl, Sora-Yan. Her name translates…Sora means sky and Yan emphasizes the Osaka dialect. Her job is to bring smiles to the airport visitors. She is interested in fashion and is always attired in scarves favoured by flight attendants of the Japanese Airlines.
This airport worker took an interest in us and kept coming over to watch us work. He spoke no English but used google translate to tell us that we are not allowed to ride on the road within the terminal. He got permission from his boss to stay with us so that he could help us find our way when we departed. Somehow word got around and some of his co-workers and his boss came to watch us work as well.
Our friend Yoshi who owns a recumbent bike shop in Osaka, kindly keeps our batteries for us in his shop. We arrange with him to have the batteries waiting for us at the airport Yamato delivery office. Now we can ride to Osaka.
I guess jet lag had jumbled our thinking. We forgot that we don’t have internet yet and neglected to load our route. Barry was able to put something together on Ride with GPS and off we went. We like this part of the route as we are on a dedicated paved bike/hike route away from busy roads.
Guess we’ll be finishing our ride in the dark. Unfortunately, due to gates that our trikes can’t fit through, we have to leave this route and find a way through the back streets. Of course we got lost but we muddled through.
It is a joy to be back in Osaka, one of our favourite places. The roads and sidewalks are crowded, but we are getting our confidence back to ride within this organized chaos of humanity.
Yeah, we are back at our Japanese home away from home, Hotel, the Lutheran in Osaka. We walked to the corner Conbini and got some dinner to have in our room..
