Around three days before my travel I would call up the cab company. I had to call at least 48 hours in advance to be eligible for the special fixed fare to the Haneda Airport.
A lady, and always the same person I suspect, would greet me by name. Then she would follow the standard steps, ask for the date & time of travel, the airport , reconfirm my home address and then that was done.
At the appointed hour, and generally before the appointed hour the cab would be waiting in front of my apartment. Cab drivers in Japan, though exceptionally formal like to have conversations with foreigners if you can talk in Japanese. The early morning hours, a cab driver generally at the end of his shift doesn’t add up to sterling conversations but as I realised one early morning in Shanghai, talking to the driver was the only way to keep him awake and prevent him from driving off the road.
A mixture of a desire to earn more mileage from my favourite airline and a desire to ensure maximum productivity during the day, I would travel at ungodly hours.
There was a 2 AM flight which was favourite and when that got cancelled it became a 5 AM flight. A premier status on my hotel loyalty system ensured I would get an early check-in, at least most times. So the plan would be to arrive at my destination in the morning or at least early afternoon hours and ensure some productivity during the day.
Travel, especially business travel is very ritualistic. There are the searches for good fares the moment a trip gets decided. The obsession with booking the best fare, for the best airlines while staying at the favourite hotel. There is check on the passport, the visa statuses or requirements, the search for data plans and a search for ATMs at the destination , if they are required.
The check-ins at the airports in Tokyo never change, the only occasional aberration is the complementary upgrade. The security asking if I have a cellphone in my pocket and at the immigration the same question ‘When will you return’, relevant for a foreigner whose Long Term visa will expire if he/she doesn’t return within 1 year, a stamp and getting waived through.
People break patterns when at a lounge, there is almost an obligation to sample what is on offer. The Wonton at the Cathay Pacific lounge in Haneda, or the Curry Rice at the JAL Lounge, or the random offerings at the TIACT lounge in Narita(when it is too early for the others to open), the time of the day doesnt matter, there is an almost unseen obligation to eat or drink. I will have a Curry Rice at breakfast or Wonton after a hearty dinner, past midnight.
There are also those who have a ritualistic beer at 6 AM. There are others who will ask for a beer with breakfast on the plane. The lure of free alcohol or the desire to maintain a tradition, it’s difficult to decipher this quirk.
Walking in Narita airport one early morning, I once overheard a family discussing about the alcohol on offer in their short flight from Tokyo to Seoul. ‘I wonder if they offer unlimited drinking’, one of the younger members of the group asked another as I spied him clutching a LCC ticket. LCCs do not serve free alcohol. An overseas holiday was apparently a rare occurrence for the family!
The boarding process, arriving a few minutes early to stand in front of the queue, grabbing two newspapers, placing the bags carefully in the overheard lockers, removing headphones, cellphones going into flight mode and waiting eyes closed, for the take off.
Then there is the obsession with preparing for the arrival, filling in the forms, checking and rechecking for any mistake that can cause delay, hurrying to be in front at the lines at the immigration counter and the dread of lost luggage!
The anxious flyer fears take offs and landings, accidents after all occur mostly in these two stages of airplane travel. The anxiety of landing in a foreign land is another one , the unknowns, the whims of an immigration officer, especially the ones looking for the slightest mistake on the arrival cards, the wait for the luggage and the possibility of losing it are the fears of the frequent traveler.
I have been called to questioning at Hong Kong because I mentioned the place of passport issue as Japan, instead of Tokyo as mentioned in the passport, or the aggressive questioning when on my way to Denver, transiting at Chicago airport a tattooed immigration officer wanted to know why my return ticket was through San Fransisco, and I had to explain that the airline chose the route.
There is no greater frustration than after clearing immigration, having to wait for luggage. The frustration of delayed luggage, one which does not come on the same flight is even greater. The wait at the the conveyor belts, watching them them run in slow rhythmic patters , occasionally shuddering, stopping and run again till the last luggage sign comes in, filing the report for lost luggage and heading back to the hotel with the hope that the luggage is not lost.
There has rarely been an occasion, specially in the Asia-Pacific region when hotels have refused to accommodate early check-ins. The dash to the check-in, head to the room, shower and shave and then run to a meeting is a pattern often repeated and almost perfected.
However on longer hauls the arrivals are timed to happen at night, enough time to get over a jet lag before the start of a working day.
I know of someone who would rush to the hotel bar immediately after checking in. His ritual was to sit at the bar counter and have a conversation with someone, anyone. Mine has been to head to the Gym, the inertia of travel releases a desire for movement. It is also to obsess over the next day, the visiting cards, computer adaptors, chargers checked and rechecked, the routes studied, traveling distances calculated.
The desire to arrive to a meeting on time, not late neither too early is an unfulfilled one. The slow slither of the Mumbai traffic or the perpetual traffic jams of Jakarta and central Bangkok makes the planning exercise a roulette. There are the risks of early arrivals and not a cafe in sight or the late arrivals and the customers not having enough time are the constant reminders that planning is sometimes useless.
There are the Uber or Go Jek bikes in Jakarta, unlicensed cabs in Bangkok or even resorting to walking in the Singapore tropical heat when all else fails. Or one can always tell the Hong Kong taxi driver with obviously suicidal tendencies that reaching the destination alive is a bigger priority than arriving early.
Taxi hailing apps have considerably reduced the risk of getting fleeced by unscrupulous cab drivers, but there will always be the odd chance when someone wearing a uniform approaches you at the Pudong airport and quote five times the meter fare to take you to the destination or someone at the Longyang road station who quotes a higher fare once you get into his cab.
There are other lessons, never reveal your destination to the driver when he calls you up after accepting your ride on a taxi hailing app in India, he will neither turn up nor cancel the ride and you, the one tired of waiting, needs to cancel it and accept the cancellation charges.
When the time to return comes close, packing is the task one does not look forward to. The suitcases that arrive neatly packed, protest at the strain to fit in the used clothes and the occasional purchase made in the trip. The fear of leaving things behind , result in obsessive checks and rechecks of all corners of the room, the recesses of the cupboards, or behind the curtains of the bathroom.
The ritual of going to the lobby for a checkout with the realisation that you have left the key in the room, and the standard answer to the question at checkout ‘Did you consume anything at the minibar last night’?
The luggage is deposited with the concierge, meetings of the day attended to and then the dash back to the hotel, collect the luggage , the cab waiting and then off to the airport.
Airports show their character late at night, crowded and bursting at their seams in the Indian Metropolises or deserted but for the stragglers waiting to board their LCC flights in Taipei. Even Hong Kong airport, connecting hundreds of thousands of people during the day falls silent for a few hours until dawn.
There is little joy in arriving at the airport late in the night, finding a place inside to rearrange the baggage, removing one piece and stuffing another in. The disorder of a trip reflected in the packing. The check-ins done in a sleepless daze, occasionally waiting in the lounge but more often rushing to the boarding gates with last trip to the loo before boarding.
When I recline on the seat, choosing one where my legs can stretch in the night, the neck-pillow occasionally comforting and other times a hinderance, blankets stretched to the feet, satiated with the lounge food, through sleep deprivation , I know that tomorrow I will be home!!
