Tokyo · the Michinoku Coastal Trail · the Izu Peninsula · October 2026
Day One
The 11.45 out of Sydney, nine hours of it, and the first night beside the runway at Haneda.
Sydney to Tokyo · Haneda · Saturday 3 October 2026
10.30am. The sign at Haneda. Sent by Virginia.
One photograph so far, and one line. Virginia, 10.30 on the Saturday: a JAPAN sign in cut timber and paper lanterns in the arrivals hall, and the note that came with it four days later — Arrival Haneda Airport. Checked in to Villa Fontaine Grand Hotel. The rest of the day is still on the phones.
The frame is the sign: a circle of pale wood cut with a crane, Mount Fuji and a torii around the word JAPAN, white paper lanterns hung beside it, dried flowers in rust and gold, the glass of the terminal behind. It is the first photograph of the trip. More of the first day — the flight, the hotel, the first evening in Tokyo — lands here as the six of them send it.
Everything written about Day One so far. The log has added nothing.
Tap Share your photos on any page and the first day fills in — the hotel, the first meal, whatever Tokyo did that evening.
A sign in arrivals, and a hotel for the night.