Best laid plans

I don`t know what went wrong between me talking to the Finnair customer service rep and checking in at Heathrow, but clearly something did.

We decided to be a little paranoid and leave early, up at 6:00 and out at 6:50, leaving Takeshi at the station to continue on and take photos of Mapledurham before continuing on his tour of places associated with English writers. We got into Terminal 3 in good time. Only to find there was no flight to Helsinki listed. Or any Finnair flight, for that matter. Check the e-ticket again. Definitely says T3. Very apologetic man at the information desk says the flight is in fact from T1 and we`re the 40th people this morning to ask. Off to T1 we go.

We come out of the connecting tunnel at check-in area A, Finnair are in area R. Which turns out to be out of the other side of the main hall and halfway to T2. When we finally check in with BA, they have no record of us sitting together on the flight to Helsinki. The best they can do is sitting behind each other. And as for the Helsinki-Nagoya flight... 28J and 51G. We got through security with no problems and had a nice cooked breakfast, followed by himself setting his out-of-office at the internet cafe. The flight to Helsinki was fine, with a rather canteen-style pasta shells bolognaise for me, and couscous for himself - thankfully his meals had been registered. Wandered around a small section of Helsinki Airport for 2 hours and got a most amusing box of Moomin-themed sweets for Bill.

We boarded to find a mother with a young child had taken my seat and that of a young French guy, he had let her child stay in his seat so she was still in mine. He was in the same situation as us - trying to sit beside his girlfriend. I swapped with her, which meant I lost my aisle seat and neither myself nor himself could get anyone to swop. Watched Kung-Fu Panda and Iron Man and several episodes of Bones - prefer CSI, I know the main character for bones is meant to be a bit reserved, but I couldn`t get to like her at all.

Arrived in Nagoya and picked up the phone with no problems, got on a train and programmed in numbers as we went into the city center. I tried to call Narita to get a announcement put out to tell Bill which post office in Narita to go to, but it went like some horrible comedy routine. She kept offering to give them my number, I kept explaining I needed to tell them where to get their phone first. She continued to offer to give them my number. We had something to eat and found the last large locker in the station for our cases, then headed out to Nagoya Castle. It was incredibly hot, and we even got a bit burnt.

Bill and Austa arrived with no problems, and although they had never heard the announcement they had got the phone. We grabbed a quick bowl of noodles and got the Shirasagi express train out to Kanazawa, arriving in the beautiful station with its traditional gate theme at close to 10:00 and staggering across the road to the hotel, Dormy Inn. Himself made use of the sauna and onsen, which I have yet to do.

Anyway - day 2 in Kanazawa is starting, so I will report on Day 1 later!