My case appeared as soon as I got through immigration! A big relief. Getting through immigration was different to my usual experience, they took a retinal scan and index fingerprints. My days as a master criminal are numbered. If I were one. The customs man recognised my attempt at a Japanese hello (konnichiwa or something like that). Encouraging. Even better was Mush (that’s what she said her name was) was there to greet me! She guided me through the chaos to my senses of Narita airport, a sensory overload of Japanese faces and dialogue and signs. Many of the faces were masked, one reason I heard later was for those who suffer from pollen allergy. But even when I bought a 2-day ticket for the Tokyo metro the cashier avoided any chance of hand contact. Money was exchanged on a tray.

Mush parked me in a meeting area for a while before despatching on the limousine bus to my hotel. I realised her English wasn’t that good, my Japanese is much worse of course and I don’t think she realised I was trying to say a few phrases in her language. I dozed off on the hour and half journey from Narita to Shinagawa in Tokyo for quite a while. I was tired, Tokyo was 17 degrees C. Mine was the last hotel on the schedule of course. But the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa was a hot hotel, the poshest hotel I’ve ever stayed in.

The hotel is full of well dressed polite staff, one young damsel apologised as she left the lift I was to my and another Westerner’s bemusement. The rooms have digital signs outside for do not disturb or please make the room up. The toilet seats are heated! In fact the toilet is a major work of engineering which combines the normal lavatorial function with that of a bidet. Use at your peril. The room is heated to 25 degrees C which I found a bit much but you can’t have it all. Also in the room were two complimentary bottles which even got replenished each day of my stay!

I did try to eat in the hotel that evening, contending with crowds of Japanese which appeared and disappeared by some quantum mechanical principle I didn’t understand. But the half an hour wait was too much and so I resorted to pot noodles from an in hotel convenience store (and a very nice rice dessert of white glutinous rice ball containing black paste). I had to contend with a very sophisticated water heater the room had been blessed with. But in the end I did consume some noodles.

As I went around this first night I passed through crowds admiring the cherry blossom in a garden between the three Grand Prince hotels on the site. A camera crew were out with a crew and much equipment, the crane almost did for some of the guests. It was a beautiful scene, tending towards the artificial. Compared with London, Tokyo is beautifully laid out. On the limousine bus I marvelled at a train riding a concrete track which flew over a river. Buildings with gravity defying shapes catch the eye. Everywhere looks tidy.