September 2, 2025
Day 1 — Vancouver to Narita
Marilee here.
Well, getting to the starting point is generally not the most interesting part of any journey, and this time was no exception — however the upside is that the day went pretty smoothly overall. I find flying to be about equal parts stressful and boring, and taking two massive bike boxes and two enormous duffel bags stuffed with gear threatened to tip the balance well over into stressful territory, but in fact boring won the day.
Potential stressor #1: We discovered that our bike boxes took up the entire back of our car, leaving no room for our gear or both of us. BUT, we were lucky enough to have not one but two willing drivers to take us to the airport in Vancouver. Stress avoided.
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Potential stressor #2: Our carefully packed and taped bike boxes had to be opened and inspected by border services. We’d anticipated this and had brought along extra packing tape, but we couldn’t bring scissors. What to do? Not a problem: the border services inspector re-taped the boxes for us. He may even have done a better job. Stress avoided.
Potential Stressor #3: We had a connecting flight in Calgary to Tokyo (yes, we initially flew in the opposite direction of our final destination), and our flight was an hour late leaving Vancouver. We felt we’d have time to make our connection, but what about the bags and bikes? Not a problem — Tom had put AirTags on both bikes and we could see that they left Calgary with us. Phew! Stress avoided.
And that’s pretty much the story. Many hours of fitful dozing later we landed in Tokyo, collected our belongings and betook ourselves to a nearby airport hotel. After some noodles from the Lawson’s convenience store in the hotel lobby and a shower each, we passed out at about 8pm, knowing we had to return to the airport the airport the next day to complete the journey to Sapporo.
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