Tokyo
2005.Aug.31 - 2005.Sep.04
For me, Zurich airport always was a convenient airport; direct access by train, quick handling of both check-ins and customs and small. Never had to spend much time at this airport and I got quite used to show up only an hour or even less before scheduled takeoff. This time too, I arrived an hour before the flight was due. Not a soul waiting at the check-in counter, so I could walk straight up to it and had my boarding pass in less than five minutes. Never was that fast before. A handful of folks at the passport control and the x-ray, but no major delay. It was not before then that I realized how lucky I had been. I knew the airport had somewhat been renewed and enlarged, but I had not known the extent of these changes. When before everything was within easy and short walking distance, now for some terminals a short ride by shuttle train is necessary. Getting to the gates takes much longer. Actually, even though everything was quick and very smooth, it took me about 30 minutes from check-in to get to the gate. The crowd had already gone when I arrived and I was one of the last ones to board.
On my arrival in Tokyo I was greeted with nicely warm weather. Warmer than what I was used for September. As some friends had told me, this was cold compared to summer, so summer in Japan must really have been hot this year.
For the first night I had a reservation at the Sumidagawa Youth Hostel.
When arriving there I found the reception would only open in the late afternoon and I couldn't leave my luggage there either. Well, back to the station to deposit my luggage in coin lockers. Then I went to check out a place I'd probably need to find the next day and tried to contact some friends. Walking the streets around Ikebukuro in search of the address I needed to find, I realized how hot it still was in Tokyo. 
Definitely much warmer than usual.
The rest of my time in Tokyo I spent mostly meeting various friends. Some of them I met in Sendagaya. When I got off the train there, I was literally swimming in an ocean of people. What the heck did all these people do here? As I learnt a bit later, they were all here because of the SMAP concert. How many people? There was talk of about 80'000 souls...
One afternoon I also spent going to the Imperial Palace and the attached gardens, as well as Yasukuni-Jinja, realizing that in all those years I lived in Japan, I probably didn't come to these places once. I can only remember a visit before I moved to Japan.