My first trip to Japan was also my first intercontinental trip in 2008 on JAL. They still had economy on the upper deck of the 747, replete with thickly-padded seats with loop cassette IFE. The crew kept on plying us with drinks... good memories.

I remember arriving in Asakusa and somehow finding our hostel (I'd drawn a map from the station, counting the number of intersections to get there!). The hostel had a roof terrace and so we stood there, that night, after a rain squall. We could see skyscrapers in the distance, and I believe the Sky Tree was being built. There were helicopters in the air, planes taking off from Haneda, and lights as far as we could see. It really felt like a different world.

I came back a number of times, once for work and the others with my wife, for pleasure. The work trip was fun, spent mostly in hangars over in Narita. It was early summer and already quite warm. It was interesting to see that all the Japanese ramp workers had steel helmets and a towel underneath. I thought it was a bit stupid, but as we had to wear the helmet outside and the sun started cooking our heads the towel made a lot of sense, very quickly.