Arrived HND this morning. They are no longer separately deplaning transit and exiting pax so no sitting on the plane for 10 minutes. (That's an improvement.) Quarantine part of VJW is very straight forward except at the top of the jetway there were 50 people in pink bibs waving pink sheets all gesticulating wildly and all pointing in different random directions. I thought they might be filming one of those kooky funny Japanese TV shows.

Long lines at immigration including the ABTC line which has been taken over by families with young toddlers and old people in wheel chairs. Soon as I got in line for that I spotted an empty line for normal visitors and was able to walk right up. The new QR code for immigration doesn't speed anything up. Still need to show your passport, have your photos and fingerprints taken, plus the immigration officer now has some separate extra stack of cards and needs to scan one for each passenger and then put it into a separate stack to make the system work. Now that Japan is going digital, processing takes twice as long as it did in the papyrus age. No wonder there were long lines.

Customs is equally struggling with the 21st century. Lines for the digital custom clearance require you to walk to one of the far ends of the customs hall and then snake your way through the cordon bands after which they tell you go back and scan your QR code at one of the newly installed kiosks. (After all it would be silly to just show them your QR code, rather than having it scanned in a separate location, which produces a piece of paper you can show them.) Get to the shiny new kiosks (which make USAF coffee pots look cheap), where again there are lines because each person attempting to scan their QR code can't figure out the bizarre user interface.

Fortunately for me I had forgotten about my QR code and by force of habit had absent-mindledly filled out a paper customs form on the airplane. One of the new employees (among the legions recently hired to help ease baffled travelers through the passage into Digital Japan) spotted the form dangling from my pocket and surreptitiously pointed to one of the old fashioned lines left over from the Meiji era. As I was thanking her, she glanced at one of the wonderful new kiosks and rolled her eyes up. As I was walked to the line, I saw her being dragged away.... presumably insufficient enthusiasm for Digital Japan.

The old fashioned customs line took less than 10 seconds. Out the door (no checked bags) and into my waiting Uber 7 minutes after stepping off the plane. (If only I had properly followed the new process, I would have been able to spend an extra an extra hour in the airport marveling at the modern miracle of Digital Japan.)

BTW - for those of you who might need additional help getting out of the airport, there is a 92 page manual (seriously) for the Visit Japan website, which is in PDF form so that you can conveniently print it out and study it during your flight.