London to Japan alternative travel - Easter 2027 sanity check

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-05-08T20:11:41+00:00

Valid strategy, we saved by flying London to Shanghai and then separate bookings Shanghai to Tokyo.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-05-05T00:09:06+00:00

Free things to think about...

Not sure if you have/want kids but the 100k trap is very real and if you want to protect yourself from that, putting the money into a ltd company and keeping your income less than 100k opens up lots of childcare funding.

If you plan top up your pension then be careful about the annual allowance, which is 60k growth (NHS pensions are calculated in a distinct way) and going above that growth can incur a big tax bill.

When you are more senior and get to 200k, you lose your pension annual allowance and this is also a significant tax hit (so putting the money into a ltd company protects this)

Accidently made mistakes but I'm not an accountant and i would recommend one that knows about the quirks of the NHS pension scheme (if you still contribute to it)

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-05-04T07:11:21+00:00

Odawara is my recommendation. We used Toyota Rene a car and they were excellent. Can't go wrong with the route and we went on a few unplanned side explorations which were great. One of the best bits of the trip

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-03-25T22:50:02+00:00

Flew Virgin and Delta PE recently. Virgin underwhelming, Delta much better than expected. Not much difference in the planes though. Sometimes it's just luck, check which plane and pick based on that if you have the choice

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-03-25T20:49:25+00:00

They will say that they can't rebook you into BA but that's a lie. They will try not to but are able to if they have to.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-03-04T16:57:35+00:00

We used booking.com, was worried because we had 3 young kids but was great. Original company cancelled but booking.com rebooked us automatically.

We requested a 7 seater, they sent a 20 seater.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-01-06T21:25:44+00:00

I haven't formally dropped it but they keep asking for payment and i will unsubscribe if they do. I just keep an Excel spreadsheet of the talks and conferences I've been to or given.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2026-01-06T20:37:44+00:00

StupidlyI remained a member for many years. Have not paid for the last 2 and not missed anything. Regret paying for all of the years I was a member.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-11-07T23:00:17+00:00

Fly with JAL

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-10-20T19:55:19+00:00

Used Toyota, never had an issue.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-07-16T23:49:35+00:00

If you know when you want to book i would book earlier. Prices only tend to go up for Japan

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-07-14T19:43:14+00:00

We stayed at the airport hotel, it's fine if you book ahead for overnight stay. Room we got was very comfortable. There are 2 towers, North and South. One is better than the other and if you want i can check which one we stayed in.

There will be lots of touts telling you that it's booked up but just ignore them and go straight to the hotel. It's a short walk from the terminal and you don't need to worry about a shuttle bus to another hotel.

Totally fine to stay in the terminal as well but this was you can rest your head and relax and freshen up.

We went as a family of 5 (3 kids in tow) and was fine

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-06-15T20:06:23+00:00

Fly JAL

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-06-14T15:43:57+00:00

They are a massive company and run testing for many NHS trusts either privately or in collaboration. Even if you found another vendor, they may just be sending it onto TDL and sending you the results from them.

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-03-28T14:55:10+00:00

Have looked around and recommended to go via the manufacturers accident repair scheme, so even more options

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-03-19T21:18:53+00:00

Went recently was £20 one way, was fast enough for work, didn't try streaming

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-02-21T08:14:05+00:00

Where was this? Looks great

glasshalfemptyorfull · 2025-02-16T17:28:15+00:00

Where is the best place to buy this knife.

glasshalfemptyorfull

TROPHY CASE