Japanese travel agency

One air ticket from Tokyo to Kumamoto. Domestic flight. It should have been simplicity itself.

And it wasn’t?

Step one: agent goes to one computer and looks up flights. Writes down a selection of flight numbers and departure times on a piece of paper and brings them back to the desk and shows me. I pick an evening flight the 19:05.

The last flight of the day?

Right. So then she goes away again to another computer and types in my name, flight number, age and passport number, and it prints out an itinerary and she shows me.

Not the ticket?

I say OK to the itinerary. Now she goes to a third computer and types in my name, flight number, age and passport number again.

That’s for the ticket?

No, that’s to check for seat availability. So now she comes back a fourth time, all this walking I’m surprised she’s not whistling ‘I love to go a-wandering’ and says there are seats available.

Now you’ve got a ticket?

Wait! She then fills in a form which is an application for the ticket. She takes it out to a back room and several minutes later comes back and says she will telephone when the ticket has arrived.

And how long is that?

Two days. That’s my experience of a hi-tech Japanese travel agency. E-ticketing has not landed here yet.