Day 19: Japan Album Release Tour JINSEI 2024 – More Ueno Park and a Sleepy Flight Back to Paris

With a check-out time of 10:00 AM, I left my bag and saxophone at the front desk, knowing I had a full day in Tokyo before my midnight flight back to the Netherlands. This way, I could walk around freely and pick up my luggage later.

After meeting Kazuhiro in my hotel lobby, we headed to Ueno Station. The effects of the previous night’s drinks were still lingering, so I suggested grabbing a coffee at Starbucks. Once I finished my coffee, I told Kazuhiro I’d meet him later to say goodbye. He had to take care of returning my pocket WiFi, so in the meantime, I wandered off to Ueno Park with some sandwiches.

The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day. Sitting on a bench, enjoying my breakfast, the sounds of birds, city life, and people’s conversations blended together into one mix and my mind drifted to all the experiences of this tour—the incredible people I met and the wonderful musicians who joined me on this adventure.

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Around 2:30 PM, I met up with Johan and Kazuhiro at Starbucks in Ueno Station. It was a brief but meaningful moment—one last coffee together before parting ways. Kazuhiro was heading back to Sendai, and after spending so much time on the road together, it felt strange to say goodbye. We shook hands, exchanged a few words of gratitude, and then he was off, disappearing into the flow of travelers.

Johan had plans to visit a park near Shinjuku, eager to make the most of the remaining time in Tokyo. I considered joining him, but exhaustion from the past few weeks caught up with me. Instead, we agreed to meet later at Otsuka Station at 8:30 PM to begin our journey back.

Since KLM had extended my stay in Tokyo, I decided to book a short stay at the APA Hotel—fully intending to send them the bill. The idea of having a quiet space to unwind before the long trip home was too tempting to pass up. Stepping into my room on the top floor, I was met with a stunning view of the city stretching out before me. Tokyo’s endless skyline, bathed in the golden glow of the afternoon, felt like a fitting farewell. I sat for a moment, taking it all in—the energy, the memories, the music that had filled these past weeks—before finally allowing myself to rest.

At 8:30 PM, I checked out of the APA Hotel and walked to Otsuka Station to meet Johan. Soon after, we were on route to Haneda Airport, arriving around 9:30 PM. With check-in not yet open, we explored the upper floors of the airport and found a nice spot for dinner—our last Japanese meal of the tour, served in a traditional style with many small dishes.

After dinner, we checked in our bags, passed through customs, and made our way to the gate. Since Johan and I had booked our flights together, we were seated next to each other. As the plane taxied for takeoff, we synced up our screens to watch a movie together. After a bit of tweaking, we got the timing just right.

Once we reached cruising altitude, dinner service began. We paused the movie and ‘enjoyed’ the airplane food. That’s about the last thing I remember, because when I woke up, we were only an hour away from landing in Paris! It was my first time actually sleeping on a plane—though I have to give some credit to the sleeping pills a friend in Japan gave me. 😉

In Paris, we quickly transferred to our short flight to Amsterdam. Upon arrival at Schiphol, Johan and I went our separate ways, each catching a train home.

A huge thank you to all the musicians who made this tour such a success, in no particular order:

Shunichi Yanagi, Gaku Hasegawa, Yuki Nakae, Kunpei Nakabayashi, Yuichiro Tokuda, Yuki Hirate, Katsunari Furuchi, Satoshi Tokuda, Naoto Suzuki, Ryu Kawamura, Sota Kira, Tsutomu Takei, Tomowo Sakito, Daiki Mishima, Tamaya Honda, Yuhei Honkawa, Junichi Sato, and Junichiro Ohkuchi.

What a journey—until next time!