I accompanied my wife, who is going back to her hometown from Friday, November 25, to Cebu Island.
I returned to Japan on Tuesday, November 29th because of my work, but my wife will stay until December 7th.
Unlike traveling, my wife is quite busy with some errands that need to be completed.
While I was with her, I was mainly engaged in family service.
Early in the morning of the 25th, I took the 6:02 a.m. train to Narita Airport, arriving just after 7:30 a.m. and picked up the rental WiFi I had reserved. I used to pick up the WiFi router in person, but this time I used my smartphone to scan the QR code on the unmanned rental machine and pull out the WiFi router from the slot. Convenient, but without a smartphone, I can't rent WiFi.
Next, we checked in at the JAL check-in machine. For some reason, my wife was not accepted at the check-in machine and went to the counter. Meanwhile, I put my suitcase into the automatic baggage deposit machine. Here's the problem. Each piece of checked baggage is limited to 23 kg, but the machine refused to accept my baggage because it weighed 24 kg.
When I weighed in at home the day before, I weighed 19 kilos, so there should have been no problem. Later, my wife's Filipino friend gave her some souvenirs, which she put in her suitcase, so it seems she went over the limit.
So at the airport, I transferred the contents of my suitcase into my carry-on bag. To my surprise, I found several one-kilogram bags of chocolates. No wonder I was overweight.
I put them into the automatic baggage deposit machine again, and it accepted them at 22 kilograms.
This time, I was asked to show the QR code of my eARRIVAL CARD, which is required to enter the Philippines, and my return flight reservation in front of the automatic baggage deposit machine. Since I usually use the same airline for both return and return flights, I was not asked to show my ticket reservation, but this time, since my return flight was with Cheju Air, they needed to confirm it. Perhaps the person in charge was inexperienced, but it took time to confirm the reservation of JEJU AIR, and it took a long time to check in, which is usually a smooth process.
The plane took off from Narita Airport on time and flew to Manila. There was almost no turbulence, and we spent a leisurely time watching videos and eating in-flight meals.
At the Ninoy Aquino airport, I proceeded smoothly through the immigration checkpoint despite the e-ARRIVAL CARD check. When there are many arriving flights, there is a long line, but this time there was no line at all. It took less than 10 minutes from the time of landing to the completion of immigration.
We were able to board the terminal bus at the arrival lobby without waiting, so the transfer from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4, which I had been concerned about, went smoothly.
LCCs in the Philippines are usually delayed, so we were prepared for this as well, but we had no idea how long the delay would be since there was almost no information on the flight. In the end, our Air Asia 777 took off 50 minutes late.
It was a little before 6:00 p.m. when I met the family who picked me up at Cebu Mactan Airport.
The domestic terminal at Cebu Mactan Airport had been remodeled after a long absence. The shopping area was bright and clean, which was a bit surprising.
Driving to SM Seaside for dinner in the car driven by my wife's brother. We crossed the Cebu-Cordova Liaison Expressway (CCLEX), which opened this April. It was a pity that we could not see the surrounding scenery since it was already dark.
The access road from the airport to the highway was not well maintained, and it took a long time because we had to go through the streets of a town where many people were passing by on a Friday evening.
Still, I think we were able to save more than one hour compared to the previous trip from Mandaue through downtown Cebu.
We left the restaurant a little before 9:00 p.m. and arrived at our hotel in Toledo City at around 10:30 p.m.
