Musashino Musings

It was with much trepidation that we learned that we would be travelling to Tokyo via the much-maligned Heathrow Terminal 5. I was fully expecting to get caught-up in the kind of organisational fiasco that only Britain can manage. But – to my surprise – everything seemed to go pretty much according to plan. The check-in was indeed effortless as promised on the website; our bags arrived in the same city as us, at the same time and British Airways managed to take off and land in the appropriate places without crashing.

The only thing that worried my slightly was the biometric face scanning that everyone has to go through at Terminal 5, whether you are flying internationally or not. There is something very Big Brother about that; something very New Labour Police State. Of course we all want to feel safe from lunatic suicide bombers, but there is something deeply unsettling about having my every movement tracked by some nameless state computer.