Goodbye Japan, hello chaos!

This was one of the last photographable sights before setting off on the long journey home.
This is In Nagano airport, and the dragon is the emblem of the new, and first class, airport terminal building.
Rescheduled quickly and effectively in view of the Lfthansa industrial dispute, we flew Finnair across northern Siberia and down over St Petersburg to Helsinki for a quick change to a much smaller aorcraft for the comparatively shorter three-hour hop to Manchester.
All flights on time, highly efficient and I would heartily recommend Finnair to anyone contemplating a long-distance trip.
Things went dramatically awry after that when we encountered British Rail at its dreadful worst.
We had been rather spoilt by the incredibly efficient, spotlessly clean and well organised trains we had travelled on in Japan - 18 or so.
Every single service was running exactly to time - well signposted, clearly identifiable, equipped and serviced with visual and audio messages about arrival and departure at every stop.
our journey from Manchester Airport to Nottingham took longer to accomplish than Helsinki to Manchester!!!
Hardly any train was running to time and the station announcer was constantly broadcasting apologetic messages, platform changes, delays and fatuous reasons for the delays on the public address system.
Weary and disgruntled passengers thronged the platforms in a mixture of anger, disbelief and resignation.
The trains were shabby to dirty with inadequate luggage space - remarkable especially on the airport service which predictably carried passengers with loads of luggage.
The train we eventually caught was due to call at Sheffield en route to Nottingham, and carried passengers for Sheffield.
Then immediately after the train had left Manchester, it was announced that it would not now be calling at Sheffield!
You can imagine the anger and confusion that caused, with no authoritative information available on travelling alternatives. Staggering incompetence, carlessness and not untypical - as several of our travelling companions had tales of woe to share.
Anyway, nice to be home at last.
Now readjusting and getting over jet lag after a super Japanese experience.
Tomorrow - refereeing an under 18 county cup game of football.
Hope the lads behave themselves!