Haneda Airport is a good metaphor for Tokyo as a whole. Functional, surprisingly un-flashy, and it gets the job done.

Consistently voted in the top three best airports in the world, it shifts 90 million passengers per year over thousands of routes, both domestically and internationally. As it was rather a flying visit – we were only in the city for four nights – when I entered on a BA flight from Heathrow, all I wanted to do was move through immigration quickly. There were a few stages to this, the first of which was where you scan your passport at the computerised system, and it takes a picture.

You then go on to a manned booth and as long as you have filled in both embarkation cards (note, my group didn’t) with minimal information, then the whole process can take no more than 30 minutes. Then, as I went through the doors to the baggage claim, something happened to me that had never happened before – there, spinning round in front of me on the nearest belt, was my bag. Usually there’s a wait for this – but not in Tokyo.

After picking that up we went through a final ‘anything to declare’ customs check and I was out.

There are many ways to get to the city, including a variety of trains and monorails. We chose a minivan and got to our Yotel in the Ginza area of the city 20 minutes later, hassle-free.

There are many misconceptions about the Japanese capital. It’s not expensive if you know where to look. It’s not gridlocked by traffic and through my five days in the city there wasn’t a single Godzilla attack.

After the trip, it was the same story traffic-wise back to Haneda, where we checked into our BA flight by a well-oiled team of friendly staff.

Before anything else: A confession. Haneda Airport Garden is a new ‘shopping and eating emporium’ located in terminal three, with a grand hotel, spa and 80 shops and restaurants.

We. Had. No. Idea. It must be located outside departures and there was zero signage for it. But you know, good luck with it all.

Anyway, passing security and passport control was again painless on a Monday morning – 25 minutes in total – but I do wonder what queues may be like at busier times.

Once through, we were hungry for breakfast. Sadly, the food options were not great, with little cafes serving some rather anaemic sandwiches. We could have done with some sort of ‘airport garden’ there, really.

There were waffle houses and places with more traditional fare, such as sushi or ramen, but nothing to me says ‘8.15am in the morning’ like a burger and chips, I had a teriyaki chicken in a sweet bun and it certainly gave me the salt content I desired so early in the day. Like the rest of the airport, it was simple yet effective.

As you would expect, everywhere was spotlessly clean and it all worked well – and yes the toilets were as high spec and as daunting as I’d become accustomed to over the stay. They even play a little tune on completion.

There were digital screens that were constantly updating information, which was just as well as our flight had been delayed out of London.

When we were able to board the process took a few minutes and while we had to wait on the tarmac as they changed runways due to high winds, that was largely unavoidable.

As we took to the air with the sprawling city below us (still Godzilla-free), with Mount Fuji in the distance, I could safely say that Haneda lived up to the hype in a very understated way.

Where else can your toilet include a jingle to say well done, a jet stream to clean you in a compromising way AND you get your bags presented in front of you as soon as you walk through customs?

Japan truly is a good mix of the weird and the functional.