Sidebar: So ALL of Asia is like Singapore in the summer, eh? Guess I deal better with cold than with hot humid heat…
I spent 18 hours in transit yesterday. First it was a 10 hour flight on SQ11 from LAX to NRT. Can I tell you I’m in luuurve with SQ all over again?
Even in steerage, I mean “economy”, I got 70+ movies ON DEMAND on my own vid screen, I couldn’t finish my meals, they fed us soooo much and I would have proposed to at least two of the Stewardesses on the spot if common sense and community property laws weren’t hovering around my head.
The flight left an hour late out of LAX but strangely enough, we made up the time enroute and landed NRT 15 minutes early. Glad that happened because even with fudge time, I was still on a tight clock because…
They redid Terminal 1 at Narita! The South wing is all new and is where all the Star Alliance airlines are at (I’ll write more about that when I fly on to SIN). I spent 20 minutes hunting for the Citibank ATM that used to be at arrivals after being misdirected. The person I asked probably presumed that I wanted to stay in the South Terminal when she told me to go up to 4th Floor departures.
I went up there. Got my cash. And won an American Express pen!
Then when I got back down to the arrivals floor and walked from South to North, I found my old trustworthy ATM, right where I left it. D’OH! *palmforeheadslap*
I got to the JR East ticket office with 6 minutes to spare (they close at 1900). Got my pass and my tickets. Even with all the delays and getting in early and losing the time I gained hunting for that bloody ATM, guess what? I still made my schedule! And JR being JR, all the trains arrived and departed on time.
Here’s how the schedule went:
NRT to Tokyo Station via N’Ex.
Tokyo to Utsunomiya via MAX Shinkansen
Utsunomiya to Nikko via JR Nikko Line.
Then, when I arrived at 2238 (on da nose, btw), it was raining Singapore style. That means, hot steamy heavy rain. Real rain.
I forgot, it’s August, ain’t it? Thought rainy season was done….
I had one night at the Narusawa Lodge booked.
This is OBVIOUSLY after the rain passed the next morning
Wada-San, one of the owners, came out to fetch me in her Mini Cooper in the driving rain. That was fortunate because Nikko shuts down after 1800 or so.
At that moment, the most comfortable room in the universe…
Tomorrow: Nikko.
WAAAAAAH!
I’m flying on SQ11 right now, somewhere over the Pacific. And liveblogging!
Seems that there’s Wi-Fi on this flight. And the deal’s not too bad either.
Check out the airlines that offer this progressive high tech service. Notice the conspicious lack of US carriers? It’s probably a good thing. If UA had this service, they’d probably restrict it to 1st/Bzness and charge three times as much.
Lunch just came out. Here’s what was for lunch:
Sauteed hanger steak with onions in mustard sauce, roasted veggies & gratinated potato
Cheese & crackers
Marinated Seafood Salad
Ice Cream (famous SQ Haagen-Daz cup)
Yes those are all my beverages. I believe in a liquid diet…
Not bad! You could either have this or the Japanese dish (since this is a flight bound for Tokyo Narita) which was wakadori sansho yaki. Will probably do the Japanese dinner.
More to come!
Gate 122, Tom Bradley Terminal LAX
Maybe it’s that my standards have been raised too high by my travels to Asia or that SFO’s International Terminal is only a few years old, but…
LAX needs a new International Terminal PRONTO! Or at least a remodel. I’ve written about this before, but the lounges look like they’re part of a really boring office block in South Gate.
Yup. Glamourous. Sure.
And they’re pretty small too. Hella small. I’m on SQ and the Raffles Class lounge is actually a shared lounge with Qantas. The Silver Kris lounge at LAX is only for First Class. Bleah. On the plus side, there is FREE wi-fi.
SQ11 was delayed for about an hour. The ground staff did a great job in keeping everyone informed of the delay and as such, no stress. While I was waiting, I turned plane geek and took a bunch of photos. All the planes that land and take off from LAX pass by the Tom Bradley Terminal.
CX. Big nose.
CX leaving, my flight late!
MUJI has an airline??