Category: Japan

Seoul: Flying back, through Tokyo NRT airport

50 hour door-to-door trip with 6 legs: ICN-NRT-GUM-HNL-SFO-ORD-YYZ
Major ouch!
(And yes, there is a non-stop flight from Seoul to Toronto on Air Canada, but that’s besides the point)

Currently I’m sitting in Tokyo’s Narita airport (NRT) in the United Club lounge for this 6 hour layover.
Which isn’t nearly as fancy as the Asian lounge I used in NRT on the way to Seoul last week. In fact it is similar to the ones in the US, but with a much smaller (self-serve) bar. Slightly newer feel to it Noticeably missing is Bailey’s (for my coffee).

When I first arrived in the lounge, it was very full. It’s quite large, but that’s a lot of people. Now (at 18:30 local time) it’s almost deserted – I can see maybe 20 people. Strange. At least the wi-fi is running at a reasonable speed again.

Also while I was sitting here, the guy next to me (we had been chatting about flights) suddenly says “enjoy your flight” – it turns out there was another (Continental-operated) flight to Guam 3.5 hours before my flight to Guam. Perhaps I could have gone stand-by (since my bags are checked through to San Francisco anyways) and gotten some sleep in a hotel there; I checked the flight status seating map on my phone and there were no seats left; in fact, there was one person still on the standby list). Besides, then I wouldn’t have been in a nice Economy Plus seat for the 3.5 hour flight.

Side note: for international connections at NRT, you pass through a security check after deplaning, and there were actually 3 x-ray machines for Star Alliance Gold passengers, and only one for regular passengers. Yeah (since I’m in the former category)!

Seoul: Checked in an hour ago, but it’s 1am and not tired

After enjoying the better than average business lounge at NRT, and then sleeping most of the almost 3hr flight from Tokyo to Seoul (the flight was pretty empty so I had 3 seats to myself, which is how many seats I need to lie down comfortably), and an easy train+subway ride into town to my hostel in the Sinchon university district, now I’m feeling pretty awake.

Earlier today I booked my DMZ tour for Friday, and just now I booked a ticket for tomorrow night’s performance of JUMP, a slapstick martial arts show highly recommended in my guidebook.

Tokyo – San Francisco (second leg)

NRT-SFO flight (9 hours)
This flight was on an older 747 which, in stark opposition to the 777 I flew westbound, had no power outlets by the seats and no seatback entertainment system (and only one third of economy was economy plus). Three and a half movies were shown on the overhead monitors (they started the fourth one too late to finish). I enjoyed Kung Fu Panda 2 and Midnight in Paris which were the only ones I watched, as I took a sleeping pill after dinner with wine and actually managed 5 fairly solid hours of sleep in my window seat I even slept through breakfast :-(
Surprisingly I didn’t feel chilled (barefoot, shorts, no sweater).
I did arrive in San Francisco at 9am feeling a little refreshed.

SFO airport
I used the global entry kiosk at SFO to bypass the immigration line (and the questioning by a customs officer), which got me to the baggage carousel quickly so that I could wait. Of course my bags were one of the last ones off (it didn’t help that I didn’t get a “priority” sticker on it like should have been done at checkin).

I had to clear customs and re-check the bags, after which I quickly went into the Red Carpet Club (I had received a status “domestic” upgrade on this international flight) for a coffee with Bailey’s and as light breakfast (half-size yoghurt, a banana, and 3/4 of a toasted bagel with cream cheese as the other 1/4 flopped onto the floor when I was separating the bagel halves for toasting duty).

Taipei to Tokyo (first leg of return journey)

To TPE airport

The air conditioned bus took 50 minutes at 6 am, and cost only NT$125 (US$4.50).
It looked like they are working on a metro line along the highway out towards the international airport.

TPE-NRT flight (3 hours)
This was operated by ANA (All Nippon Airways); all the announcements were in Japanese, Mandarin and English. Being a Japanese airline, I was surprised that there was no Sudoku in the inflight magazine!
I also got to experience regular economy (as opposed to economy plus) as the couple in front of me and my seatmate immediately leaned back all the way, bringing the seatback personal entertainment screen that much closer to my face. There were a few movie choices – I watched Happy Feet, an animated penguin movie, which was cute. The lunch meal was decent, with wine, and kudos to the airline for putting a real quantity of pepper into the little packet, as opposed to the usual barely noticeable amount.

I had a window seat on the right so that I could see the Taiwan coast and had a view of hazy Taipei (having arrived on a cloudy night I didn’t see much then)

Fun feature: the flight showed the image from a forward-facing camera on the overhead monitors for the last 10 minutes of the flight, including during the landing at Tokyo’s Narita airport.

NRT airport
The answer to my previous question is: I gate-checked my rollaboard bag. They were kind enough to put a fragile sticker on it (recall it was mostly empty so I was worried it would get crushed – it looked fine when I claimed it in SFO). Though when I rechecked it after customs for my next flight, the baggage guy really wanted to close it (no way).

I also lost my cold peanut soup can I had bought at TPE (just to try it for fun) since I forgot about it in my carry on bag when going through the connecting flights security area at NRT.

One of the things I bought at NRT (besides cough drops) was strawberry kitkats (chocolate bar), which I had never seen before. Not bad, though a little sweet for my liking.

Sitting in NRT

I survived my 5am alarm clock and slog out to TPE airport. At least there wasn’t any bad traffic.

Exchanged my last TWD for JPY to buy some chocolates and, more importantly, some more cough drops as I’m coughing up a storm today. I’m sure my seatmate and others nearby appreciate that.

Now I’m debating if I should “gate”-check a nearly-empty rollaboard carry-on since the handle won’t close all the way (will it get crushed in cargo?), or put it in sideways in the overhead bin and annoy other people on a full 747?
(I have a knapsack which has my carry on stuff – it fit into the rollaboard)

Also a new blister today in a new place – on the side of my heel. Never had one there before that I can recall. Sigh

Some flight notes (to Taipei via Tokyo)

Some flight notes (all United Airlines):

On 1 hour YYZ-ORD flight
–          I did receive a status upgrade on the short YYZ-ORD flight, woohoo!

On 12 hour ORD-NRT flight:
–          Having Economy Plus seats on the Boeing 777 flights made it bearable (an extra 5” legroom vs regular economy). Surprisingly, ½ the plane’s economy section was Economy Plus (domestically it’s ¼ – 1/3 of the plane)
–          Woman next to me had Pepto Bismol and immediately asked flight attendant for an air sickness bag, which luckily she didn’t use (though she did manage to spill a cup of water on my socked foot
–          I watched 3 movies on seatback entertainment system (choice of 7 free movies and a handful of TV shows; I didn’t do the $10 premium package that gave some more choices and games) – X-Men First Class (fun entertainment), Bridesmaids (some funny moments) and something else escaping me at the moment (update: it was Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides)
–          I managed to snooze a little (fee red wine with meal helped!)
–          Received a meal, a snack and a meal
–          Flight was very full – I only saw a few empty seats
–          2 regular power outlets

On 3 hour NRT-TPE flight:
–          Similar B777 plane, but less crowded (at least in Economy Plus)
–          Received another meal
–          Was able to sleep a little more
–          Different movie choices – this time I watched the animated movie Rio (so-so)