IAHRyan

A few weeks ago I headed to Japan for a two week trip to Tokyo and Kyoto. Having never been to Japan, or Asia at all for that matter, I was obviously excited. I’ve travelled fairly extensively in Europe but never forayed into the East.

Some photos were taken with my iPhone, some with my SLR, hence to huge gulf in image quality! This is also my first TR, so go easy on me!

My flight began with a friend (whom I now owe a good souvenir!) driving me to SAT at 630am for a 725am connection to IAH. I hadn’t seen the new Terminal B at SAT yet; I was pleased. Imagine a miniature IAH-C with Lone Star impressions all over the place. And a small Starbucks. And a smaller lounge. Maybe 5 people in the security line, so that took no time at all. Quite a contrast to Terminal 1, which at *at least* two hundred pax queued up.

I accidentally walked into T1 when I arrived and was immediately grateful for elite security lines when I realized I had to walk (maybe 75m) to Term-B for CO.

The new PC is small but adequate given the kind of traffic CO has here. Pleasant lounge dragon welcomed me in and I had a quick cup of coffee before heading to board my RJ for the quick hop to IAH. Easy flight, nothing to report.


PC at SAT.


Texas!

Now it gets interesting!

I took the train from B to E and walked into the PC, easily the best in CO’s system. The third floor is always the quietest so I hopped in the elevator, found some empty chairs and grabbed a bagel and some coffee. It’s 10am, so I’m not hitting the bar just yet.


IAH Term-E PC.

I spent an hour or so in the lounge and headed to the gate, E7 today.




Today’s bird to NRT. 777-200, obviously equipped with CO’s new BF seats now that the conversion is complete.


Nice day at IAH.

My seatmate today was an elderly Asian man on his way to TPE. He spoke *extremely* little during the flight and mostly just slept. I was in 8K. The bulkheads are DEFINITELY superior to other BF seats on the 772. I had 3B on the return and the smaller foot area is a big detriment.


Flying over the Rockies.


Err....


Beautiful clear day over Alaska.

And now for the food! Today’s menu:

I chose the Japanese option. AFAIK, there aren’t any photos of the Japanese option on FT right now, or at least I couldn’t find them. I should’ve really had the SLR out for these but the iPhone was too convenient.


Warm nuts to start off.


Table setup. Good chardonnay.


CO’s famous mushroom soup!

The soup was good, but the tempura was a bit soggy. Sushi was what expected for an airline (that is, basically nothing).


I liked the shrimp, the rest was not to my taste.


Main meal. I was not impressed and wish I had chosen the western option. My advice (granted, this was just one instance) is to avoid the Japanese meal. Meh.


Ice cream sundae. What else is there to say?

I read for most of the flight. I finished off that week’s issue of The Economist and then the day’s International Herald Tribune. I had a Financial Times with me but didn’t pick up it.

The books I had on hand included A Traveller’s History of Japan, an anthology of fiction written by western expats in Japan, Paul Theroux’s legendary Great Railway Bazaar and finally rereading a few sections of Lonely Planet Japan.

I also avoided the AVOD. CO has a good (if slow) system, but I prefer to read.


Tasty G&T midflight.

When I did sleep, I slept well. I had just two short naps, but I did this on purpose given the dep/arrival times of the flight. The FA kept the coffee flowing for me.

However, and this is my biggest complaint about CO, the flight was completely dark for the entire trip. Pretty much everyone was asleep so I felt guilty keeping my window shade up and had to rely on the reading light. It’s an adequate light though, no problems there.

IAHRyan

Breakfast service.


Breakfast service. Sorry, already ate the fruit! The pineapple was quite fresh.


I chose the omelette option today.


First glimpses of Japan!


ANA birds lined up at NRT.


A little damage at the Yebisu Garden Place.

I was in the tasting room at the Yebisu Beer Museum when the quake struck. The building is very well made, I grew up in California so I have a little experience with quakes but I wouldn’t have pegged it at more than a 5 or 6. Took me hours to get back as I had to walk quite a distance from Ebisu to my hotel. I spent a few hours hoping the trains would start again and grabbed some food as I waited. I love that even fast food in Japan is tasty.

Anyways...

I was originally planning on staying in Japan and continuing as planned to Kyoto, but I decided to bail and head home. I had about four days in Japan. An unfortunately short trip. I did, however, develop a rotten cold as soon as I got back, which started in Japan, so maybe it’s better that I recovered here rather than Kansai!

I called CO in the US using Skype around 630am day of departure to change my flight. I was able to switch but given that I had upgraded using SWUs, I couldn’t confirm in BF right then. I found out that the Narita Express wasn’t running, so I planned to take the Keisei trains to NRT, only to find out once at the station that those weren’t running either—their website was wrong.

In the end a friendly subway station manager directed me to the City Air Terminal and a limo bus to NRT. With his directions, I was firmly on my way and arrived after my four hour journey to the airport!

NRT check-in was crazy. CO’s desks weren’t open yet and I lost my status this year so I had to queue in the Y line. Fortunately I was near the front and had my iPhone (thanks for the free wifi NRT!). The machine threw a fit when I tried to checkin and it took the agent a good five minutes to figure it out. She said she didn’t think my SWU would clear, but sure enough as soon as I checked my iPhone after clearing security I was confirmed in BF! Success!

I was hot and sweaty so I grabbed a new boarding pass from the CO connection desk and headed to the ANA lounge. I meant to go to the Satellite 5 lounge but wasn’t paying attention and ended up at satellite 4. Same facilities in both and checkin took so long that I didn’t bother to head to the other one. Quick shower, some udon, beer, G&T and a few other snacks and then I headed to board.


Crazy NRT checkin for CO. The IAH and EWR flights leave close to the same time so there were two 772s worth of pax in one line. Fun stuff.


Mmm, snacks.

Great lounge, I hope to go back someday.

Sorry, no photos of the flight back. Too tired and jaded by what had happened to care that much! That said, the flight was actually horrible. Cabin was waaaay too warm, my clothes were rather dirty and uncomfortable and my seatmate was annoying. The food was good though. I couldn’t sleep *at all* so I watched a few movies on the IFE.

My seatmate deserves a mention. Very little english capability but not Asian. She spent most of the flight nodding and smiling to make up for her lack of language skill, but that doesn’t annoy me. What annoyed me was the PERFUME she applied every hour. She didn’t understand (or pretended not to) when I asked that she refrain. Finally, when we landed and I stood to retrieve my carry-on, she flopped all her belongings into *my* seat and stood there, packing. I was in the aisle with my rollaboard blocking everyone because I couldn’t get to my shoulder bag which I had stored under the seat. I had no where to go so we all just watched her pack an *incredible* amount of stuff. Truly inconsiderate.

I ended up the last BF pax to leave the plane because of her. Those behind me turned around and used the middle door to deplane, but I still couldn’t get to my belongings.

To top off a horrible return trip, I was selected for secondary customs screening.

Hope you enjoyed my TR!

zcat18

^ Congrats on a very intersting first TR! It's a shame that you had to cut your trip short, but I thoroughly enjoyed the account of your post-earthquake journey to NRT. I too grew up in CA and was in more earthquakes than I care to remember (including Northridge '94, which was a mess).

I'm headed to NRT in November on NH and am hoping to upgrade using UA miles. Will probably call to put myself on the list today or tomorrow. Thanks again for a great report.

IAHRyan

It’s worth mentioning that I never felt unsafe in Tokyo. The building shook for a few minutes but nothing fell over, including the glasses behind the tasting bar, at least 200 of them! Definitely didn’t feel like a 7.9.

The reason I left was uncertainty—getting unbiased information and a reliable risk assessment was frustrating given the hyperbole coming from American media and communication barriers with Japanese sources.

Enjoy your trip! I’m hoping the situation is stable by May. I’ve got enough points to book a RT in C and there’s good availability on ANA for the dates I want, going to book in a week or two once I finalize other plans for June. If I can find the seats I may even buy enough points from US to redeem in F!

IAHRyan

Here are some follow-up pictures I took while in Tokyo:


Evil death cart at the Tsukiji fish market.


Ameyokocho, a shopping area next to Ueno Park. Had a few great snacks in here and bought some very tasty green tea.


The beer I was drinking when the quake hit.


Sensoji, in Asakusa.


At the Meiji Shrine.

Harajuku. No cosplayers today, probably due to the earthquake.


Incredible fatty tuna at Sushi Dai.

Back at Tsukiji.




In Kagurazaka. What struck me most about Tokyo was the stark contrast. A hypermodern landscape but you can turn a corner and find a tiny shrine tucked away.

N830MH

Wow! What a brilliant TR!! I'm glad you have a great trip. You were very short trip. You turnaround back home to USA? Where you fly from NRT-KIX-IAH? Because NRT does not have enough gallons. How is your flight doing? You don't have any complaints about windows shade down. Because these passengers who want to sleep during long jetlags.

IAHRyan

I flew back a week ago, NRT-IAH nonstop. NRT post-security was relatively calm, lots of shops closed though as well as the RCC.

IAHRyan

Wanted to write about my post-trip experience with JR. I purchased a 7-day JR pass, activated it at NRT upon arrival to start on 3/15, the day I left. I secured three seat reservations, but obviously never used them. Nor did I ever step on a JR train using my pass.

I’ve been working with JTB to try and get a refund or even credit from JR but they just called to inform me that my second appeal for a refund was denied.

I sent in my JR pass, all my seat reservations, the exit stamp from Japanese customs at NRT, a copy of my CO boarding pass for the return flight and more. Ample documentation that it was physically impossible for me to have used my JR pass (JR trains weren’t running to NRT that day either).

And yet, no refund.

JTB is sending me a $25 visa gift card as a goodwill gesture, but this certainly turns me off from returning to Japan any time soon.

NickW

Did you request a refund at a JR Pass ticket exchange office before the scheduled start of travel? If you did, and you were refused, I would fall off my chair in surprise.

If you didn't, then be honest with yourself: you did not request the refund in accordance with the terms of the ticket (which are published in English on the JR Pass website) and you were looking for a waiver. If that's the case, I don't see why you're so outraged - especially as you're being offered a gratuity out of the bargain.

IAHRyan

I’m outraged because they kept moving the goalposts on me. First they said they’d grant the refund due to the situation in Japan, then they said they’d grant it if I could offer proof the pass was never used (which I did), then they just decided not to do anything (JR, not JTB).

*That* is what really got me.

Sorilla

Few e-reading favorites : FT, WSJ, The Economist and Bloomberg Businessweek ARE my no-fly-without applications for the iPad2

grahampros

In the context of the situation. something as trivial is not worth worrying about. And to say not going back to Japan because of it is just ridiculous.

It's quite possible and likely it was more a language barrier issue more then anything, and as somone said good chance you violated the terms. One thing the Japanese excel at is honoring commitments so i suspect there is more to the story.

IAHRyan

Under normal (non-earthquake) circumstances, I would absolutely not be entitled to a refund.

I don’t know about a language barrier. I dealt with JTB’s Houston office and they dealt with JR in Japan, so if that’s the case it was between them.

Obviously I’ll go back to Japan someday, but it certainly sours one’s perceptions when you feel like you’re dealing with SNCF instead of JR.

Every other transport company in a similar situation would over a refund or exchange, even our prickly US airlines. Why not JR?

platinumTA

I was also in Japan on March 11 and experienced the earthquake just after arriving on CO #9 from Newark and while waiting to clear immigration at nrt. I actually left my Japan Rail voucher on my kitchen counter at home and was more concerned about having someone FedEx it over to me than about the earthquake! I spent two nights in Narita-san waiting for a family member to join me in Japan on Sunday afternoon. We departed for Kyoto on the bullet train. Everything was very normal in Kyoto. I used a SWU on each of the ewr-nrt-ewr segments when I booked the original reservation. However, I felt uncomfortable about returning back to nrt for my return flight because of the rolling blackouts in Tokyo and the possibility that my return train to Tokyo and nrt might be cancelled or delayed because of power outage. I flipped over to the UA kix-sfo flight and was pushed into B class which enabled me to upgrade to C for 12,500 points. I never ended up using my Japan Rail pass, even though it was rushed to me from my ktichen to Kyoto. Kinetsu, the company that issued me the pass in the U.S. did provide me with a 100% refund because of the earthquake; normally they charge a 15% fee for a refund, but it was waived under the circumstances. I recommend them for the Japan Rail pass in the future; they also FedEx the pass to the customer at no charge. I guess the difference between us was that your voucher was traded in for the rail pass, but still JR did not have normal operations for a couple of days and should have provided you with some sort of refund under the circumstances. By the way, I had the same meal as you on my flight, Bryan, and I have to say that the mushroom soup and the pork chop are both outstanding!

Flyingfox

Thanks for the report.

CO's food for business class looks pretty poor, especially the breakfast.
It look like something served in economy!