INTRODUCTION
Let me take you briefly, if I may, on a trip down memory lane. In December of 2002 I travelled to Japan for the very first time. I flew in Swiss International Air Lines Business Class on the mighty MD-11. The company had only just started operations earlier that same year in the wake of Swissair’s collapse; and even though Swiss International Air Lines promised and hoped to be an entirely different animal, traces of its predecessor remained. There was the aircraft’s livery for one – a somewhat slipshod and cheap affair that served its purpose rather badly. In fact the only thing that belied the aircraft’s previous operator was a decal with ‘SWISS’ titles which had been hurriedly plastered over those of the airline that lay in ruins by then, and which had a tendency to come undone after only a few flights.
You cannot step in the same river twice – I know. But for reasons I have never been fully able to understand myself, I have kept returning to Japan ever since that first visit. My yearly trip at the end of the year to the Land of the Rising Sun has become something of a ritual that needs to be adhered to meticulously, almost religiously.
And so I bring to a trip report covering my sixteenth journey to Japan.
Part I: Basel to Amsterdam, KLM Economy Class
Part II: Amsterdam to London Heathrow, British Airways Club Class
Part III: London Heathrow to Tokyo Narita, JAL Business Class
Part IV: Tokyo Haneda to Ishigaki, ANA Premier Class