Frankfurt to Tokyo Narita (FRA-NRT) on ANA 77W in business
I left the lounge early to make sure I wasn't bumped from the full flight for checking in too late. It only took a few moments at the gate desk to check in. Boarding hadn't yet started but appeared to be imminent so I did laps of the circle at the end of the B pier where our gate was. Fortunately boarding started before I got too dizzy
I was a bit apprehensive about seat comfort on this flight because it has staggered seating in business class. My previous experiences with staggered seating had not been pleasant - on Swiss I had a window seat that was too close to the cabin wall and so I had to sit on a lean all flight, while on Emirates the large shelf on the side made for a cramped seat and the tray was too tight and not adjustable for someone who is big in all directions like me. I'd selected a true aisle seat and was pleasantly surprised. While not as comfortable as the business class seats on Singapore or Air New Zealand to pick just a couple of my preferences, it was much better than both Swiss and Emirates. Still, the staggered layout is more crowded than the traditional layouts and increases the differentiation to first class as well as more efficiently utilising the space. Little wonder that more airlines have adopted this in recent times.
An amenity kit and menu were handed out. Pre-departure drink, and I snuck a refill also. For a moment I thought I was going to be denied my meal choice of the Japanese option (I love this whether it be on ANA, Japan Airlines, or Singapore Airlines; and have even been know to deliberately route via Japan just for this). The flight attendant couldn't believe I really wanted this (or maybe she knew they would run out of the Japanese meals?) and kept trying to push me to select something else more familiar
I persisted and won out in the end. The thing I like about these meals is they are generally much healthier than the western option, have lots of small bites with a wide variety of flavours and textures, look attractive, and goes down really well with a few small bottles of saki or some shochu.
With more flights to come I had plenty of time to really enjoy my dinner - every mouthful and sip (okay gulp). Who cares if everyone else has long finished their meal? This flight was plenty long enough to do this, watch some movies and get a few hours sleep. Just perfect so that I'd be slightly tired for the next flight, which is also an overnight longhaul. Whereas if I'd slept too much in the first flight then I wouldn't in the second. When I first started travelling long distances such issues as sleep management bothered me and I'd spend time thinking about it and trying to work it all out, bearing in mind departure and arrival times of day and any en route long transits. Now I've flown a fair bit (the equivalent of some 146 times around the world according to flight memory), it all comes to me without thinking.
We landed early and got a gate in the 50s pier. In the years I've been flying in and out of NRT, on several different airlines (and at times those airlines have used varying gate ares) this was the only portion I hadn't had a gate at. Not that the pier is much different to the 40s which Singapore Airlines currently uses.