After a restful night of sleep at the ANA Crown Plaza Hotel, it was time to continue my journey back to Hong Kong. I woke up at 6:45 a.m. just in time to catch the 7:10 shuttle back to the terminal. Since my bags were already tagged all the way to Hong Kong, I did not have to re-check in, and so walked straight towards the security checkpoint.




For a brief moment, I was a bit confused how there could be such a long line at this early time of the day. However, apparently the security checkpoint doesn’t open until 7:30, and so I had to wait for a few minutes. Good thing the line moved relatively quickly, and so I was through security and immigration in a short amount of time.



A nice line of Thai 787's, made me think I was in Bangkok for a second.



First stop was of course the obligatory visit to the ANA lounge near Gate 54, and I was welcomed in as one of the first guests of the day. I woke up without brushing my teeth or taking a shower, and so it almost seemed like I was a homeless hobo. I needed to use the shower, pronto.




The nice long shower made me felt more like a human being, and I was now ready for some breakfast in the main lounge area. I was starving. The noodle bar, my favorite feature of the lounge, was open, so I decided to get a bowl of soba and the curry rice.





I also chose to get some sushi from the other food serving area, before returning to my seat to check some email and write a bit of this trip report. The ambience was serene because the lounge was practically empty, worlds apart from the lounge during the later afternoon time where it would be almost impossible to get an empty seat.




Around 20 minutes before scheduled boarding time, I decided to walk to the gate and buy some souvenirs for friends. I really like the matcha mochi from the Fa-so-la duty free shop, and so I would buy some every time I pass through Narita airport.



Arriving at the gate area, I was surprised to find the economy class line extremely long and yet people were lined up in an orderly fashion. There was no line for business class passengers, and general boarding was complete within 30 minutes. No wonder some frequent flyers asked the United CEO why boarding a domestic United aircraft is more difficult than boarding a bus in Calcutta, they sure can learn a lesson from ANA.