Tuesday, 29.5.2018: From Auckland to Tokyo

On the next day I was finally flying to Japan:

AKL → NRT Air New Zealand Business Class
NRT → KIX JetStar Japan Economy Class

I got up early in the small Ibis Budget Hotel, checked out and walked 15 minutes to the airport (really refreshing in the morning):



Business counters are out of fashion I guess, so I had to check in and give up my bags myself. Afterwards I headed straight to the lounge:





As I mentioned above, the Air NZ Lounge in Brisbane was already crowded. But the one in Auckland was insanely crowded – and despite its size it was hard to find a free seat. At least there was an awesome cooking station where I got a delicious lamb dish:



Otherwise the lounge looks similar to the one in Brisbane, same goes for the food.





Again, the drinks were the actual highlight for me – but even for me it was too early for that:



Here are a few more photos of the Air New Zealand Lounge in Auckland: https://the-mileonaire.com/de/air-ne...unge-auckland/

This time a beautiful B787 should bring me to Narita, and the Air NZ livery looks even better on this plane type. After boarding I made myself comfortable in the same non-reverse herringbone as yesterday, just with a 1-1-1 configuration instead of 1-2-1. In this configuration you don't have to look at other passengers' feet, but a grey wall instead (Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall).





I'm no fan of the seat but what actually bugged me the most was that it's super hard to look out of the window! I wonder who thought it was a good idea to have the seats face a grey wall instead of the huge Dreamliner windows. During taxi my neck already hurt, just because I wanted to look out of the window on that beautiful morning:



So, I rather focussed on the IFE and watched 'Return of the Jedi' again (still better than all the new crap Disney is pumping out) – while the cabin crew started the breakfast service:





I caught up on some sleep afterwards, and despite the claustrophobic layout of the seats (especially after enjoying the SQ couches a few days before) I slept really well. There was another meal service before landing, in my case a good prawn appetizer and 'Japanese Braised Pork Belly' as my main:





After 10 hours we started our descent into Narita, with some great views of the landscape:



I exited the beautiful Dreamliner...



...and entered Japan!



I still had to go to Osaka though, so I grabbed my bag after immigration and took the shuttle bus to Terminal 3 where Jetstar flights depart. I checked in for seat 1A (Exit Row, woohoo!) and boarded the plane for the short hop to Kansai.





Kansai was completely empty when I arrived, so I got my bag super quickly and went to the bus counter. The bus system to the city looks confusing at first, but once you understood it it's actually super easy.



It was late in the evening already, but the bus (and a cab afterwards) brought me safely to my hotel for the next nights: the beautiful Imperial Hotel Osaka. Now I was finally in Japan to explore it and the small 'detour' came to its end!