I had a very brief visit to the JAL diamond premier lounge at HND. I can’t remember how long it was, but based on my photo timestamps likely only for 10 to 15 minutes!
Matcha Popcorn flavour.
Seeing the smoking room area in the lounge always amuses me, with the sign “for adult smokers only”. Though I wouldn’t know what it’s like in there, as I’ve never smoked!
My second JAL (domestic) F flight that day was to ITM! This time it would be on a 767, an aircraft I have not flown on in over a decade!
This time the F cabin had the window shades up, with the summer sun leaving a much brighter environment than boarding on the A350! And unlike the A350, the 767 had just a single row of F seating in a 2-1-2 configuration rather than 2-2-2. And white leather seats rather than black, and no individual IFE screen (though completely unnecessary on such a short flight!)
There was just one other passenger in the F cabin, a senior Japanese businessman (likely in a c-suite somewhere…)
He occupied the “throne” seat, but was asked to move before takeoff (perhaps for aircraft weight destribution). So instead he sat on the left side of the cabin. I was in 1K, right side window in hopes for a view of Mount Fuji.
The drinks menu highlighted that the champagne was served at the Prince William and Catherine’s royal wedding, which was reason enough for me to drink it.
If my meal looked familiar that is because it is the exact same dish I had on my previous HND flight to CTS, several days prior! Though the cold noodles were nicely refreshing during the summer heat!
From the window I could see just the top of Mount Fuji, appearing surprisingly dark as if it were in shadow. The rest of the mountain was obscured by clouds.
Not long after that we began our descent into Osaka Itami.
Descending surprisingly close to nearby buildings.
As we were prepared for landing the flight attendants swapped my glass for a plastic cup, so I could keep drinking. But I still had the glass bottle of the guava juice. So I tried to hold onto the bottle with one hand and film the landing with the other. Unfortunately this plan didn't work as the cup still fell onto the ground during landing. I apologised profusely at the FAs and they reciprocated the apologies!
From Itami I had two options, wait for the direct limousine bus to Kyoto. Or go by rail, with two transfers. Yes, you can guess which I picked!
I arrived at the monorail platform, and managed to get a seat for the short ride. Transferring at Hotarugaike station, I entered a Hankyu train which was standing room only. I thought the maroon livery made the trains rather pretty.
Arriving at Osaka Umeda station all I had to was walk across to Osaka Station, an easy transfer right? I ended up getting extremely lost, walking instead into the Hankyu department store!! And then considering it was peak hour/6pm I figured I would reserve a seat on a limited express train to Kyoto, rather than try to squeeze onto a packed local train. I booked the Haruka train in green car. But I still ended up getting even more lost trying to find the underground platform for Haruka. I spoke to station attendant asking if I could change to a later train but he said that I still had time. So I ran trying to find the platform, eventually reaching it miraculously before the train arrived. The train had very pretty Hello Kitty furnishings as well as exterior. And again the green car was almost empty!
I walked to the doubletree hotel and checked in. I had booked a queen room. At the front desk I got the typical “thank you for your loyalty” spiel and was told I had been upgraded …to a twin room. I asked if I could be upgraded to something else, as the hotel was still showing that suites were available. The front desk agent refused, saying that they did not upgrade to suites. And so I declined the twin room, perceiving that to be downgrade to a queen bed.
So I stuck to my queen room as I originally booked, and complained to the diamond desk line (which is a whole other story of things going sideways). Front desk called me later that evening, but insisted that the twin room was “an upgrade not a downgrade”, even with the smaller bed as it was a “premium” rather than standard room designation. She offered instead that if I vacated my room tomorrow by the morning checkout time (I think 11am), I could switch to a king room from that afternoon. While an upgrade, now it felt like being evicted during the day when I had paid for a multi-night stay. But I didn’t mind clearing the room, as I would be going to an amusement park the next day anyway. And I only had my backpack with me anyway, as I tracked Yamato Ta-Q-Bin luggage and saw it was in Tokyo, waiting at a logistics hub for its next movement.
