Great TR. nice ice cream for tatl

i barely know Japan and love that you went to some island area. Fun!

where did you get Chicago deep dish? I love Lou malnatti’s (uno’s founder) and have had both giordano’s and Gino’s East.

Thank you!

I would name Japan as my favorite destination overall. The islands are really a new experience compared to the "mainland" and I am happy that I came here, even if its only very few days.
I hope the bad weather is not a sign that I should stop traveling to Japan.

It was Lou Malnatti's, the main reason being they offer personal pizzas and I didn't feel like totally overeating already on the first night of this trip.

The day again started with the sound of heavy wind and some rain. I decided to take it easy and just walk around Naha for the day. Not a picturesque city for sure...



For lunch I went into a sushi place I walked by. Pretty decent considering the very low price.



And in the afternoon the sun came out for a couple of minutes and I went into a small park within the city which was pretty nice and had a filled koi pond.




Finally, back to Tokyo with JAL. Naha Airport has a Diamond Premier security and lounge. The lounge is pretty similar to Haneda, with some snacks and a drink selection. Waiting now in the lounge, the flight supposedly is delayed by 45 minutes.

After arrival to HND yesterday I quickly hopped on a train to the hotel. I chose one in Kamata this time due to the proximity to the airport.
For dinner, I went to an Izakaya restaurant and quickly learned the limits of Google Translate, or my abilities to use it. Apparently, while cross referencing the translation and the menu I mixed up the lines and got some chicken intestines... The adventures of traveling without knowing more than two words or even the letters. The onions and potato salad was also not what I've ordered but tasted quite good.

At least the meat skewers where what I wanted...

Kamata as a neighborhood is something new in Tokyo for me. Accidentally, I got in a street where the women are quite pushy even after telling "No" when they "offer their services". A first for me in Japan, but around the corner it was all back to normal. Surely not a good base for exploring the sights of Tokyo, however, I was in Tokyo twice in the last years so that was not really my goal. Therefore, another long walk: From the hotel in Kamata I started walking loosely aiming for Shibuya.
It is a beautiful day and Mt. Fuji was in clear view. This is from the Honmonji temple area.

A small plum garden with this nice tea house.

A last bowl of my favorite Japanese dish: Ramen (here Tan Tan).

A random street. I mostly walked by narrow houses, some single units and some multiple units.


Towards Meguro the houses become much nicer and it seems like a pretty affluent district.


And while the first part of the walk was mostly dense, but small houses, in Meguro it started to get bigger. In a couple of weeks this promenade will be full of people watching the Sakura blossom.

And finally after around 15 km I arrived at Shibuya crossing. Very busy even on a Sunday, full of tourists, demonstrators and (self-)promoters. Not very enjoyable to be honest, especially in contrast to the quiet and relaxing walk until here.




After some shopping, one last meal: Tonkatsu, again, very tasty.

And the day of the return begins. Went to the airport fairly early due to my legs hurting like hell from the last days.
Start in the JAL First Class lounge. It's a really big space. The main dining space "The Table" was crowded. I went to the Sushi Tsurutei area which is only opened in the morning, very calm. Decent sushi but nothing special and self-serve drinks.



One floor up to "The Salon", which is focused on special drinks.

A hand-drip coffee, to be honest not very blanc.

They have better whiskeys than the regular self-serve drink ares. To be honest I liked the Hibiki Blenders Choice better than the Hibiki 17 in the air. Also the Suntory Hakushu was quite good.

They even have big posters about the special waters. Maybe it's placebo, but there's a slight difference between the two.

Hallway to the main "The Table" area.

In the back there's the "Red Suite" which has some JAL memorabilia and a Shoe shiner.



On of the dishes from the menu: "Fugu and Mussel Meuni�re sauce"

Afterwards I headed over to the Cathay Lounge, which is among the nicest lounges I've ever been to. It's in the sixth floor with beautiful views of the airport, nice furniture, a full bar with excellent coffee and the typical noodle bar.

And on to the last post of this report, with pictures from the CX Economy flights and the lounges in HKG.
Both flights are on Boeing 777-300ER and I am booked in seat 40C, which has infinite legroom. It's also in the smallest of the Economy cabins.

I was greeted by multiple members of the crew and got drink and food service first for being Emerald. Not really necessary but won't complain.

I skipped the main and only had the Ice Cream and the fruit.

Transfer security at HKG was quick and I was off to The Pier. I am not the first to say this, but the design is really nice.

Off to the Dining Room, where there's a special menu in collaboration with the Mott 32 restaurant chain and some more items on the regular menu. All was of good quality, the service was very attentive. Really impressed by this lounge, especially, considering it's accessible on status.
Sorry for the bad quality of the menus.





And when a boarding delay of half an hour was announced I decided to try another bite and had the burger.

The bar space has a lot of comfortable seating and the staff was again attentive and nice.



In-between two visits to the Pier I made the 10-15 minutes hike over to The Wing.
The Wing First is on a balcony in the terminal. Also a fairly nice space with a Dining Room and bar. However, not as stylish as The Pier and the menu is also more limited.





I found the black toilets in The Wing a little bit strange...

On the way back to The Pier I quickly went in the Priority Pass lounge Kyra, which opened fairly recently. Again, a nice lounge considering it's Priority Pass. But much more crowded and the special cocktails on the menu where just very sweet juices.



Over to the AMEX Centurion lounge. It's a relatively small space on a balcony, but this evening was only around half full. On my previous visits it was always very crowded.
There's a view on the construction for the re-opening of The Bridge which will be in use during the renovation of The Wing.

AMEX Centurion lounge bar.


And off to the gate for boarding with 30 minutes delay. There was a menu in Economy, but again I only had ice cream, which was Vanilla (boring). Before take-off the crew welcomed me again and offered amenities from the Premium Economy basket, which I found a nice gesture. The seat next to me stayed free so this flight was as good as it can be for 12 hours economy.

The breakfast was okey.

Now back in Frankfurt. After nearly a week in Japan, the shock is already big how unorganized and dirty everything is "home". At least my ICE home is on time.

With that, thank you for reading this report. I hope the mix of first class flights and lounges with economy class flights and budget-travel impressions from Japan was of interest to some.

Great report, thanks for sharing!