JVPhoto

The slippers come with a plastic ANA blue shoe horn and a little cloth bag to take them in as well.

Can't say much about the wine in J, I just had sake.

JVPhoto

Day 2 had some rain but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Got my Passmo card and was off.

Maybe the wrong day to choose to visit Sky Tree.













From there I would head down the tracks to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography which was a nice little space that had 3 exhibitions on display of pioneers in Japanese alpine photography, the Japanese Advertising Award winners and Shimooka Renjo (the "first" Japanese photographer).







That night I would head out to Shinjuku to check out some of the bars in Nichome (gay area) and then just wonder for a bit and get offered a few "live shows" around Kabichuo.

I have to say I am disappointed in a city like that which has a metro system that shuts down around midnight.

JVPhoto

So I still have some stuff from the past few days but I thought I would share this experience with you from the past few hours.

Having had a late night last night and not feeling like venturing out I decided I wanted to try another one of the restaurants within the hotel and went for Yakatori Seo.
"Opens its first branch outlet of the popular restaurant "Torizen Seo" located in Azabu Juban. The restaurant adheres to the policy of preparing and serving chicken meat dishes made from the best quality ingredients."

I stopped by around 8 but they were full and said I could come back in about half an hour. So I went upstairs to the Oak Bar for a glass of whiskey.



Enjoyed a glass of the Nikka Miyagikyo 15 year old.



Downstairs most of the seats had cleared out by 8:30 so I had set down for dinner.



The menu centers around 8 pieces of yakatori and then from there on out the price goes up if you do the Skewers vs. Seo vs. Something Else where there are more and more extra dishes offered.



He asked if sashimi was okay...of course! Then I realized after I finished that there is no fish served...everything is chicken. So yes, I had uncooked chicken.

While he was starting on a few skewers I was given a dish of grated white carrot.



One by one he cooked the skewers and handed them over. Neck, heart, onion, leg, meatball, didn't understand, cabbage, wing.



Halfway through was given a green and potatoe salad.



Finishing off was a chicken broth soup. I thought I was going to get something sweet.



So craving my own final course of something sweet (and for something in the morning) I decided to head down into the Station to 7-11 and pick out a few things.



Not green tea mochi!!



At least the square with "milk" on it that I picked up next to the chocolates was a nugget of milk chocolate and the 7/11 yogurt fruit drinks I've had a few of which are good. And offer such kind thoughts!



So with the sake at dinner I spent Y7,900 to end up still being a little hungry and mad that I ate so many empty calories of unexpected fat...but at least I had an adventure and story to tell!

JVPhoto

Over the next few days I would adventure to the Imperial Palace, Shibuya, Harajuku and Omotesando.











































I don't really ever go to Starbucks when I am in the States but hey free WiFi in Tokyo and Matcha Latte!!



After some shopping in Ginza I was told to visit Sushi Kanesaka (2 Michelin Stars) and while I didn't feel like going for dinner I figured I would pop in during lunch. Well the 3rd time I went to an address where it was supposed to be was when I finally found the place!



Absolutely amazing. I am considering going back on Thursday for lunch again before I leave.

Abducted Alien

Very nice trip report with pictures. I´m awaiting my upcoming Japan trip, three weeks to go and then...
Do you have more picture from ANA J? Sleep mode etc.

JVPhoto

Not really because I try to enjoy the flights a bit more than having to take the same photos that you can see on their website or even use the interactive display....which in this case everything you twiddle around with on ANA's site is pretty accurate (surprising I know).
Plus the plane is nearly dark and I'm not going to use a flash or take too of crummy photos.

I have been looking forward to NH J & F since July!

JVPhoto

CRISIS ADVERTED!

Found out at T96 that I got a CPU from Y to F on ORD-LAX. It's on a 739 so we will see about the crap shoot of having IFE or not...if not means catch up time on Game of Thrones.

JVPhoto

Headed to Roppongi Hills one night so I could see the skyline at night and also Tokyo Tower & Sky Tree (instead of one or the other). Ended up being an AMAZING Andy Warhol show at the Mori Art Museum that's on the floor of the observation towers. So after I went through that the lights on Tokyo Tower had been turned off.











Next day would take me out to Disney...in looking at the site I was torn between DisneySea and Disneyland. Disneyland was nearly a carbon copy (minus the Matterhorn...but you can see Mt. Fuji) of what I grew up with in California so at the risk of being bored with that I went ahead and tried DisneySea. Was pretty interesting spin on things, for the most part liked it...but lord have mercy the lines! Not even only for the rides...some places to get popcorn or chicken legs and other speciality snacks had to be hundreds of people long...plus others as long to take pictures with the characters. Most of the line waits were 2 hours long...I couldn't imagine if all the other people waiting in lines for non-rides were also in those lines as well. But craftily using FastPass and also the single rider line on a few I was able to bounce around to a few things and not have to wait too long. Also was pretty neat seeing lots of the coming and goings of flights in and out of Haneda.











































Next day would be a day trip down to Kamakura to the Great Buddha and a few temples. Really easy straight shot down in 55 minutes from Tokyo Station. From there took the little local electric tram to Hase and walked up to the Buddha and then down to Hase-dera and then to the beach and then back up to a tram stop to Kamakura and then to the large temple grounds near there.



























Of FT interest at the Warhol show there was a photo of the Concorde table setting. ("No Photos Allowed")


In Mori Tower I was walking around and starting to get hungry and went to Roy's which has some Hawaiian/Polynesia twist to it, was pretty good all in all and lots of food for the prix fixe...only downside was having to sit next to the man with his escort date who had the worst giggle in the world. Upside was watching him anxiously keep looking back at the door after she was gone to the bathroom for about 10 minutes.


My "Mexican" lunch...at Disneyland...in Japan.


Up towards the top of Hase-dera Temple they have a small restaurant that has some gorgeous views and serves a few dishes.


Comforting...and I thought the magpies and kukaburras in Australia were bad.

JVPhoto

I present to you...one of the greatest hours of my life. I don't know what I have to look forward to now.

ROBOT RESTAURANT!!!

























Checked out Tokyo Station in the morning and headed down to get on the NEX...decided I would do the Green Car (leather seats) had a bit of a freak out when car 6 didn't show up and then saw this sign.





And in a day or two a recap of the wonderful experience that was ANA First Square Suite

Moomba

Nice photos and report. The last time I was near Tokyo station they still had hoardings around the site of the hotel. Thanks for showing us a glimpse of what lies inside now.

thesly

Excuse my ignorance...what happens at the robot restaurant?

JVPhoto

You walk up pay Ą5000 get taken up to he top floor holding bar which is the love child of Versace, Liberace & Tron. Then you get taken down to the basement and seated with your bento box.

And in a nutshell after that...some tribal drummers come out who make way for sparring robots who are overtaken by a spider queen and eventually trampled by a panda riding a cow that gives way to jaws all before the giant femme bots come out with some pseudo gogos.

Check out their site or just google and you can see the videos. Anthony Bourdain did a thing on it on his No Boundaries or whatever program.

LH4116

Very nice report JVPhoto, love your style of photography!

I know that many people rave about ANA First (which I look forward to reading btw) but for some reason I am a lot more appealed by their staggered Business Class on the 77W, hence it being high on my list of products to try. How far in advance did you have to book to find a seat?

Looking forward to the rest.

dat4life

I was talking to a friend the other day about things to do while In Tokyo. One of the things she suggested was the robot restaurant, but she said it was too strange to describe. Thanks for the visual and an overall great report, JVPhoto!

JVPhoto

Okie dokie so I am mixing in some of the "better" photos with just the "notational" ones (taken with an iPhone and then quality sacrificed from when uploaded to twitter) to make the TR flow a bit better with my thoughts/comments/experiences.

ANA First Square NRT-ORD



I decided to take the Green Car class on the Narita Express. Aside from having a bigger leather seat I don't see much of a draw to it over the regular one for the hour train ride...unless of course it's very busy or packed--neither was the case on my trip to/from NRT-Tokyo.



I had bought my ticket two days before from one of the machines in the station. When I went through to leave it gave me the stop sign and said please see an agent. I had time to spare but thought oh great what now. Well apparently all I did was when I bought the ticket from the machine the Y3900 just reserved the seat on the car...I didn't actually buy/pay for the trip fare which was Y1280 that I had to pay at the counter to get a ticket that would open the gates.



Got up and to the terminal and quickly found the Z sign which is the ANA F check in (also LH/LX). I had read reports before where everything was quick and never busy. No complaints had a nice chair to wait in but took about 5 minutes as there were about 4 stations with people checking in plus a few waiting.



Security was a breeze no one in line before me as it is only for the F check in passengers, 2-3 people in line at passport control. For the Suite Lounge there are 2---Sat 4 & 5. Sat 5 has been under construction for a few months and don't have bathrooms or the noodle bar for the time being. Our gate was 42 which meant I would be right by Sat 4 which was fully functional.
Going up!



Smiles and bows all around as you enter the lounge. One of the lovely girls will help you find a seat and then ask if you'd like anything to drink. Just sat to have a water and would get settled (I like to help myself and poke around). Went up and made myself a few mimosas...had a few little tea sandwhiches and amuse bouche type Japanese snacks (they also had some eggs and sausage and Hagen-Daas).



I knew I would probably be having some ramen/udon on the flight so I went ahead and had the ANA "original" chicken curry. Pretty tasty! I know on some flights/routes they offer this (I think it was on my JFK-NRT J small dishes options) so I am sure it's the same stuff they have on the ground as in the air.



Some nice views from the lounge...some say the UA GlobalFirst is better as you can see the runway from there.



Looking forward to taking baby beluga BKK-CDG in just under two months.



Some people have said that boarding at NH boarding sometimes has been a clusterfk even with premium cabins. Here they had very well signed and laid out F/Diamond and J/*G lines...being in the F one with just 2 other people for about 5 minutes makes you feel like you're in the fish bowl.

View from 2K


Once I was seated the lead F FA came up and introduced herself and asked what I would like to be called...my last name has a few L's in it so I said they could call me by my first. She then offered to show me the lav so that I could change into my PJs. F gets two lavs..one a bit bigger than the other that has a fold down standing platform so you can change and not have to barefoot/socks on the lav floor.



I thought the PJs were only going to be the bottom and top but there is also a cardigan that you get as well! (wearing it now)

Yesssss RIMOWAAAAAA! Pretty well stocked kit, the lotions are nice. The FA also came around with a tray with other things like the aroma cards (took a few of those...they have a little thing you press which crushes the scent crystals in it to when wave around), socks and a lip balm.



Can't complain about the headphones, comfortable and silent running. The blanket was also really, really amazingly soft. Would consider looking up the brand and buying it for home. Whereas in J the mattress pad and duvet are at your seat in F when they feel you have finished up eating they ask if you'd like to go to the restroom to freshen up and they will make your bed in that they lay it down, put on the pad, bring you an extra duvet and then also bring out an additional memory foam type neck pillow.




I thought I had read that on the ground they can't serve alcoholic pre drinks but they brought around juice and champagne and water. We pushed back on time but you can see there was a little bit of traffic at NRT and we spent about 10-15 min in the line up before we left.




Once we were up the FAs were up and in action.



Switched from Tattinger in the lounge to Krug in the sky. Pre meal drinks I had the champagne and then when I was eating I tried the Yamamoto sake which was great and really smooth and then mid-flight I had some of the 21 yr old whiskey with my udon...clean and easy to drink.



I really have to give it to ANA that they have so much food/drink information available pre-flight that is ACCURATE! You can see the whole run of show and options here.
ANA F Food NRT-ORD
ANA F Drink NRT-ORD



The amuse plate with parmesan wrapped in duck ham was AMAZING.



I didn't photograph everything but you have the caviar, scallop, sea beam, cheese plate, petit fours. I also had the green salad which was pretty unremarkable...just lettuce and croutons, the horseradish dressing was great. As per what is photo'd everything was good for the most part....flavorful, clean, right temp, great presentation. The cheese plate I found lacking, nothing on it I particularly liked or thought was worth the calories.











What's another glass of Krug before laying down?



I have no complaints about the bed, everything was comfortable and soft and wide, plenty of room. The only thing is that in terms of the flight time, I really wasn't tired. By the time I was laying down it was only going to be around 1pm in Tokyo...I would say it was more the booze that knocked me out for sub 2 hour nap.

I ordered some udon and whiskey to enjoy while watching Ender's Game. As I said with the flight over the IFE has some pretty descent choices but the non-Japanese stuff is just about enough to get you by if you are flying on NH for 20-25 hours r/t.



I was tempted to get the Japanese second meal as on my flight over but I was afraid I may not like some of the stuff listed so I went for the salmon eggs benedict which was good considering I rarely eat eggs in terms of breakfast preparations. They had a yuzu lemon bread that was really good!



Video: Beautiful descent into ORD

We landed into ORD just about on time, with GE I went right through and there they actually have two baggage claims where F/J/*G bags came out and then another for Y. I have not been to ORD since the late 90s on a school trip and I would have about 3 hours here. I found out that a friend who I rarely see that is an FA for whatever airline that is dba United Express would also be there at the same time so we ended up hanging out and having a little bit of food.
Going from NH F to UA F I was unsure about my lounge access but all I really wanted to do was shower...was able to access the C concourse United Club that has a shower and freshen up there before meeting my friend. I actually walked with them from where we met in C all the way down the tunnel through B and into Terminal 2 where he was meeting the plane he was dead heading on. It seems like there are a lot of places to drink and eat in ORD however they are all spread around. 3 hours was more than enough time to spend there.

I had booked this leg in Y wanting to see what my CPU chances were being 1K flying hub to hub. Sure enough 96 hours before the flight I was upgraded. Nice because about that time I was getting pretty tired, but I would be on one of the 737-900s that has no IFE (luckily I had Game of Thrones on my phone) so I was able to get about an hour of doze in and out sleep.

What a change huh! Cold shrimp salad from an FA that couldn't care less. The soup was good and the flight was uneventful except for about an hour away from LAX when someone came on the speakers asking for a doctor to ring their call button. Looking way in the back you could see a FA with a small oxygen tank, mask and a few people around. Couldn't see much but didn't seem like there was much panic...few minutes go by and other FAs and things seem to be going on as normal. Pleassssseeee no medical diversions. 25 min out of LAX the pilot comes on saying people in the back may have noticed a medical situation and that paramedics will be on the ground waiting for us so NO ONE GET UP WHEN WE PARK and allow them on to get to the passenger in the back. We land, they open the door...no one gets up, but no one gets on. About a minute later the captain says that we beat the paramedics to the gate and we could de-plane but that when they arrive he will make an announcement and ask all passengers in the aisle to immediately sit down.

Fairly tired by this point, had a burger in the 80s concourse area at LAX and some wine, had about 2 hours to wait before the United (Express) CRJ200 to Monterey. Left on time, full cabin, 50 minute flight so just a glass of water, nice view of the Channel Islands and then we were on the ground.





Mom was absolutely surprised and had no idea I was coming by to visit!