TPAC for 3 days in Tokyo, is it worth it? (JL F)
Nov 28, 2017, 4:31 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 181
TPAC for 3 days in Tokyo, is it worth it? (JL F)
Short answer: Yes
Longer answer: Probably only because I flew JL F both ways.
Around July of this year I entered a concert ticket lottery (a lottery for the privilege of buying a ticket, after buying a CD to enter the lottery, as Japan does) and my gracious friend currently working in Osaka took care of the muddy logistics after I won, getting us both tickets. This was a concert for the music from a popular anime last year called Yuri on Ice. It took place on Sunday, November 19, and I had to be back for Thanksgiving so the trip was Nov 17-22, DCA-LGA-JFK-HND-JFK-DCA. I apologize in advance that my pictures are really crummy in comparison to others, I'm not very mindful of taking pictures and when I did it was on my galaxy s7. This is my first time since I was an exchange student that I was solo in Japan, and my last trips were 2 week long affairs so this was really cramming it in.
DCA-LGA (AA J, 6AM-7:11AM)
DCA's hall is beautiful at 5am. I erred on the side of caution getting there by 4:25, with TSA Pre, so I think after getting out of the uber I was in the lounge well before 5. Ate some oatmeal before boarding and taking off on a very quick jaunt to LGA.
This was my first time flying into LGA and my first time transiting to JFK. Since I had nearly 5 hours to kill (thanks saaver availability) I did the refreshing (?) walk from terminal C to B where I checked out the centurion lounge. I really did have a lot of time to kill. The Centurion lounge was nice, nibbled on some pancakes and eggs and at 2 hours before check in for my JL flight I took an uber over to JFK, which also involved taking a bus to the ride share zone (which was just a covered area on a bridge). Could be better, but could have been worse.
JFK-HND (JL F 12:40 PM-3:10PM +1 day)
First Class check in at JFK was a breeze, but shoeless security is always a gross pain (no tsa pre yet). I attempted to kill time in the Air France lounge, which got insanely packed, both floors over the lead up to the flight, and I got the sense that they hated the non AF morning flights as they seem to barely cater any food. Or maybe that's all day, who knows. I feel like JL F has been talked to death here so I'll spare everyone and just show some pictures. I prefer the old Loewe amenity bags over the porsche which felt very plasticky. I took the western option since I planned on the Japanese on my way back. Steak was done perfectly to their credit. I managed to take a few naps on the rather long 14 hour trip. In 2K, got to see some cool scenery over the north.
This was also my first time landing in Haneda and I must say it's quite different than NRT. For starters, what are those towers shooting fire near the airport?
Immigration was a quick 15-20 minute affair, and after getting turned around a bit picking up my pocket wifi, hopped on the train to the Conrad Tokyo.
Day 0 (11/18)
Checked into the Conrad, lovely hotel and I like how it's an underground walk from Shinbashi but also on top of the Shiodome stop. Upgrade from city twin to bay twin exec (sad for a diamond but it's a holiday week in Japan) and I found the room and amenities to be more than enough. (mix of points and cash stay also).
(view from the next morning)
Before collapsing I managed to get a bowl of tonkotsu ramen at the Shinbashi Ichiran and pick up the new taiko game at the Yamada Denki Labi next door.
Day 1 (Concert day) (11/19)
bay side of the lounge
My concert buddy was flying in from ITM that morning and was going to meet me in Chiba at the Makuhari Messe where the concert is held. (I was able to get her ticket with 9k Avios which was a good use of points to save her cash).
(I am a black hole of carbs)
After a very filling breakfast at the lounge, I took the train over to Makuhari, passing by the Disney stop where a very colorful group of people got off. From Shinbashi it took about an hour with a transfer. There's an outdoor outlet mall right outside the station before the messe where I did some souvenir shopping, although the clothing selection was not my style for the season.
To my ignorant chagrin the Makuhari Messe is not 1 venue. It's not even 2, it's 2 sets of interconnected halls and a performance venue spread out with very little signage. A lot of events were going on concurrently including a TOEIC testing day and a karate tournament, so needless to say it was quite packed. To get to our thing, basically follow the stream of young women around to the second group of halls and then some signage appeared.
The concert wasn't until 6 but we got there around noon to check out the (no photos allowed) exhibition for the anime. After doing that and buying some swag, we decided to walk towards the Chiba Costco (I have an unhealthy fascination with costco) but it was deceptively far and we gave up near the massive aeon mall. Rather than 1 mall it's 4 zones of various scales connected and I have to admit it was a pretty surreal place to be while in Tokyo. I kind of felt like I was back home in nova, but the mall food was so much better. Grabbed some tasty tonkatsu before doing some more shopping and walking back to the venue.
(sorry for the bad pano)
I really do appreciate how orderly events are in Japan. When we were all leaving, it was like being in the gentlest stampede I'd ever been in (far cry from the CNY parade ending in HK last year). I was more or less carried along by everyone heading to the trains, but being taller than the local average (even for a korean woman) it was never too concerning.
After being on our feet all day we just capped the night off with yoshinoya curry, famima hagen daz and soaking our legs in the enormous conrad bath tub.
Day 2 (11/20)
My friend had to fly back today for work, so we took breakfast in the restaurant downstairs (the selection is better and you can get an entree) then headed to Shibuya for some quick shopping.
After she left for Haneda, I headed to Harajuku for a hair appointment. There's a hayato branch off takeshita doori that I've been going to for the past couple years because one stylist there really gets me. I do all my communication in Japanese while I'm there, but good to note their stylists do speak quite a bit of English. Found out my stylist is leaving to open his own place a few blocks away, so thrilled for him.
While waiting for my appointment I dropped by the Nescafe outside the station on a whim. I get a very difficult to eat salad (although it looks pretty) and a robot made me coffee (too jetlagged to take a picture but it was an Experience. and free.) I tend to carb overload when I go to Japan but what I would give for a sweetgreen salad...
After a lot more meandering, headed over to Ginza for dinner at Bifteck Kawamura Ginza, a teppanyaki wagyu joint (reservation made by my hotel). Very tourist friendly (nothing really wrong with that imo) I had a solo dinner of some really tasty Tajima beef. My chef was a young South Korean guy who spoke amazing English for having never been. Since I barely speak Korean (which must have been a disappointment), we got along in a fun mix of languages. Nice atmosphere, great food, would go again.
Day 3 (11/21)
The past 3 days I had been knocking out at 9ish and waking up around 3am. Today I figured it was useless to try and sleep some more and slipped out to head to Tsukiji. In my previous trips I'd never gone to tsukiji for lack of an interest of waking up at 3 am and similar lack of interest in the tuna auction. But since it was literally right there and I wasn't going back to sleep, I lined up with the rest of the schmucks outside sushi dai around 3:40am, which got me into the second seating, around 5:30. The 4k omakase can't be beat for the price and the chefs were all lively and very gracious. You could order more pieces a la carte after the set but I was already full and had to shamble back to the Conrad. I think I took a nap then woke up and ate breakfast again (bread edition).
Since I had nothing on the books until dinner, I did a some stops on the Yamanote line: Akihabara, Shinjuku (got lost as I always do inside the station trying to get to Lumine est, please don't judge), Shibuya again. I actually had to stop at a Raffine (quick reflexology chain) because I was walking in not very walkable shoes. The folly of mankind, etc.
(I like to look at the shibas in Japan but it's awkard to go up to stranger's dogs)
Dinner took me to Tempura Seiju, near Tsukiji again. The food was really amazing but I think I will stick with more casual a la carte tempura options. I didn't know you could get full on tempura? I had to pass on the ten-don at the end, to my sadness. Maybe I should have just forced it in. I didn't even eat lunch either!. The shop was very gracious but it felt hard to go at it alone. Especially since the other solo diner who was sitting next to me was a super foodie salaryman so the pressure was on. You live and learn right?
(really good tempura just looks like tempura so here is a picture of the bottle water they had to give me because they do not serve tap water)
Day 4: Back to the States (11/22)
The great part about flying out of Haneda is not having to get up at the crack of dawn (or 6am...) to make the morning flight. I took a quick breakfast, got in a cab from the Conrad (my luggage multiplied and I was not going to navigate morning rush hour on the trains with multiple bags... couldn't do that to myself or other people). Cab fare came in at 6,500 yen, which felt quite reasonable.
I missed the lounge entirely (gasp, shock, etc.) after checking in, I went up to the 5th level of the airport and did some wandering around, reflexology at the raffine (maybe I have a problem), and then went back down for security (by now the scrum around the priority lane died so it was a quick shoot through). Lined up as boarding began and I went to my 1D (no window available on this flight) seat to go back home.
Catering ex-HND was much better (obviously) and I enjoyed the Japanese menu (with the western caviar option) but I again could not finish all the food. My ancestors are rolling in their grave I imagine. I also took a Dramamine and abstained from any alcohol for the rest of the flight (abstained from being awake too. I slept about 7 uninterrupted hours). Woke up, ate some curry, landed in JFK, breezed through with GE, and transferred to terminal 8.
(loved the fall foliage touches. Japan takes seasons seriously)
I actually sat around landside for a bit while a friend from Brooklyn came out to meet me and pick up his kotatsu heater and seven star carton that I brought back from Japan (this is true friendship people). Since I couldn't get a connecting J (or Y) award seat back to DCA I bought a cash one way (in Y) and was smugly told off at the concierge check in (that's ok, was worth a shot). They did kindly let me into the FC lounge in T8 with my JL boarding pass /s. I think I slept in those less-comfortable-than-it-would-appear herman miller esque chairs for an hour or two, blearily drank some ginger ale then got on my flight home. I do like their new lounge very much, but having zero appetite after flying made it hard to enjoy the fare.
The meds combined with the jetlag combined with the dehydration made the rest of this part of the trip rather blurry, but AA got me where I needed to go and my partner did the rest. Then it was onwards to Thanksgiving
Thank you for reading this half baked TR, hope to have a much better one in the spring when we go for sakura season for a couple weeks.
Bonus: my reward for all this travel is getting to sit down and enjoy this
Longer answer: Probably only because I flew JL F both ways.
Around July of this year I entered a concert ticket lottery (a lottery for the privilege of buying a ticket, after buying a CD to enter the lottery, as Japan does) and my gracious friend currently working in Osaka took care of the muddy logistics after I won, getting us both tickets. This was a concert for the music from a popular anime last year called Yuri on Ice. It took place on Sunday, November 19, and I had to be back for Thanksgiving so the trip was Nov 17-22, DCA-LGA-JFK-HND-JFK-DCA. I apologize in advance that my pictures are really crummy in comparison to others, I'm not very mindful of taking pictures and when I did it was on my galaxy s7. This is my first time since I was an exchange student that I was solo in Japan, and my last trips were 2 week long affairs so this was really cramming it in.
DCA-LGA (AA J, 6AM-7:11AM)
DCA's hall is beautiful at 5am. I erred on the side of caution getting there by 4:25, with TSA Pre, so I think after getting out of the uber I was in the lounge well before 5. Ate some oatmeal before boarding and taking off on a very quick jaunt to LGA.
This was my first time flying into LGA and my first time transiting to JFK. Since I had nearly 5 hours to kill (thanks saaver availability) I did the refreshing (?) walk from terminal C to B where I checked out the centurion lounge. I really did have a lot of time to kill. The Centurion lounge was nice, nibbled on some pancakes and eggs and at 2 hours before check in for my JL flight I took an uber over to JFK, which also involved taking a bus to the ride share zone (which was just a covered area on a bridge). Could be better, but could have been worse.
JFK-HND (JL F 12:40 PM-3:10PM +1 day)
First Class check in at JFK was a breeze, but shoeless security is always a gross pain (no tsa pre yet). I attempted to kill time in the Air France lounge, which got insanely packed, both floors over the lead up to the flight, and I got the sense that they hated the non AF morning flights as they seem to barely cater any food. Or maybe that's all day, who knows. I feel like JL F has been talked to death here so I'll spare everyone and just show some pictures. I prefer the old Loewe amenity bags over the porsche which felt very plasticky. I took the western option since I planned on the Japanese on my way back. Steak was done perfectly to their credit. I managed to take a few naps on the rather long 14 hour trip. In 2K, got to see some cool scenery over the north.
This was also my first time landing in Haneda and I must say it's quite different than NRT. For starters, what are those towers shooting fire near the airport?
Immigration was a quick 15-20 minute affair, and after getting turned around a bit picking up my pocket wifi, hopped on the train to the Conrad Tokyo.
Day 0 (11/18)
Checked into the Conrad, lovely hotel and I like how it's an underground walk from Shinbashi but also on top of the Shiodome stop. Upgrade from city twin to bay twin exec (sad for a diamond but it's a holiday week in Japan) and I found the room and amenities to be more than enough. (mix of points and cash stay also).
(view from the next morning)
Before collapsing I managed to get a bowl of tonkotsu ramen at the Shinbashi Ichiran and pick up the new taiko game at the Yamada Denki Labi next door.
Day 1 (Concert day) (11/19)
bay side of the lounge
My concert buddy was flying in from ITM that morning and was going to meet me in Chiba at the Makuhari Messe where the concert is held. (I was able to get her ticket with 9k Avios which was a good use of points to save her cash).
(I am a black hole of carbs)
After a very filling breakfast at the lounge, I took the train over to Makuhari, passing by the Disney stop where a very colorful group of people got off. From Shinbashi it took about an hour with a transfer. There's an outdoor outlet mall right outside the station before the messe where I did some souvenir shopping, although the clothing selection was not my style for the season.
To my ignorant chagrin the Makuhari Messe is not 1 venue. It's not even 2, it's 2 sets of interconnected halls and a performance venue spread out with very little signage. A lot of events were going on concurrently including a TOEIC testing day and a karate tournament, so needless to say it was quite packed. To get to our thing, basically follow the stream of young women around to the second group of halls and then some signage appeared.
The concert wasn't until 6 but we got there around noon to check out the (no photos allowed) exhibition for the anime. After doing that and buying some swag, we decided to walk towards the Chiba Costco (I have an unhealthy fascination with costco) but it was deceptively far and we gave up near the massive aeon mall. Rather than 1 mall it's 4 zones of various scales connected and I have to admit it was a pretty surreal place to be while in Tokyo. I kind of felt like I was back home in nova, but the mall food was so much better. Grabbed some tasty tonkatsu before doing some more shopping and walking back to the venue.
(sorry for the bad pano)
I really do appreciate how orderly events are in Japan. When we were all leaving, it was like being in the gentlest stampede I'd ever been in (far cry from the CNY parade ending in HK last year). I was more or less carried along by everyone heading to the trains, but being taller than the local average (even for a korean woman) it was never too concerning.
After being on our feet all day we just capped the night off with yoshinoya curry, famima hagen daz and soaking our legs in the enormous conrad bath tub.
Day 2 (11/20)
My friend had to fly back today for work, so we took breakfast in the restaurant downstairs (the selection is better and you can get an entree) then headed to Shibuya for some quick shopping.
After she left for Haneda, I headed to Harajuku for a hair appointment. There's a hayato branch off takeshita doori that I've been going to for the past couple years because one stylist there really gets me. I do all my communication in Japanese while I'm there, but good to note their stylists do speak quite a bit of English. Found out my stylist is leaving to open his own place a few blocks away, so thrilled for him.
While waiting for my appointment I dropped by the Nescafe outside the station on a whim. I get a very difficult to eat salad (although it looks pretty) and a robot made me coffee (too jetlagged to take a picture but it was an Experience. and free.) I tend to carb overload when I go to Japan but what I would give for a sweetgreen salad...
After a lot more meandering, headed over to Ginza for dinner at Bifteck Kawamura Ginza, a teppanyaki wagyu joint (reservation made by my hotel). Very tourist friendly (nothing really wrong with that imo) I had a solo dinner of some really tasty Tajima beef. My chef was a young South Korean guy who spoke amazing English for having never been. Since I barely speak Korean (which must have been a disappointment), we got along in a fun mix of languages. Nice atmosphere, great food, would go again.
Day 3 (11/21)
The past 3 days I had been knocking out at 9ish and waking up around 3am. Today I figured it was useless to try and sleep some more and slipped out to head to Tsukiji. In my previous trips I'd never gone to tsukiji for lack of an interest of waking up at 3 am and similar lack of interest in the tuna auction. But since it was literally right there and I wasn't going back to sleep, I lined up with the rest of the schmucks outside sushi dai around 3:40am, which got me into the second seating, around 5:30. The 4k omakase can't be beat for the price and the chefs were all lively and very gracious. You could order more pieces a la carte after the set but I was already full and had to shamble back to the Conrad. I think I took a nap then woke up and ate breakfast again (bread edition).
Since I had nothing on the books until dinner, I did a some stops on the Yamanote line: Akihabara, Shinjuku (got lost as I always do inside the station trying to get to Lumine est, please don't judge), Shibuya again. I actually had to stop at a Raffine (quick reflexology chain) because I was walking in not very walkable shoes. The folly of mankind, etc.
(I like to look at the shibas in Japan but it's awkard to go up to stranger's dogs)
Dinner took me to Tempura Seiju, near Tsukiji again. The food was really amazing but I think I will stick with more casual a la carte tempura options. I didn't know you could get full on tempura? I had to pass on the ten-don at the end, to my sadness. Maybe I should have just forced it in. I didn't even eat lunch either!. The shop was very gracious but it felt hard to go at it alone. Especially since the other solo diner who was sitting next to me was a super foodie salaryman so the pressure was on. You live and learn right?
(really good tempura just looks like tempura so here is a picture of the bottle water they had to give me because they do not serve tap water)
Day 4: Back to the States (11/22)
The great part about flying out of Haneda is not having to get up at the crack of dawn (or 6am...) to make the morning flight. I took a quick breakfast, got in a cab from the Conrad (my luggage multiplied and I was not going to navigate morning rush hour on the trains with multiple bags... couldn't do that to myself or other people). Cab fare came in at 6,500 yen, which felt quite reasonable.
I missed the lounge entirely (gasp, shock, etc.) after checking in, I went up to the 5th level of the airport and did some wandering around, reflexology at the raffine (maybe I have a problem), and then went back down for security (by now the scrum around the priority lane died so it was a quick shoot through). Lined up as boarding began and I went to my 1D (no window available on this flight) seat to go back home.
Catering ex-HND was much better (obviously) and I enjoyed the Japanese menu (with the western caviar option) but I again could not finish all the food. My ancestors are rolling in their grave I imagine. I also took a Dramamine and abstained from any alcohol for the rest of the flight (abstained from being awake too. I slept about 7 uninterrupted hours). Woke up, ate some curry, landed in JFK, breezed through with GE, and transferred to terminal 8.
(loved the fall foliage touches. Japan takes seasons seriously)
I actually sat around landside for a bit while a friend from Brooklyn came out to meet me and pick up his kotatsu heater and seven star carton that I brought back from Japan (this is true friendship people). Since I couldn't get a connecting J (or Y) award seat back to DCA I bought a cash one way (in Y) and was smugly told off at the concierge check in (that's ok, was worth a shot). They did kindly let me into the FC lounge in T8 with my JL boarding pass /s. I think I slept in those less-comfortable-than-it-would-appear herman miller esque chairs for an hour or two, blearily drank some ginger ale then got on my flight home. I do like their new lounge very much, but having zero appetite after flying made it hard to enjoy the fare.
The meds combined with the jetlag combined with the dehydration made the rest of this part of the trip rather blurry, but AA got me where I needed to go and my partner did the rest. Then it was onwards to Thanksgiving
Thank you for reading this half baked TR, hope to have a much better one in the spring when we go for sakura season for a couple weeks.
Bonus: my reward for all this travel is getting to sit down and enjoy this
Nov 28, 2017, 8:09 pm
#3
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: BOS
Posts: 409
Nice report. The flames you saw were almost certainly from one of the oil/chemical refineries south/southwest of Haneda (primarily in KawasakI) where those towers (called flare stacks) are used to burn off natural gas that is a by-product of the refining process.
Nov 28, 2017, 8:32 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 181
Thanks! I could only remember them from the opening shot of blade runner, haha. Getting to see them at night sure woke me up.
Nov 29, 2017, 3:56 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 181
I'm amazed anyone on FT knew what I was talking about!! The concert was amazing. It was one of the highest quality anime music concerts according to some event veterans. Hopefully they release a performance BD.
