Trip Report – Circling the Pacific: Tokyo to San Francisco

Friday 29th July 2016

We began our journey back to the airport by first taking a Yamonote Line train back to Tokyo Station. It was a bad start as we went to an entry without escalators to the platform and then to make things worse than having to lug my suitcase up steps. We went to the wrong platform but didn’t work it out till almost to the top. Got ourselves back on the right platform and it was ok.

We made it to Tokyo Station and weaved our way down to the N’EX platforms and made it just in time for the 12:03pm train to depart right in front of us. Now we had a 30 minute wait till our scheduled train. We waited on the platform for a while and unfortunately seating was lacking so we had to stand. I ended up eating my Ekiben and repacked it all before we even boarded as I wanted to make sure I had it packed away securely.

We boarded the train for our quick hour long ride out to the airport and unlike the train the night before, this one had free wifi! Made the ride a little bit less tiring. It flew by and before I knew it, we were at Narita Terminal 2-3 Station. Once we left the station Heidi and I got ourselves ready to disembark.

Once off the train and out of the station we made our way up to the check in counters for ANA First Class which is in the Z section. The “ANA Suite” check in was a very private, sectioned off area and while we waited for our staff member to check us in (it was kind of complicated with bags etc already through checked etc). From there it was through a private security channel and into the immigration area. Immigration was heaving and again took about 20 minutes or so to get through. We watched as a couple of Asiana staff paniced when people were still in line as they were trying to close the flight.

After clearing immigration we headed off to the ANA Suites Lounge (they don’t have suites, they just call it that) for an afternoon of plane spotting and relaxing. The lounge had fantastic views of the airport runways and a great relaxing atmosphere. Plenty of food choices and both buffet and cooked to order options. The first thing I did was get my stuff situated, camera set up and leave Heidi with the gear while I went off in search of my usual Tokyo spending habit…… Kit Kats!

I knew exactly where to go as there were two stores close by that always seem to have all the different varieties. Wasabi is always the hardest one to find and today was not my day. I did manage to get the usual Matcha and Sakura, I also managed to pick up some Strawberry and also some Hokkaido Melon (which I have never seen before). Decided against the big boxes of the Strawberry and Blueberry Cheesecake ones, due to space. They would have to wait until next time.

Back to the lounge to settle in with some Pork Cutlet curry and some treats. The desserts on offer were pretty delicious yet strange. I tried an Edamame cake thing that was delicious yet disturbing at the same time. Lots of good photos this afternoon with numerous Oneworld and Star Alliance liveries but the two big hits this afternoon were the BB-8 777-300ER (parked next to our gate) and a Pakistan International A310 (don’t see those very often). After a while we decided to head down a little early to get in some steps and stretch before we were stuck inside a tube for a while.

All Nippon Airways – NH8
Tokyo Narita to San Francisco
1710-1055
Boeing 777-300ER (JA783A)
First Class – Seat 1K

Boarding: 1636 (Gate 55)
Push Back: 1709
Take off Roll: 1731 (Runway 16R)
Top of Descent: 1020
Touch Down: 1046 (Runway 01R)
Shut Down: 1112 (Gate 94)

Plenty of gate lice today as the airport just seemed to attract them, however we hung back till we saw people approaching the First Class lane, then we hurried over to get our spot in line. You could spot the americans a mile away as they were the first ones in line at each lane, no matter how long they had to wait. All wanting to vie to get the most amount of overhead bin space.

We actually boarded a few minutes before the posted time (which is rare for Japan, as usually it is extremely punctual) and we were the 2nd and 3rd people into the Cabin. Lots of photos and greetings and Heidi was given a personal run through of the seat. The crew seemed to love Heidi on this trip (and so they should because who wouldn’t right?) and they spent a good 10 minutes showing her everything. I declined to be shown as I just watched along as Heidi got the royal treatment.

Everything was laid out at the seat waiting for us including a sweater, pyjamas, blanket, slippers, headphones and the piece de resistance, a Samsonite Amenity kit. Rimowa it is not, but damn sure it is good enough! I stashed it all away when I could and spent a good portion of time fighting off the cabin crew from unwrapping it all. We eventually pushed back and started the long way out to the active. I missed a picture of the traditional farewell bow from the ground crew (dammit) and got a few good shots of some of the Star Alliance aircraft spotted around T1.

We made it out to the end of Runway 16R and as we turned the GE90s powered up (I may have made a mess in my pants as usual when I hear that noise so close 😉 ) and towards the sky we went. The climb angle felt steeper up front and as usual with Narita departures, it was a little bit bumpy (though not the worst). Once the seatbelt sign went off, I jumped up to grab my stuff and stash a few things. Phone charge on, glasses and laptop out, shoes off and stashed. Time to settle!

I worked a bit on the trip report before the crew started the dinner service. The menu was presented and drink orders taken. Post Departure beverages were served with an amuse bouche of a few items. The menu looked good tonight and there was no way I was going to turn down the Japanese Menu. All 10 courses of it!

The meal began and it was all so good. Exactly as I remember having it in business a while back. The courses were so well plated, physically beautiful yet delicious at the same time. Course by Course kept on coming and a lot of them were served together at the same time. I ended up having some green tea with the latter courses and it complimented the food well. After all of that I was offered the choice of dessert and I selected both the japanese and one of the western options. The western option was a good cleanse but the japanese dessert was just simply amazing. A mixture of red bean and matcha… my two favorite things!

After dinner the crew made up the seat into bed mode and I relaxed into the rest of the flight. I gave it 10 minutes or so of watching a movie before giving in to the sleep. I lay down on the bed and tried to take a nap. The seat was pretty comfy in bed mode with a thick mattress pad and a nice doona as well. The blanket was soft and comfy if you needed it. The pillows just were not big enough for my liking, but isn’t that always the problems on most flights. The rest of the seat was great there was ample storage and thankfully ANA had not removed the overhead bins.

I got just under 2 hours of sleep before it was getting pretty bumpy (although no seatbelt sign ever came on). So I went back to enjoying my movie as the sun came up outside. Time to start waking myself up as the time outside was similar to a time I would be getting up in the real world. This journey was slowly coming to an end and unfortunately I was getting a little bit sad 🙁

As one movie finished and another one started the smells of breakfast began to waft throughout the aircraft. Time to get myself slowly ready for the impending rush of people wanting to do things. The last part of the flight flew by. The crew offered breakfast items from the menu and also from the snack menu. I took a couple of different options that were mostly breakfasty since it was that time of the day. I did go against the grain and got a pork cutlet sandwich just because I wanted to try it. It was worth it though because it was delicious!

As we started descent the crew came by to give us a little gift full of lots of ANA star wars jet goodies including playing cards and some other random stuff. The cloud cover was pretty thick below until all of a sudden it cleared and we turned so that SFO was in a spot I couldn’t see… typical. After that we had to track almost down to San Jose before turning back North to line up for a landing. We thankfully did not come in on the same runway that Asiana crashed (they had a L landing we had a R) and we touched down nice and easy. Pretty good right?

We pulled off the active and headed towards the taxiway where we then parked for another 10 minutes or so waiting for our gate. It was United 747 central on the ramp as I saw at least 6 in all different states (at the gate, on the taxiway, being towed). By the time we hit the gate, they did not have us waiting long before the first class guests were ushered to the door. They held back Business class and made sure that we were first ones off the flight. That was nice of them. Heidi and I grabbed our gear and headed for immigration… it was good to be back home… kinda.

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