We spent some time in the Hawaian Airlines Plumeria Lounge, boarded the plane, and waited an hour for no expressed reason. This was a concern because we wanted to end the day in the Sheraton Yokahama Bay executive lounge, which I thought closed around 8PM. This delay meant we would arrive at the hotel about 8:30PM.
But otherwise, all went well. Started with ramen, white wine and assorted snacks.
Our plane.
Formerly, only purple vanda orchids were used. Now green ones.
Away we go.
First had macadamia nuts with Johnny Black Label Scotch on rocks. Ordered a Japanese meal of broiled eggplant with miso, marinated tuna, spinach with sesame sauce, broiled miso chicken, assorted pickles, miso soup and rice. For dessert, Taro cheesecake with Haupia Poi Sauce. Kirin Beer and Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto sake. The meal was orchestrated by chefs Wade Ueoka and Michelle Karr-Ueoka, with wines by Chuck Furuya.
The flight was 8.5 hours long, almost all at around 39,000 feet elevation, speed of 460 MPH and an outside temperature of about -65F. Two hours before landing, we were served a second meal.. Soy glazed chicken meatballs, seasonal vegetables and Tteokbokki (Korean rice cake). This was a Korean meal. That's a cup of tea, not scotch. Fruit plate.
Saw
John Wick 4, and it was even more gruesome as the other three.
Rotten Tomatoes 94/93. Worth the watch. Next,
Asteroid City (
RT 75/62), what a cast, but Wes Anderson is a quirky director, and got bored of his approach, so switched to a South Korea film,
Switch. Released this year, no RT review. Okay. As we approached Japan, the sun began to set.
Plane landed at 5PM.
Hawaiian Airlines never does well in rankings of U.S. airlines, as for example, one from JD Power. But it does well on being on time. I rarely flew on HA in the earlier days, for Aloha Airlines dominated. Then a shock in 2008. It went bankrupt, and Hawaiian became the only major local airline that flew nationally and internationally. From then on, had to fly Hawaiian interisland, but don't remember them much otherwise.
However, this flight from Honolulu to Narita was wonderful. It was an hour late, but the service was
good, food better than average, drinks fine and audio-visual system excellent.
Getting through customs and immigration was swift, mostly because I used a walking cane, and someone told us to come through another exit, which must have saved at least half and hour. Caught the limousine bus to Yokohama City Air Terminal, which essentially is located across the street from our hotel, the Sheraton Yokohama Bay. However, while you can walk to the hotel, with all our bags, we took a cab and paid $8. We arrived at 8PM, and found out that the executive lounge continued to serve until 9:15 PM. What a relief. What a way to end the day. The first plate with a stiff Johnny Walker Black and champagne, the two more dishes.
Our table faced the Yokohama City Air Terminal.
Interestingly enough, our room the next morning had the same view.
Breakfast the next morning was excellent, where ingredients from Kanazawa were featured.
Then, the crucial effort to get our three 7-day Japan Rail passes validated and seats reserved. We thought everything had changed, and there were no humans now involved, where we were told that we had to do our own reservations by computer or electronic kiosks at the train station. Turned out nothing had changed, and people were there to do this. Plus, a good change, we can now catch the Nozomi train, with an extra cost, which was affordable. The actual Japan Rail pass has changed. It now looks like a ticket. Kind of worrisome, actually, it can easily be misplaced or lost.
The Sheraton Yokohama Bay is just the best hotel to do all the things we needed to have done. The hotel is close to the cruise port, the executive lounge is excellent, the location is just above a sprawling underground shopping area, where we can walk to Yokohama Station (where we got the validation and reservations), and we can leave our heavy suitcase stored there when we take the Japan Rail Pass trips.
After getting all the train stuff and assorted items bought, we also got a plate of o-toro sashimi with daikon and cabbage, plus beer for lunch.
Tomorrow we board the Diamond Princess for a 9-day cruise around Japan.
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