April 5, 2023 Fly to Tokyo

    March 31’s weather forecast was predicting 15 – 25 cm of snow starting Tuesday (April 4) evening and ending Thursday morning. The snow started falling around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The Colorado Low was creating blowing snow conditions combined with falling snow in North Dakota and Minnesota spreading north of the 50th parallel and east into northwestern Ontario from Lake Superior almost to James Bay.

    Our alarm was set for 3 a.m. We were awake before the alarm. We checked the airport departures and it showed that our flight to Vancouver was “On Time”. The taxi arrived just before 3:30 a.m. The cautious ride, on snowy roads, to the airport was less than 15 minutes. The snow was falling and blowing. There was very little traffic at 3:30 a.m.  Even though we had checked-in online and uploaded our vaccination records, the agent still needed to see the documents. There were no lines at the baggage drop-off and only a few passengers going through security. We were in the departure gate area just after 4 a.m. for the 6 a.m. flight to Vancouver. The temperature was -6° C with a wind NNE 29 gusting 41 km per hour, blowing around the snow 

   We had decided to treat ourselves and booked Business Class during a January sale. Surprisingly, the included Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge was open. We took advantage of its Leaf  breakfast buffet and expresso machine beverages. It was quiet with only a dozen people in the lounge. Through the windows, we watched the runway crew clearing the runways and some planes being de-iced. 

   The plane pushed away from the gate 15 minutes before 6 a.m., but the di-icing process took about 25 minutes. On the plane around 7 a.m. in the central time zone, (or 5 a.m. in Vancouver), we enjoyed juice, omelettes & fruit cups, but skipped the yogurt, served on white china plates with stainless steel utensils.  We arrived in Vancouver on time at 7 a.m. (9 a.m. in the central time zone). Then after 10 a.m. (noon in the central time zone), we were in Vancouver's Maple Leaf Lounge Signature Suite which is upstairs from the buffet and lounge. It boasted table service. We ordered a fruit plate to share with our tea & coffee. The area even has its own Wi-fi separate from the YVR Wi-fi. The armchairs in the lounge are comfortable for reading or typing. Walking around the two airports. We logged over 10,000 steps for Wednesday.

   The 12:50 p.m. departure for Tokyo was on time and no de-icing was needed at +10°C. The Boeing 777-300ER had a capacity of 359 seats, 44 of which were business class. It took almost an hour to fill the plane. All the business seats were pods with reclining seats, with multiple positions, that stretched flat for sleeping plus a shelf to spread laptops and things. On the seats were a pillow; quilted seat cover, to place on the seat for the undercover for sleeping, and a comforter for later use. On the shelf was a pair of single use flip-flops and 500 ml bottle of water and a dark yellow pouch containing black knee high cotton socks, an eyeshade, a kit with a travel toothbrush, mini tube of toothpaste, dental floss pick & mouthwash, a cloth to clean eye glasses and earplugs. Japanese Immigration and Customs forms were given to passengers, even though we had completed the forms online weeks ago. After reaching cruising altitude, business class passengers were given the dinner & breakfast menus and were offered a glass of Champagne. About an hour after takeoff, we were served a four course dinner. The pull out trays are larger than in Economy, and a flight attendant placed a white tablecloth on each tray before serving the meal, for both dinner and breakfast. For dinner, an appetizer & salad; Entrée, which we chose Beef Tenderloin; cheese & crackers and a fruit plate were accompanied with several kinds of complimentary wine and liqueurs were served. After dinner, the cabin lights were dimmed so people could sleep if they so chose. The eyeshade was nice, since the plane was flying in afternoon sun for the whole westerly flight to Japan. We probably dozed for less than three hours. The breakfast menu was the same as yesterday with the addition of a pork sausage and noodles dish for which we chose. It was served about an hour before landing at Narita airport.  Cloud obscured any chance of seeing Mount Fuji as the plane approached the airport.


snow on a plane at the airport


breakfast menu


Rockies at sunrise


Business Class cabin


Seat 1G




our route Vancouver to Narita

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April 6, 2023 Narita, Japan

Image
    The plane landed at Narita airport, which is around 50 km from Tokyo, just after 3 p.m. on Thursday (or 1 a.m. Thursday morning in the central time zone), having crossed the International Dateline during the flight. The predicted high in Narita was +22°C, but windy.      Once off the plane, we proceeded to Immigration and Customs, we had completed the Visit Japan Web online for entry into Japan as well as a document to bring in more than 30 days of prescription medicine, which was never even asked for. The walk from the plane to Immigration was about 15 minutes. There was a line of over 700 people since two international flights landed within minutes of each other. However, it only took an hour from when we left the plane to when we were waiting at the shuttle bus stop to go to the hotel.    The ride to the hotel with a stop at the other terminal and one other hotel before our hotel was about 25 minutes. Check-in went smoothly. Our 10 th floo...
Read more

Pre cruise organizing

Image
   The day that our renewed passports arrived in January, we received a promotional offer from Holland America showing some cruises. After browsing the material, we decided to book two cruises at good prices, one around Japan and then taking the repositioning cruise back to Seattle, Washington.  We had booked similar cruises in 2021 on Holland America and 2022 on Celebrity, but both were cancelled as Japan was closed to tourists.         I started researching the ports and checked on Facebook and Cruise Critic for threads on the two cruises and a group about Japan travel tips on Facebook. We were alerted that to enter Japan taking more than 30 days prescription medications a "Yunyu Kakunin-sho", a certificate to import drugs, is required. You can take 60 days of over the counter drugs without a certificate, but Tylenol and other common drugs are not allowed.  We have our Yunyu Kakunin-sho, for this 34 day trip.    Today, the exchang...
Read more

April 10, 2023 Yokohama Day 4

Image
      Another sunny day in Yokohama. At 8 a.m. the temperature was +16° C. We chose photos to add to yesterday’s blog downsizing the 65 pictures taken to 35, then labelling them and adding to the blog.   Our breakfast was purchased at the grocery store yesterday. A cinnamon bun each quarter of a pint of fresh strawberries and a Tropicana mixed fruit drink.        Since we are loyalty reward members we do not need to checkout until 2 p.m. today.        We took a walk to the west today over to Rinko Park. We had a good view of the Yokohama Bay bridge. There was a colourful sculpture of fruit and vegetables and a small statue of a Japanese girl in a kimono. The statue commemorates 100 years of something from 1899 to 1999. The plaque was in Japanese. Next we wandered over to Shinto Island which we had visited yesterday with Hiroshi. We walked two kilometres to Osanbashi Pier, where the Westerdam in docked, having arrived at daybrea...
Read more