Last week I was in Tokyo for a short holiday.. First time flying with All Nippon Airways (ANA) on a direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo Narita..
Our flight ticket is about half price off as I bought it on trade industry special rate..
The flight departs KLIA at 0705hr and arrives Tokyo 7.5 hours later, touching down at just slightly after 3pm.. It was parked close to the terminal, and when we have cleared immigration in 15 minutes, our baggage was already out on the carousel nicely and neatly arranged by the airport staff.. Talk about efficiency!
The aircraft is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with extra large windows and electronic dimming control.. How this works is, electric currents "burn" the dimming gel and it gets darken.. or something like that happens hahahha...
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| Time check: 6am at KLIA |
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| Boarding pass |
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| Extra large window with vacant window seat |
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| Flight path |
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| Notice the Japanese red dot, against the morning sunrise after taking off |
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| Bottled water is served immediately after take-off, and there's no limit how many bottles you want, just take. |
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| Magazine, safety card, menu and wifi price card. Super expensive shit. |
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| Aircraft in ANA fleet.. Apparently they also flie Millenium Falcon to the faraway galaxy... |
Food wise, since it's ex-Malaysia, it's not very nice.. But returning from Japan, it's not bad.. ANA uses metal utensils with their logo stamped on it, so it makes good souvenirs too ahhaha...
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| NH816 breakfast service |
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| Extra spacious galley at the back of the plane |
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| Landed in Narita to a wet Tuesday afternoon |
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| That was my plane, taken from the terminal |
After clearing immigration and collected our bags, we head off to the JR Service Centre located outside the railway gates.. From Narita, one can take the Narita Express or Keisei Skyliner train to Tokyo..
Narita Express takes slightly over an hour into Tokyo and loops counterclockwise and terminates at Shinjuku, while Keisei Skyliner is a little faster although it goes only to Ueno at 41 minutes..
Ticket costs:
One-way Narita Express (N'EX):
¥3,020
Return Narita Express (N'EX):
¥4,000
.... what logic is this?
One-way Keisei Skyliner:
¥2470
Since we need to travel to Kyoto and back on the Shinkansen, we decided to purchase the nationwide JR Rail Pass, as a travel agent, I get to use my discounted rates for both of us, which works out to be a better deal than regional rail pass (there is no Kanto-Kansai region rail pass by the way, the only way is the Hokuriku Arch Pass adding another 2.5 hours to the travelling time by going north instead of via Nagoya)..
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| Filling up the form and exchanging our coupon for the JR Rail Pass |
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Queue at the JR Travel Center, but this queue clears within 5 minutes..
Efficient much? |
Free seat reverations is for all JR Pass holders.. all you need to do is go to any JR Travel Center and make your seat reservation for any trains up to 1 month in advance..
We also reserved our Hikari train for the next day travel to Kyoto, unfortunately the train is very full and we are unable to get seat D/E.. JR Pass holders is not eligible to ride the Nozomi train, which is only a few minutes faster than the Hikari train on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line..
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| Narita Express platform at Narita Airport Terminal 1 bound for Tokyo |
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| The front of the Narita Express |
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| Japan Rail Pass booklet and the seat reservation ticket. The pass itself is pasted at the back of the booklet. |
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| Ample legroom in the Ordinary Car |
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| Screen showing station stops as well as Free Wifi information pasted on the back of each seat |
Upon reaching the terminal station JR Shinjuku, we made our way to our AirBnB room, which is a short 10 minutes walk from the station.. and facing Shinjuku-Gyoen Park, we have the best view.. Plenty of convenience shops around the corner as well as Isetan, Marui, Lumine, Takashimaya all within 10 minutes walk away..
Our AirBnB room is also discounted from my special agents rate, so again we saved quite a bit here..
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| View of the apartment after the hallway |
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| Another side of the apartment |
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Typical Japanese toilet.. but without bidet!!
:( |
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| Pantry and all the items needed |
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This is what the view is from the balcony..
View of Shinjuku-Gyoen Park.. Takashimaya is on the right hand side.. |
Next: Shinkansen ride to Kyoto
