Flying: Vietnam Airlines Economy Class Tokyo Narita to Singapore 2016

9:30AM would actually have been a great time to fly, if only the departure airport isn't 60km from the city.

So the saviour turned out to be the Narita Skyliner, which helped bring our overall travelling time to the airport to slightly over an hour.

This time round, we only managed to get our boarding pass to SGN, and the counter staff informed us that we need to approach the transit counter in SGN to obtain our boarding passes for the second leg.

Vietnam Airlines 301
Tokyo (NRT) – Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) 
Wednesday, June 1 2016
Depart: 09:30AM
Arrive: 01:30PM
Flight time: 6hr
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9

Seat: 36K

We had about slightly more than an hour to spare and hence did some last minute shopping at the airport before proceeding to the gate. While mornings are typically busy for Narita, we cleared security and immigration fairly fast and were at the gate in less than 15 minutes. As we approached the gate, boarding has already begun, and just for this time, we did not wait for the final boarding call.

It's funny that there was another Vietnam Airlines 787 parked right beside us, operating the flight to Hanoi.

At 9:22AM the crew came on PA, welcomed all passengers on board and declared a shorter than estimated flight time of 5hr35min. We pushed off on time at 9:26AM, bidding the other 787 goodbye.

Till we meet again bro, but only on foreign land.

On the taxi to the runway, I noticed this beautiful Garuda 777-300ER which has just pulled into the terminal following its flight from Bali. 

The taxi to the runway was quick with only 3~4 planes lined up ahead of us, which was not bad given how busy Narita is, and we took off promptly at after an Air China 737.

Once airborne we made an about turn, heading south towards Vietnam.

Service began soon after we levelled off. The menus were distributed along with the headsets and drinks were served soon after.

Again I had the Western option, since after 10 days in Japan it hardly makes sense to have another washouku meal. The starter was excellent by any standards. The prawns were fresh and succulent. In fact, if removed from the plastic container and served instead on china, it would have instantly qualified for business class meal service. The same could be said for the fruit plate.

I had a glass of sparkling to accompany the lunch and it was fairly good. Throughout the meal service, several rounds of drinks were offered. While the stewardess only carried either juice or red and white wines, I would like to think that other beverages would also be served upon request.

After lunch I started browsing though the in-flight entertainment system. The selection was far from extensive, though I am contented with watching a rerun of The Intern.

We landed on time in SGN at 12:57PM, well ahead of schedule. However, there was a fairly long wait on the tarmac, and we ended up pulling over at the domestic terminal. Since there are no immigration facility in the domestic terminal, all passengers were ferried by bus to the international terminal. Sometimes I just can't help but to wonder whether it was because of the cheap fares that I paid which landed me in such situations.

There was no queue at the transfer counter and we quickly got the boarding passes to Singapore.

Vietnam Airlines 655
Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) – Singapore (SIN)
Wednesday, June 1 2016
Depart: 02:30PM
Arrive: 05:25PM
Flight time: 1hr55min
Aircraft: Airbus 321

Seat: 32A

When we arrived at gate 8, there was no indication on the display screen, while an A330 was parked there. It was quite obvious by then that the gate printed on our boarding pass was wrong since it's unlikely Vietnam Airlines suddenly decided to switch to a wide body on this segment.

Shortly, an announcement was made, declaring that the departure gate for our flight has been changed to the neighbouring gate 9. However, there was no aircraft parked on the tarmac. Subsequently another announcement was made informing passengers that our flight has been delayed due to incoming aircraft arriving late.

Boarding began at 2:45PM, almost an hour behind schedule and it did not help that the cabin was fairly warm, though I thought that was somewhat expected given the sunny weather and high ground temperature in Ho Chi Minh.

Boarding was completed fairly quickly, though it took another few minutes for the crew to clear with the ground staff before the cabin door was shut and pushing off at 3:14PM.

We took off after a short taxi from runway 25L, and it amused me somehow that I was quite disturbed by the roar of the A321's engines after being used to the quieter 787's turbofans. For the record, on both legs I had the window seat since I wanted more photoshoot opportunities and my friend specifically requested for an aisle seat.

Meal service began shortly after take-off. I might have missed it on the outbound flight from Singapore but I was quite surprised that alcoholic beverages were served even on this short-haul flight of less than 2 hours.

The salad was exceptional, and the fruits were fresh and tasty. The beef was slightly overcooked but well-marinated.

In any case, this should be considered a decent lunch (albeit a late one) for a short-haul flight, which probably would not even include a full meal service in Europe or US, and here there was even tea and coffee offered after meal service, complete with lime.

We touched down in Changi at 6:07PM, zooming past a BA 777 while decelerating.

It was a short taxi to terminal 3 and we arrived at the gate at 6:11PM. 

Conclusion
Despite the delay at SGN, the flight has been an exceptional experience, with the service excellent by economy standards, well exceeding my expectations.

In particular, I am impressed by the standard of catering, as well as the alcohol available. This is in addition to fairly good hard product in terms of seating and IFE system (although the content remains limited).

Also, it is worth noting that the airline has done a good job providing a slightly simpler service which more or less has the same effect. For instance, while it would have fantastic to have a hot towel service, that would have added to extra work load on the crew since they would have to pre-heat the ovens onboard. In this case, Vietnam's additional offering of a packaged wet serviette prior to departure is a great substitute.

Overall, I really think Vietnam Airlines represents good value. While I might not be prepared to fly them on intercontinental routes as yet, I think the adventure seeking side of me will want to experience the latest addition to their fleet, such as the A350, especially if I somehow managed to come across such a great fare again.

Day 7~10: Tokyo

The sightseeing at Tokyo began with the iconic gate of the Sensoji, aka Asakusa Temple.

We went in and offered incenses, praying for you know what. Judging by the sheer number of visitors, that's a good load of wishes to review.

Followed by Akihabara, which despite its reputation for electronics and anime/manga merchandise, offered delicious cheese tarts.

We caught the penultimate train heading to Tsukiji Shijo at arrived slightly past 1AM. Yet the loading bay was brightly lit and running.

Being the broke blokes that we were, arriving by the last trains instead of taking a taxi, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since we arrived really early. There was only about 10 guests who were queueing in front of us.

From here it was a long wait, though thanks in part to the drizzle, the guards kindly opened up the waiting room ahead of time and ushered us to wait indoors.

It was at about 5:20AM when the security began to unlock the door for the first batch of visitors to view the tuna auctions. By then, the drizzle had become much heavier, and the small distance from the holding room to the inner market was sufficient to ensure everyone was splattered with rain.

I suspect the premium tunas were already auctioned off before we arrived and it was only the frozen tunas, together with a handful of traders when we reached the auction hall.

The shower continued after we were done with viewing the auction. Nearly drenched in rain and with stomaches growling after a restless night, we were desperate for some hot food. It took us a while to get our orientation right in the labyrinth, but eventually we arrived in front of this Sushizanmai restaurant.

Sleep-deprived brains don't really function well and I simply asked for the chef's recommendation.

I didn't really liked the minced gunkan roll, but the maguro nigiris are certainly fantastic, especially the seared otoro, which is simply delicious.

The glutton in me decided to top up another crab soup, since I didn't really get a chance to feed on crabs back in Hakodate. It was half of a small hairy crab served with miso soup base. Usually I am quite fond of miso, but in this case I find the miso slightly masking the sweetness of the crab, though it was nevertheless a great dish. The best part? It only costed JPY 600. 

In total I paid about JPY 2,000, which is less than SGD 25. Considering all the seafood being fresh from the Tsukiji market, I would think it's a real bargain.

To my dismay the rain did not stop after breakfast, though it abated slightly in intensity. We had an appointment with the Emperor (ahem) at 10AM to visit his house.

It's interesting to see while the main architecture is Asian, ornament features on the railings are actually pretty similar to what you would see in Europe, say Buckingham.

We had a quick stroll at Ginza after touring through the palace grounds. However due to the never-ending drizzle and sore bodies after a virtually sleepless night, we quickly retreated to a nearby cafe for some well-deserved rest.

The final full day in Japan was dedicated wholly to Tokyo Disneyland. In contrast to the gloomy drizzle we experienced while sightseeing through downtown Tokyo, the weather was incredibly clear and sunny during our visit to Disneyland.

Photo credit to JJ

We were greeted at the entrance by Cinderella's castle, a standard feature in all Disneyland theme parks and somewhat reminding me of its inspirations in Fontainebleau and Neuschwanstein.

We had arranged to meet a friend on the last night in Japan, and hence decided to give the fireworks a miss. Nevertheless as I underestimated the sheer size of the Tokyo metro we were still late by a sizeable margin.

Flying: Jetstar Japan Sapporo New Chitose to Tokyo Narita 2016

Our itinerary for the final day involved a trip to the White Lovers Chocolate Factory (白い恋人チョコレート工場), which was on the outskirts of Sapporo. Despite originally planning to cover the factory in about an hour, it was quite a richly decorated wonderland dream house that we ended up spending much longer than that.

Thankfully the trains from Sapporo to CTS only takes slightly more than half an hour, though when rushing for time we did not manage to make seat reservations and stood all the way to the airport.

The machine couldn't recongise the barcode on our itinerary, though the staff at the counter was able to assist us with check-in.

The receipt like slip of paper felt closer to a budget carrier than the glossy card back at Narita.

Jetstar Japan 110

Tokyo Narita (NRT) – Sapporo (CTS) 

Saturday, May 28 2016

Depart: 01:55PM

Arrive: 03:30PM

Flight time: 1hr35min

Aircraft: Airbus 320

Seat: 16A

CTS has a fairly small terminal building so the boarding area is right behind the security line, though flying budget implies that we board from the furthest gates and had to climb one level up to the third floor, whereas most other flights board at the second floor.

Climbing stairs with luggage can be a minor inconvenience, though standing on higher grounds can also be great of capturing aircrafts on the tarmac.

Air Do Boeing 737 CTS

At about 1:27PM, I looked over to the runway and saw a Jetstar A320 on final approach. Knowing that this was likely to be the bird ferrying us to Narita, a delay seemed inevitable, so I quiet began to nibble away at the bento bought from the train station.

In the meantime, there was some really interesting traffic in and out of CTS. Whiles CTS is an international airport, most of the services are actually domestic, and international traffic typically cater to leisure travellers and regional destinations. Hence, it's quite interesting that Taiwanese carriers are serving this destination with wide-bodies, some on a daily basis. This is especially interesting considering that even northern Chinese destinations are served with narrow bodies, despite claims of an ever increasing influx of Chinese tourists into Hokkaido.

China Airlines Boeing 747 CTS

Transasia A330 CTS

Finally, boarding was called at 1:50PM. Perhaps because CTS is a fairly small airport where traffic isn't that busy, hence we had the luxury (in the case of flying budget carriers) of using a jet bridge (albeit the bridge furthest away from the terminal) instead of walking down the tarmac.

From here it was clockwork, boarding was completed in about 15 minutes despite having close to a full load, and we pushed off at 2:11PM.

It was a smooth landing into Narita at 3:53PM, and we taxied back to where we departed from 6 days ago. As the cabin was depressurised, the crew apologised once again for the delay, which I appreciated, especially considering the delay was only for 20 minutes. Then again, this is a country where trains follow a printed schedule and stick to it.

Day 6: Toya → Otaru

Waking up to the glaring sun shining into the room,

Breakfast was included when we booked the rooms for the hotel, though the buffet spread was unmemorable at best.

We had

Day 5: Sapporo → Hakodate → Toya

The train ride to Hakodate was really long, spanning 4 hours. The view from the coastal railway is fairly scenic, though it's inevitable to get tired of it after a while. 

Given that it was already noon by the time we reached, the first stop was to the fish market right beside the JR station. Suffice to say the kaisen don was absolutely delicious!

After lunch we hung around the port area for a stroll before setting out to explore the sights in Hakodate, starting with the iconic Fort Goryokaku (五稜郭), where a pleasant surprise was waiting, with cherry blossoms still blooming into late May.

On the train to the hotel, I called the reception to request for a pick-up at the JR Toya station, and sure enough, a chubby gentleman was waiting for us at the gantry when we alighted. 

This was the first and only Japanese style room that we stayed at for this trip, notwithstanding the fusion room at Tomamu.

Once in a while it's quite interesting to experience sleeping in a different style.

Complementary crackers and dried plums were served, alongside with a pitcher of ice water.

One of the highlight of this hotel is its in-house hot springs, or onsen. 

The next day

Day 4: Tomamu → Sapporo

We slept with the curtains drawn back so that we could catch the sunrise. Well according to Apple's weather app, the sun rises at 3:55AM. In reality, it was already broad daylight by the time we woke up. However, the slight disappointment was quickly overwhelmed by excitement that the sea of clouds (unkai) has occurred!

We each got a postcard at gondola reception, which we were told can be sent free of charge from the top of the mountain.

In a stark contrast to the reasonably clear view at the base, the ride up cut through quite a fair bit of clouds and precipitation.

After a 10 minutes or so ride on the gondola, we arrived at the top of the mountain, cutting through billowing clouds along the way. I must say, the view was impressive.

There was also a wooden walkway protruding, which offered a bird eye of the hilly terrain beneath the clouds. At this point, we were literally tiptoeing through the clouds.

Photo credit to Wayne

Coming down from the ink terrace, we headed down to the restaurant for breakfast, which was included as part of the package. It was a decent spread, sumptuous by Japanese standards, and by far the best we had for this trip in Japan, though pales in comparison to any recognised hotels in South East Asia.

Well, I guess what they lacked in quantity, they made up for it in terms of quality. The fish roe was really fresh and flavourful, and the pancakes delicious with fresh jam and berries.

The view from the restaurant is alway picturesque, with the clouds wrapping around the surrounding mountains. It's a real pity that the sky was rather gloomy after the rainy weather but I am thankful that despite the odds against us, we managed to catch the unkai in action.

We had a quick nap after breakfast to catch up on sleep lost catching the unkai. Finally it was time to say goodbye and we boarded the bus back to the JR station. 

As the bus drove out, the staff bowed towards the passengers. Actually I felt that I should have bowed to thank them for the stellar service.

Back in Sapporo, it took us a while to find Rikio's place, which was a 40 minutes bus ride from the JR Sapporo station. Rikio welcomed us into his new house, which was clean and fairly cosy, and superb value for the amount we paid.

We had a quick stroll in downtown Sapporo, starting with the iconic old Hokkaido government house.

Followed by the equally iconic, but in a lesser state of maintenance, clocktower of the original Sapporo Agricultural College.