Flight to Tokyo Oct 5
I’m up early before we need to leave. I just have a coffee before I go because I know we’ll get into the Air Canada lounge and be able to get lots to eat there. Patsy gives me a lift to the airport. She’ll be going there again in a couple of weeks because she’s heading for India.
Patsy and I taking a quick selfie in the international departures drop off area.
India was my first destination with Judith and this trip is now the 10th. We’ve covered the following places and have shared lots of laughs, thrills, and experienced so many different cultures. We live in an amazing world and I’m fortunate to go and see parts of it. Nothing makes me appreciate Canada as much as these travels; I can confirm we live in a very privileged part of the world.
2015: India and Nepal, 2016: Peru and Galapagos: 2017: Thailand and Malaysia, 2018: Indonesia, 2019: South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, 2022: Cambodia, Laos and Singapore, 2023: Sri Lanka and Dubai, 2024: Morocco, 2025: Egypt and Jordan and now 2026: Japan and South Korea.
I get to the airport before Judith and find the Air Canada international check in. I walk around a bit waiting for her, but it’s not ideal dodging slower moving families and motorized passenger carts especially when we’re all pushing around luggage. I find a bench to park myself and it isn’t long before she appears. The check in process is quick because we’re flying business. We make our way through the duty free shop (there is no other route) to our gate. At the duty free we buy some Nanaimo Bars and little maple leaf shaped bottles of maple syrup to give to our guides. Japan does not have a tipping culture but the idea to give these away as a thank you came from my daughter Jennifer when we (including Cameron) toured Japan last year.
Through security, there is a separate lane for “priority” travellers which apparently includes business class ticket holders. The lane snakes around the outside of the line up and empties right at the section where items are placed into bins for scanning. There were new procedures so I didn’t need to take out my liquids and gels bag or my laptop during the scanning process. But my camera bag always gets sent for secondary screening. They seem to want to check the SLR cameras and maybe my lithium batteries.
The Air Canada lounge is just outside security and scan our boarding passes at the desk for entry. There are two levels to the lounge and we are sent to the upstairs “Signature” desk where we are asked to scan our boarding passes again. After I scan my pass, the attendant, Rosa Marie (she has a name badge) asks me about my last name “Pang.” She asks me if I know a “Cindy Pang” who is a colleague of hers and is organizing a gathering for anyone who is a Pang. She said the gathering was in October, so that I would miss it, but if I had other relatives, they would be welcome. I passed my contact information to her and Judith and I proceeded to the elevator to the lounge. It seems to me that this is yet another small world encounter.
The lounge served Char Sui Bao (BBQ Pork Bun) in a steamer so I had one of those, some fruit and citrus salad. There’s a passion fruit tart in the background. I would have had another but felt guilty.
We could order off a menu but we chose to just grab a few items from the buffet. About 10 minutes into the lounge I receive a text from Cindy Pang who introduces herself and advises that she is researching Pangs on behalf of her father. She includes a short video which includes information of the gathering and pictures of some swag with the Pang character in the middle of the maple leaf. Very cool. I send all this information to my siblings and expect at least one of them will attend.
We sat enjoying that lounge until it was time to head to the gate. We walked straight up to the Zone 1, presented our documentation and proceeded to the ramp and onto the plane. Our seats were in the front section of the plane and we had interior pods. There was no need to fight for overhead bins. I have one all to myself. A giant pillow, duvet with a matching mattress pad when the seat is in full recline, padded headphones, slippers and a swag bag with toiletries, eye masks, sleeping socks. It’s pretty standard, unlike the Bvlgari designer bag we got on Emirates. A drink was offered before takeoff, I opted for sparkling water.
The flight was smooth and a female voice indicated she was the captain for today’s flight. There were a couple instances of light turbulence where the seat belt sign came on but the entire flight was pretty smooth. I got my pre ordered meal (ribs) served on a real napkin, china and cutlery. I finished watching the Devil Wears Prada 2 during dinner. I put my chair into a full recline, put on my mattress topper and slept for a few hours. When I woke up I watched another movie (the name escapes me at the moment) and then it was time to land. The flight attendant issued “Fast Pass” cards to us and said we could use them during the immigration process.
Our section departs first and we walk through a very long corridor with several moving sidewalks to reach the first stage of immigration (passport and QR code scan of your entry pass received online back in Canada). There are only about 20 machines to accommodate our flight of 300 so the line backs up. This stage also wants fingerprints and head shot. We get through this stage and enter into a large room with lots of people queued up from other flights. Off to the right there is an area for flight crew and a notice a little “Fast Pass” sign. I flash this card to the attendant who waves us unto this very short line up and relished another priority treatment given to those that like to overpay for their travel.
Then it’s off to gather checked luggage which was already rolling around on the carousel and one more passport/Japan entry QR code as we exit the baggage area and we’re out of the airport. I’d say the process was less than 15 minutes and much of that was walking a half a kilometre down that long corridor.
We find Mr Hashida holding a sign with Judith’s name on it. He is responsible for getting us to the hotel, an hour drive in a luxury 3 row minivan style vehicle with 2 row captain chairs. It’s interesting to travel from rural farmland views to more urban city viewpoints. Before I know it we’re arriving at the Park Hotel. It’s located between the 25th and 36 floors of the Shiodome Media Tower
Once we get checked in we grab a few seats in the lobby area where Mr Hashida passes over about 25 various tickets and vouchers for transportation and entry into various tourist things. We end up with lots of tickets that we need to keep track of. Fortunately they’re all numbered and listed on a spreadsheet so we just need to pull the ones we need for the day of travel. There are also some little gifts, some scarves and a travel shopping bag.
We say goodbye and head up to our hotel room. On the way across from the elevators is some amusing artwork. I already like this hotel.
Mewna Lisa / Meonardo Da Vinci
The Kitty with the Pearl Earring / Johannesburg Verneow
Our room has a huge window looking to the west of the city. Somewhere out there we should be able to see Mt. Fuji but we will need to wait for clearer skies for that. Last year when I came, we had more modest accommodations on our tour. This time, our room is much more expansive with lots more space to stretch out and misplace items.
Below is our room view from the entry hall.
And the view from my bed. We left the curtains open when we went to bed. It worked out great when I woke up just before midnight thinking I’d slept right through the night…
We end up going for a walk to see the Ghibli Clock (official name The Ni-Tele Really Big Clock or Nittele Ohdokei), a huge steampunk mechanical clock located across from our hotel. It was designed by an animation company Studio Ghibli and the performance starts about 3 minutes before the top of the hour. It weighs 28 tons and is 40 feet tall by 60 feet wide. I filmed the entire performance but the video exceeded the size limitation for posting. I’ll see if I can compress it and add it later.
Ghibli Clock
We then walk around on the upper terrace above street level, checked out a Don Quixote store (it was an eye opener for Judith!) and then returned back to the hotel so I could have some instant noodles (from Don Quixote) and then some sleep. It was about 6:00 Pacific Time when I went to bed around 10. I woke up at midnight thinking I’d slept right through the night and it was the next day. We had gone to sleep with the curtains open so I quickly figured out it wasn’t time to get up. Back to sleep for another 6 or so hours and I’ll be ready for the next day.
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