This trip primarily focused on Shizuoka, taking in good seafood and Fuji views. It was designed around this 3-day train pass for only 6500 yen. I ended the trip in Yokohama, a less busy city with affordable hotels but only a stone's throw to Tokyo.
However, getting from Yokohama to Narita is quite a long feat. I had originally wanted to fly out of Haneda, a stone's throw away, but flights were quite full and there are far more frequencies from Narita.
This journey would cost about 2000 yen and include 2 rail transfers. I also tried to look for a limousine bus but that goes out of Yokohama station only and costs a whopping 4000 yen. I was staying in the financial district a few stops further down so a train-to-bus transfer didn't seem economical or more efficient.
My closest station is Bashamichi on the Minatomiral Line, which connects directly with Shibuya. I only need to take a few stops to reach Yokohama station, then transfer to the Keikyu Line for the rest of the way.
The first part was fairly easy with plenty of seats. A short ride later, I reached Yokohama station with a scheduled transfer time of 8 minutes. With a big luggage on hand, I worried a bit since I won't be able to run the stairs and have to navigate with elevators.
Transferring to the Keikyu Line was a bit more difficult than I thought. It wasn't an inside transfer where I swipe my IC card internally to move between train companies. I had to exit into a huge station and follow the signs to the Keikyu Line, a long walk away. It was all indoors in the concourse though and luckily, I made it to the right platform with a few minutes to spare.
The second train was a bit more crowded and I had to stand for the next 20 or so minutes to Shinagawa.
Tokyo is actually not that far away from Yokohama. At Shinagawa, I get off and wait on the same platform for the Narita train. This third train arrived super crowded but many people cleared out so I was able to snatch up a seat for the next hour's ride to Narita. Yes, this airport is really far away.
On the last leg to Narita, the train made a few very lengthy stops at a couple of stations. But we eventually pulled into Terminal 2 station on time.
Arriving passengers at Narita Terminal 2 use a separate section of faregates to exit but you eventually mix with the departing passengers to get upstairs to the check-in hall. It was a zoo down here and it's only a Monday afternoon!
Cathay occupies a line of counters in row H. I first need to go to a kiosk to print my bag tags and boarding pass. The tags are the bad kind which requires me to peel off a piece to stick to the other side. You are then left with a section of garbage but there are no trash bins.
Then it's a short wait to a bag drop machine, where you need to scan your boarding pass and passport again (I've already done this at the kiosk minutes ago) in order to send the bag away. This redundancy is inefficient and unnecessary. Why can't they scan the bag tag only and get the belt moving?
After sending my big case away, I headed upstairs to explore the shopping mall. I didn't expect a Doraemon store here! I had visited the PARCO in Shibuya yesterday just for their Doraemon store, so this is a nice surprise and it looked like the merchandise here is a bit different.
I also looked around the restaurants for a final sushi set before leaving Japan. Prices were on the high side so in the end, I went to the observation deck instead.
Plane spotting was a bit mediocre with a few JAL planes but not many other international airlines around. Perhaps I was at the wrong end of the airport?
However, there was a really good feature - a big chart showing the different airlines to expect here.
Unsatisfied, I headed through security to check out the shopping options air-side. I had to take my electronics out as they still use old technology. To make things worse, you need to stand in front of the scanner and to twirl around it in a circle manually for the security check, whereas at other airports, the machine would do that work and you just have to hold onto your position for a few seconds.
My flight would depart from the far end of the pier today, which involves a lot of walking. The duty-free stores here weren't busy so I did some additional shopping. Of particular interest is the warning board such as diseases you might catch while abroad.
These small cameras seem to be the big craze lately and got Kodak's name back on everyone's radar.
I stumbled across a fairly new-looking food court downstairs, which had quite a lot of options.
Anticipating dinner on board and not able to find a good deal amidst the inflated prices, I headed back upstairs to fight through the busy duty-free shop before continuing the long walk towards my gate.
VietJet and Hong Kong Express were also running flights next door so the area was quite busy. The seats had charge ports but there was an odd sign next to it telling you not to use your blowdryer here. I've never seen anyone take out such a thing to dry hair at the gate in all my years of international travel.
Staff called out the boarding groups but with a busy widebody, I couldn't find where the line for my group was, so I just went along at the end of that crowd and steadily moved ahead until I saw the sign they were boarding groups 1-4 as I neared the entrance.
Today's flight is on an old 777-300 with a regional configuration and over 400 seats. The Economy cabin is huge and I headed to the last section for my bulkhead window seat. Legroom was plentiful and I popped my bag and shopping right up to the small overhead compartment, which seemed the right size for my exclusive use. Being behind the wing, I enjoyed a good view of the sunset coming up outside.
Headphones were already placed in the seat pocket in a more environmentally-friendly paper wrapping, while the crew passed by with blankets.
Boarding finished reasonably quickly and we pushed back on time at 4:52pm for long taxi to take-off. Narita is a huge airport but irregularly-shaped due to legacy issues with local residents who refuse to concede their land, so we made quite a lot of turns to the take-off point. We rolled at 5:12pm.
By now, the light was rapidly fading and I knew Tokyo would be on the other side of the plane although the coastal views were still nice. I wasn't able to score a window seat on the other side during check-in.
The crew first served us a round of drinks and peanuts. Dinner followed and by now, it was almost half way through our 4h44 flight. There was only 1 option left - chicken with miso sauce with rice, and the crew said she would need to check if there are any seafood pastas left.
The tray was quite full with a potato salad, fruit bowl, Haagen Dazs ice-cream, and bread roll. I was surprisingly stuffed after the meal and dozed off a bit since there wasn't much to see outside.
I couldn't help but smirk at the ancient remote control with a keyboard on the back.
About an hour and a bit left, I spotted Taiwan's bright lights and we were on the final stretch into Hong Kong.
We flew over the city and I got plenty of nice views with my left side window. We landed on the new 3rd runway at 8:47pm, but luckily the taxi into the terminal wasn't too bad.
Cathay's crew have been a hit and mess for me over the past year, but today's flight was a good experience with courteous folks working. Service was a bit on the slow side but it was understandable given there were over 400 seats and it looked fairly full. Since we departed just before 5pm Tokyo time, eating dinner half way through the flight was still a fairly reasonable time, and they started distributing the meals from the back of the plane so they won't be first to suffer from their choice running out.
Overall, it was a pleasant and comfortable flight and the 4+ hours flew quickly.
