VS901 NRT-LHR 23 SEP 10 (Upper Class)
Posted: 09 Oct 2010, 17:14This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
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Have enlightened a fair bit as noted that Tokyo appears much on peoples top 5 places to visit hence the length of this TR:
Travelling around and using the subway, fine- It’s no worse than the London tube. The JR rail pass comes into its own as able to use all their own lines, which for us in Shinjuku was handy, travelling down to Shibuya & Harajuku (now there’s a bonkers place!) Although a lovely temple to visit as well. Wasn’t that bothered with Ginza (could be anywhere.)
Harajuku fashion 
Getting invited to join in with a post Shinto festival party with the city “elders” in Shibuya, piling us with Sushi & wine was probably the most surreal..Great people!
Anyway after 4 nights it was back to Shinjuku station and a trip over to the Shinkansen (Bullet train) booking office (JR pass covered but you can reserve a seat for free) however asked for reserved seats for Kyoto “Sorry all gone”! Bugger…started to get a bit worried (turns out end of public holiday and all booked up). We could still go but have to head for “unreserved carriages”, expecting the worse we trundled for what seemed miles to find the Bullet train platforms and headed down to the unreserved carriages, They were half empty and nearly had a full choice!!
NB, the storage room on these trains is extremely tight, we found sitting at the Rear of the carriages better, as you get all the room behind the seats for bags.
I came over all-childish, taking lots of train photos, and trying to get mrs NH excited, but tis only a train to her! They are quite impressive, quiet, clean and very low set- tonnes of legroom and comfy also decent trolley service & sensible loos. I get the impression they must be pressure sealed as noise levels very low- and likely to stop your ears exploding as you enter one of the numerous tunnels heading out of Tokyo (no doubt some Train person/nerd will correct me on this ?). One point however is the speed these things pick up even before they’ve left the platform area..just like GNER, NOT.
Anyway back to the plot, The scenery on route to Kyoto is not that special, two and half hours, a glimpse of a hazy Mount Fuji- which to be fair has a very impressive outline & stature. Kyoto on the other hand, be ready to be underwhelmed by the scenes slowing into the station, not the prettiest of cities to arrive into- think Stoke crossed with Watford. However emerge out of the platform area and into the station –WOW, what a seriously impressive bit of civil engineering, the scale of the place is immense.
We had booked two nights at the Granvia located in the station/ mega city 4. As research had noted a good place to be located for a quick trip to the city, and proved correct. Local subways an easy venture having been Tokyo trained, and even ventured onto a municipal bus for one trip. The Granvia was very pleasant, we had a deluxe room, very nice & lounge access, however lounge was very disappointing (No Booze & food!) just hot drinks/soft drinks etc, not much use in the NH household.. Breakfast wasn’t included, so asked (out of interest) would be £23/each for American Breakfast…
luckily a Starbucks across the road. The Station has the odd eatery within it, numbering 30 odd I think!Kyoto was the cultural part of our trip and we walked our feet off, hate to think how far we did actually walk but must be into double figure miles easily, mainly due to our limited time there.
We managed most of the major temples, missed a few bits but couldn’t fit it all in. finishing off the day in the Gion district and surprisingly lucky to bump into a lady dressed up in Geisha style, possibly heading out for her evenings work..A real stroke of luck and really rounded the day off.
Final night rounded off in a randomly picked restaurant (well had two western words on the menu so seemed a good idea)– ducked underneath the little curtains to be ushered inside and seats at the Chefs table, and much joking and excitement & beer throughout the preparation of some fantastic sushi, sashimi and others things that were nice but god knows what they were! A really excellent night, great humour with the chefs in the kitchen and made to feel really welcome.
The next morning, packed the bags and checked out, leaving cases at the hotel, went off to catch some more temples/shrines nearby before heading back to catch an afternoon Shinkansen back to Tokyo, then onwards up to NRT for a night at the Hilton before the morning departure.
Decamping into the Hilton, we needed to eat. Thought we’d go Japanese for the the final farewell & the hotels eatery didn’t disappoint, not cheap but a lovely spread..Involving cooking your own food in a boiling cauldron on your table.
.I’m sure the locals were shaking their heads at what we were doing, but hey we had fun! 
Morning arrived, we were up early, so decided just to head to the airport and have some time mooching round the shops, chk-in hadn’t opened so had an hour to kill using remaining Yen on pointless/random souvenirs to pass on at Christmas. Before long we’d checked in, lounge pass issued, so decided to head over to ditch the hand luggage & head out again..(the lounge at NRT is nice enough, fairly small even a little bit cramped..?)
We’d decided we needed to improve someone’s day, so approached a nice couple who were flying PE who were wandering around the shops- got chatting and invited them into the lounge (well why not!
), Please note & welcome Glynfly, who has sinced joined V-Flyer..!! After the obligatory bubbles and smoked salmon breakfast, boarding was delayed about an hour as were all flights due to a huge thunderstorm and torrential downpour hitting NRT, this meant however NH was able to drink probably one to many glasses of bubbles for the wrong side of 1pm. On board it was looking busy, actually pretty much full. Could see a few nervous looks around the cabin as a couple with very young baby decamped into the bassinet seat in UC, however as it turned out, an amazingly silent, well-behaved little lad…
There was a huge queue waiting for the runway, due to the delay, but we nudged forward bit by bit, had a great view of the aircraft in front taking off, SQ’s A380 in heavy spray..impressive watching all that water being sucked up by the engines.. We were next so settled back into routine..
Food and associated needs were all pre-ordered & sorted out, during the wait on taxi, so settled back snoozed off the booze before the lunchtime onslaught of fermented grapes..
Unless you get your bed nicked!
Lunch was a similar menu to outbound:
Marinated prawns with mixed leaves, avocado salsa,lemon/herb dressing
Stewed shoulder of beef, in rich red wine sauce, mashed potatoes,broccoli & carrots
Chocolate & ginger tart
Yum.
The remaining flight became a bit hazy as we decamped to the bar
, after lunch, and ended up being a bit of a sesh. Fairly good atmosphere, with gang of musicians (classical I may add, not exactly Lemmy’s road crew),tax advisors? automotive engineers & us (can’t ask for a more cross-sectional mix), two of the Musicians’ acquaintances had been invited in from PE (all very OX/CAM banter), and bubbles were flowing, after a while the PE guys were told to leave, quite nice to get “that look “ as they leave the scruffy northern oik still sat at the bar with his daughters Kermit 
At some point must of stumbled back to my seat and bedded down for a good few hours, awaking with that Sahara mouth
, mooched back to the bar/ oasis and proceeded to finish off all the orange juice.. that’s better.. feeling refreshed, watched Bad lieutenant during the afternoon sandwich disappointment (although scones were nice) and began to re-organize for the incoming UK.Bags off very quickly, and then out to the hell hole that is the arrivals hall- what a dump - over crowed, disorganized, shambolic
– welcome to London!Apologies for the epic, but being Japan I know some of you are keen the Nottinghams & Buns of this world for example...
Few other piccies here:http://v-flyer.com/the-community/photos/album?albumid=4497&userid=3639
- are you sure that it was a real Geisha in Gion - the accessories she is wearing are not those of a Geisha, they are of a Maiko (apprentice Geisha) instead.
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