16 September 2011
Tokyo Narita Airport
The flight from Seoul to Tokyo was largely uneventful, and surprisingly on a 747.
It was a mixed 747, in that it was part cargo plane, part passenger, the seats didnt go all the way to the back, I have never been on one of these before, but it explains why such a big plane was used for such a short 90 minute flight.
It was however very hot on the plane, and taxiing in both Seoul and Tokyo took forever.
I am half way through watching Super8, so I now have to hope Qantas offers it on their system like Asiana does.
Arriving into Tokyo and I had to change terminals. The transfer desk is hidden and I am the only person that used it, they had to make a phone call to make sure its ok cause I dont have a boarding pass for my onward flight, but after a few minutes they let me through.
Terminal 2 is quite a bit nicer than terminal 1, which is strange since JAL uses terminal 1, perhaps its just because its newer.
There was now a chance for hilarity, waiting for the transfer bus, theres a Japanese guy and his wife going absolutely crazy about having to wait because they aree going to miss their flight.
It seems they didnt know they had to transfer until its too late (or almost, I will never know!).
He is pleading on his knees no less to make the bus leave early but of course they wont go.
Hes literally running around in circles going crazy, once we are on the bus he starts yelling orders, the driver isnt even on yet, I thought he was going to try and drive it himself.
It gets better, before we arrive at terminal 1, it stops at another point in terminal 2. Of course theres no one there waiting. But the driver has to wait for maybe 3 minutes. This guy was running on and off the bus, another crew bus drove past and he is yelling at it literally.
When we finally arrived at terminal 2, 3 minutes later, he sprinted to get off the bus and hit the door with his face as it was still opening.
When I calmy walked past to the transfer desk to get my boarding pass he was yelling at the screens showing which gate to go to, I never saw him again.
Now...I am going between lounges eating and showering just for fun.
OK, I lied, I took another picture before leaving Seoul, this is my Asiana 747.
Since I will likely never fly Asiana again, I took a couple of pictures to bore you with. I didnt have a bulkhead, but it was roomy enough, and only half full.
Lunch was of course, some kind of fried chicken, or maybe it was fish, they fried the crap out of it so I couldnt really tell.
Since I will likely never see this terminal again unless Qantas changes or goes broke or something, I took a photo to remember it by.
The above mentioned transfer bus, you can just see crazy guy, hes taken the seat closest to the door, staring at his travel documents in disbelief. Im up the back of the bus, acting tough.
Took a snap of a Delta 747 just cause I love planes, right on dusk.
In the first class JAL Sakura lounge, had some tempura prawns and Japanese style beef curry (which was delicious and had chunks of beef in it, too often Japanese curry has no texture at all).
General view of the JAL first lounge, which is in the main building, theres another one in the satellite terminal (where Im headed) but its smaller.
I am proud of this photo, I am playing with the planes.
Now im driving the unmanned train to the satellite terminal (I hope you are getting the impression that I love airports).
The JAL lounge had a wait on their excellent showers, so I had to use the Qantas ones, which are business class not first class (and look it).
My plane, Gondwana dreaming I think its called, I seem to recall being on it before, either from London or Tokyo last time.
Now I am snacking on some sushi waiting for my flight, apparently I have been given a free upgrade to premium economy, which I havent been in before. See you from Sydney, where I have a 4 hour wait for my flight home to Adelaide unfortunately.