7 April 2025
Japanese airports are all terrible
Singapore to Osaka on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner
First of all, the Airbus A350 is a nicer jet than a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, much quieter, better seats, but who am I kidding, on the way to Hong Kong I forgot which was which. They both have 9 abreast seating in a tube that should have 8.
In good news, this flight was less than half full, and I had an entire block of 3 to myself. Despite that, is everyone in the entire world besides me, sick for their entire lives? It is ridiculous how often people need to get some tissue work going, and keep it going for the entirety of a 5.5 hour flight. Some people just wore a tissue over their face and slowly drained themselves into it, periodically changing the tissue once soaked through, and then they put a mask on when the plane landed. Anyway, I think I need to see a psychiatrist, I must be the issue.
Now to rant about crap Japanese airports. Why the hell does it take so damn long? This time there were a lot of counters, but it still took over an hour to go through immigration, An improvement on 2 hours at Haneda. The QR code makes no difference, the camera does not work, the fingerprint scanner does not work, people were getting arrested at the immigration desk.
Better still, they made everyone join one of about 15 individual immigration desk lines, about 30 people deep each, and then the immigration agent would close their desk, and the 30 people in line would go to the back of another line, and the same thing would happen. It is idiotic. After that you fill out an immigration thing electronically that you already did via the QR code that is useless, photo again, QR code scan again, repeat repeat repeat. I nearly needed my wax stamp thing.
So now I am on the Rapi:T (followed by alpha symbol) Nankai limited express train going to Namba typing this. It looks fancy but sways violently, making it hard to type.
Also, hotel photos, the only thing anyone is even interested in.
Singapore was a bit damp, but after a refreshing sprint through an airport with my laptop and camera and other assorted mildly heavy things, I arrived at my gate just before boarding started. That is my Boeing Dreamliner.
The departure gate area, I had no time to take any photos in Singapore other than this.
I was surprised when I did board that there was no one else onboard yet, and it stayed relatively empty. When they opened the door 5.5 hours later, 1.3 million sneezes escaped into the atmosphere.
This is the inside of the stupidly named Rapi:T alpha symbol, whatever you do, name your things so that they do not come up in internet searches, it is the best way to keep customers to a minimum. Other than whatever I type for the 2 hotel pictures below, I typed the rest of this full days update sitting on this violently swaying fancy train.
My room. I have stayed here before. It is the Sotetsu Fresa at Namba station, and until a week ago, it was about $100 a night, but now thanks to liberation day, $110 a night. Trump increased the price of my holiday.
And no long day of travel is complete without a bathroom photo, the photo you have all been waiting for, a bathroom.