Let's Just Go

The time had come to leave wonderful Taipei (I will be back!) and go on to my next destination, Japan, for the first time.

There are many carriers that operate flights over this route – I chose to go with Cathay Pacific as they gave a great experience the last time I flew with them, and I was also looking to credit some points and Avios to my OneWorld accounts. EVA air are in Star Alliance, so I wasn’t able to credit anything from my previous flight to OneWorld to earn Tier Points and Avios!

Tip for anyone travelling to Taoyuan Airport from Taipei – the Taoyuan Airport Metro can be accessed via Taipei Main station, but also from Beimen station on the green line of the Taipei metro. The interchange from Beimen is quite a bit easier – just down a long corridor – than interchanging at Taipei Main station.

The Taoyuan metro takes longer to arrive at the Airport during early mornings and at weekends, so be sure to check out the timetable and plan your route in advance, if you have an early flight. It may work out to be more reliable to take a taxi.

This metro was a blue metro – meaning it stopped at more stations than the express purple metro – but that only started up later in the day. It was also heaving, as at this time of the day there was only one train every 20 minutes!

I checked in at the airport, dropped my bag, and made my way via Fasttrack checkin to the Cathay Pacific lounge, located in Terminal 1.

The lounge is large. As you come in, there is a spacious and well-designed noodle bar, serving food at all times of the day. You can also order food to be brought to your table in the more relaxed seating area, there’s no need to eat in the formal area.

There are various work pods designed for taking calls and working in. However, I try one of these out to find that there is no power available – I do like to recharge my devices before a flight, so this is somewhat frustrating for me. I moved further into the lounge to a relaxed area, but where there were plenty of power sockets for use.

There are also plentiful non-alcoholic selections of juices, soft drinks and teas.

I ordered some breakfast before the flight – albeit a mini breakfast, of dan dan noodles and one portion of pork xiaolongbao… however I didn’t realise this just meant one dumpling! Next time I might order a couple more – it was very tasty and full of soupy yum!

You also really can’t fault the Cathay Dan Dan noodle experience – I will always get a bowl if in a Cathay Pacific lounge!

The flight was soon called and I walked off to embark.

Some pre-information about this flight. I booked around 3 months in advance, and I had the flight tracked on Google Flights. Every so often, the flight would be taken off sale, and then put back on again a few days later. When I booked my seat, there were already no window seats left, and the Business cabin was full about two weeks after I booked.

At the time of flying (and a couple of weeks before), mainland Chinese carriers were having their flights from mainland China to Japan cancelled as there was a rise in political tensions between the two countries, and China did not want its citizens to be tourists in Japan. Therefore many people were rebooking their trips via Hong Kong or via Taiwan. I wasn’t sure if the flight was going ahead at some points, due to the numer of times it ws taken off sale, but this could have been because of Chinese people rebooking?

I am not sure – however, I was not 100% sure this flight would go ahead, and was somewhat happy when boarding was commencing, as the flight was more likely to be departing if we were told to get on it!

Cathay Pacific have a lot of new aeroplanes, but this flight was definitely not going to be using one of them! This is a 2-2-2 layout Business Class cabin on the Boeing 777-300.

As soon as I was seated, I was given some orange juice and the menu to look at.

And despite not having a window seat, I was still able to enjoy the window view across the way!

We took off and made our way north-east towards Tokyo, flying along the southern side of Japan, with floaty clouds alongside us most of the way.

From the menu above, I chose the pork option, which arrived fairly soon after takeoff, with excellent and careful service – every time I hav flown with Cathay, the service is friendly and lovely!

I said no to the bread, as this was already an ample lunch – wow! The ginger pork was brilliant, the rice fluffy, the veggies perfectly cooked, and the two starter dishes were tasty and a great accompaniment to the meal. However… next… a trolley service for dessert arrived!

This was a fun addition. I went for some ice cream, because why would you not have an ice cream when on the plane!

The plane finished lunch, and all items were tidied away. There was free Wifi to all in business class, so I used this to catch up on some emails and life admin whilst away. Friends back home were starting to wake up, so it was nice to catch them too.

I relaxed into the journey and set the chair to recline a little. A few moments later, an announcement was made – to look at the windows on the left hand side of the plane, to see something wonderful! A small commotion happened…

Mount Fuji!!!

I even sit here writing this piece now, with a tear in my eye.

I did not think that seeing Fuji-san would be possible on this trip. Not even just casually out of the window on the approaching plane. But there it was. Making its presence known, rising from between the clouds, with a shroud of cloud behind. It’s something I had dreamed of seeing. This is now real. It is real. I am here.

Welcome to Japan – here is one of our icons!

I blubbed unashamedly through the next few minutes, the lady in the window seat was looking out of the window too, and watching as we passed the peak. It seems much of the cabin was also peering out to the left, looking towards Fuji. I am so glad that this was mentioned to us, otherwise I’d have been oblivious.

And now in and down into a slighly hazy Narita late afternoon.

I remember thinking… Narita airport – hmm. I could have chosen to fly into Haneda but wanted to try Narita and see what it was like. I really enjoyed this sign – making our way into the arrivals hall.

HOWEVER

It was around 3 hours’ time from the plane landing, to actually leaving Narita airport. I really did not like the experience of this, waiting in a queue, in a very warm and small room, with the queue snaking around and around and around, with lots of cameras on everyone all the time…

Here is what caused all of that time to be lost.

• slight delay in processing luggage for my flight – 10 mins
• approx queue of 600 people waiting to be temperature scanned – 30 mins
• same queue to then go through initial customs declaration – 25 mins
• same queue to then go through passport control – 30 mins
• same queue to then go through the end customs declaration – 20 mins
• same queue to arrive at Narita Rail station, and to try and understand how to purchase a ticket to get to the city…45 mins

One of the main delays was that the Skyliner service to Nippori/Ueno would not allow you to purchase a ticket without a seat reservation. The next train with one seat free on it was in 45 minutes after I arrived at Narita, so I had to wait for that. The platforms were busy, but I was enjoying watching the efficiency of all the trains coming and going.

I was then on my way to my hotel. I really did not rate the experience of arriving at Narita – I am aware it’s Haneda’s older and smaller cousin – and in the future, would possibly try and use Haneda airport only – to try and avoid the very long and frustrating entrance procedure being kept in a small area with hundreds of others…