The rising sun in the Land of the Rising Sun, we can’t ask for more! I had to remove a section as I was careless taking the shot.
OK so the only reason we see this at just after 05:00 is because we have a driver due soon. It turns out the hotel has a designated area for private pickups which is at basement -3 but getting there requires three different lift shafts and “insider information“ we don’t possess, fortunately the security guard on duty smiles sanguinely and just takes us there!
Our driver uses yet another route entirely, most fascinating to me, and within 35 minutes we are delivered to Haneda Airport. We are invited to use the automated check-in system, but of course there is a complication, so instead we have to go to the dedicated area to get our bags checked all the way to Tenerife. They have a fabulous design where the conveyors are at floor level and the bags just disappear into the floor!
The lounge is super-calm, lots of space and a fabulous collection of foods. I have a gorgeous chicken curry, then udon noodles with tempura vegetables and finally a second helping of chicken curry – this has to be the definitive recipe!
We wander down to the gate, looking for somewhere to spend our last currency but we can’t so dump it in the earthquake charity box. We laugh at the quite common parlance for night-time hours, using 25:00 or 26:00 to mean closing at 1 or 2 AM.
Within minutes we are boarding our Dreamliner, again I have the window advantage. The ANA staff are delightful and we soon have a drink in our hand. We love the Anime safety briefing but we still don’t get it! It’s quite amazing how busy Haneda is – two planes land simultaneously most of the time, and take off together at right-angles to the inbound.
It’s also quite amusing how the timetable for a cross-planet flight pans out. By 10:30 we are having lunch and by 13:00 the Dreamliner’s auto-blinds have dimmed as though it’s nightfall, which of course is total nonsense. We reverse these so we can see outside. The ethos of ANA’s honorary chef reminds me, the first ever Japanese meal I had was in fact in 1982 Paris, back in the days when I taught for Yamaha.
Lunch however is spectacular – I enjoy the Japanese menu whilst the Hubster has European. We both have a great meal. Later on we have the cheese course.
Our flight is fascinating, or maybe predictable, as we can’t fly over Russia – we fly towards the Bearing Straight and then over Alaska, Canada and Greenland, before flying down the eastern coast of Britain.
I watch Conclave, obviously rather topical now, even though I know all the theory anyway. Not sure how good the movie is, but the acting is OK.
We land early in Frankfurt and very quickly are through immigration, then we need to walk the few metres to our hotel, but roadworks prevent this, we have to go down to the parking garage and work our way though that in order to emerge on the opposite side of the street where the Sheraton is clearly visible.
We’re 7 hours in front now, so our already early start has compounded into a mammoth day. We go for dinner in the Sheraton restaurant – is it “airport prices” or “Sheraton prices” or just “German prices” I don’t know, but they certainly know how to fleece their captive audience. The Wienerschnitzel is very good, and for the first time in my life I uttered the sentence “that turnip was very tasty” so something was OK, but €150 for one course plus modest wine is way OTT!
