I woke up in the crew bunk after the breakfast service and downed a hot meal standing in the galley.
I was quite impressed by Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787. It was a much nicer experience than the two Air India 787s which I flew on. The décor was nice, entertainment excellent and very quiet even down the back. All that helps distract me from thinking about how narrow the seats were. Even the meals catered out of Narita were excellent and generous (sometimes they can be quite light).
I landed at 0820 on Monday morning and was in the office by 0930 to do nearly a full day’s work. So, it wasn’t “Home Sweet Home” but rather “Home Sweet Office”. I felt good all day, slept well that night and woke at 0630 on Tuesday ready for work again. I credit this to the good sleep en route complemented by the low cabin altitude of the 787.
Some parting thoughts about Tokyo:
- It is a walking city. Even with the metro, there are plenty of steps and walking distances. Often anything around 1-2 stops away is easier on foot than metro.
- Even in a big built up city, people cycle a lot within their individual neighbourhoods.
- For a rich nation, locals still undertake hard manual hard labour eg. in construction sites (albeit with good mechanisation). It is quite unlike countries in SE Asia where labourers are imported.
- Japan isn’t as expensive as I had imagined. I spent on average JPY4200 per day excluding accommodation. This is helped by the fact that there aren’t many sights for which I had to pay to visit.