Not a Bad Flight
Kamala:
“The rows of two seats at the back of the airplane come highly recommended,” says Linda, when I ask what she would like to add to the post on our flight. Linda and Kamala took an ANA flight on a Boeing 777 and had tons of room for our stubby legs, plus no annoying strangers intruding on our plane activities. Our in-flight viewing highlights were The Man Who Knew Infinity for Linda, and Star Trek: Beyond for Kamala.
We were also served a high quantity of food. “Lunch” was a curry rice with one broccoli floret, a piece of red pepper and half a potato croquet, plus a side of soba, plus potato salad, smoked salmon & cabbage, PLUS a small Häagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream. Not to mention our own stash of grapes, and our own crudités box with a little hummus for dipping. “Breakfast” was a strange cheese ravioli and citrus fruit salad combo. I suppose nothing says welcome to the day, like a smooth cheese ravioli paired with the bite of citrus.
After a semi-harried rush to get on the right bus out of Narita and to TCAT, we arrived, a little greasy, but otherwise perfectly presentably at The Royal Park Hotel. Finally we joined up with Lori! They gave us all very heavy keys, and ushered us upstairs to the executive lounge, where we had some wine and snacks, and got a delightful view of nighttime Tokyo.
The night was admittedly short. We took a stroll around our hotel to look at the smattering of bars, restaurants, Family Marts and 7-11 in the neighb. Linda and Lori spent a good amount of time trying to slowly sound-out and decipher the menus along the way. We ended up purchasing a carton of oversized figs from a very nice lady at a fruit store, which were only okay, probably because they were so huge. Linda was disappointed that our room smelled vaguely of cigarette smoke and Lori’s had a nice remodeled bathroom. I was beat. I used the built-in bidet (it had very good aim and was very warm) and then slept like a rock.