Singapore to Japan - Prologue & flight

Prologue

Japan opened their borders some time around Sep/Oct 2022.  I couldn't wait but I had to wait for the sakura season.  3 years ago, I planned for a 12 or 13 day trip, cancelled with tears, now I had my revenge making it a 26 days trip, it's crazy lolxx...

As soon as I was back from Europe early Dec, I started booking for air tix avoiding budget airlines at all cost (I don't want all those last minute delays and numerous cancellation drama, rather pay a bit more).  Darren was waiting for the school's reply for an oversea programme at Melbourne, so I had to go ahead to buy tix for Luis and myself first.

Settled with JAL and they were very very, extremely generous with baggage allowance.

Once done, I started booking for accommodation for 26 days.  We couldn't be staying at one place but I had to find out how many days to stay would be practical for each city.  I probably grown a big bunch of white hair from this oh gosh haahaahaa....

Darren's school did not reply, we all presumed he wasn't chosen and went ahead to book his tix in Jan.  One week later, the school give him an invitation, sadly had to decline.  Anyway it was an extremely short trip for only 7 days but a whopping cost of more than $3K.

PapaVoo refused to join us for various (invalid) reasons, even for a short while.  Although this was his choice but I felt very very bad to dump him all alone at home, haiz..... my old baby.

These are our routes!

Although 26 days sounded a lot but it was not enough to cover all, missing Okinawa, Kyushu, Tohoku and Hokkaido.  We will be going to the "mains" like what majority of the people will do and also some off the tracks hopely to avoid crowds.  So day by day, we will bring you all with us, maybe you may find some useful things to copy some and paste onto your own itinerary.

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Destination: Japan

Duration: 18 Mar - 12 Apr 2023

Mode of travel: Free & Easy

Travel buddies: 2 adult sons

Airline: Japan Airlines (JAL), SIN - HND approx S$1200/pax + upgrade to Premium Economy return flight S$200/pax, HDN - HIJ S$100/pax

Accommodation:  We have altogether 10 places, capsules, hostels, ryokan, atas/budget hotels range from S$22/night per person to S$180/night per person, so we will get to experience both heaven and hell lolxx...  I will go into details on each post de...

So here we go!!!

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17/03/2023

Changi Airport Terminal 1

It's amazing to travel from the best airport to another best in the world.

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18/03/2023

I bought a 2am red eye flight (by mistake).  Technically it's Day 1, but I'll do a separate post for after alight, heehee...

During check-in I tried to get an upgrade, sadly it was a full flight.

Economy class are all the same, nothing to rave and nothing to rant about the seats.   All was what it should be, no masking tapes of course.  Breakfast was served 2 hours before landing, only salmon flakes porridge was available, no other choice.

Porridge not too bad, didn't eat the wasabi potatoes, puff and yogurt.

Ground landing and it was raining, haiz...

There were 1 staff : 3 travellers to assist on filling up their vaccination status and other particulars on Japan Web Site.  From what I see, 2 flights arrived around the same time, we cleared the immigration within 15mins, the luggage took longer though, the efficiency was still very impressive.

After waiting for 3 years, I made it to Japan, finally...

When you are reading this, it's my 7th day in Japan.  Each night I would load up the photos, there were so many AAE files to delete everytime.  By the time I was done, it's close to mid-night and I had to crush to bed.  Managed to churn this out only for the time being.

Any questions please leave a comment, I'll answer at my best knowledge.

Day 12 & 13, France Paris to Singapore

07/12/2022

After breakfast went Galeries Lafayette to wait for it to open lolxx...

It's a beautiful mall, most of them rushed to LV.  I was done after buying Hermes perfume.

A giant Xmas tree in the air.

The entire mall only had one public toilet located at the top most floor.  It had many cubicles, that had red light = occupied, green light = empty.

This was the tax refund center and there were chinese speaking crews to assist.

The roof top of Galeries Lafayette had a gorgeous view of Paris, could even see Eiffel Tower that's far away.

It was at this point that I realised Paris doesn't have any high rise building.

Little Eiffel, so cute and pretty.

Did what normal tourists would do, Je T'aime.

We had lunch at a random cafe nearby.

Prawn salad with avocado.

I had cappuccino, PapaVoo had tea.

Roast chicken leg.

Pepperoni pizza.

Total damage €44.

Old man's smoke break after meal.

Comfortable weather.

Random pics of Paris.

We were looking for limited edition gliders, no luck.

Inside Adidas.

This was another mall, I went into Naf Naf, this fashion brand was no longer in Singapore.  I saw a pink trench coat which I liked but no size, it was only SGD60, I wanna cry.

I bought my niece a bracelet.

Arrived at Paris airport early.

Upgrade to biz class at the counter, was still quoted USD1700 for the first leg to Dubai.  We took it this time as it was Emirates A380.  I knew it wasn't the best deal, but I didn't want to miss this opportunity, we don't fly that often.

Walked pass only.

The upgrade didn't come with lounge access, there wasn't any priority boarding either.

Huge double deck boi.  Weeeeeeeee.........

I wanted to experience this so much, so thankful to PapaVoo who forked out his fortune lolxx...

EMIRATES A380 BUSINESS CLASS, gawd damn it!

It's probably our first and last, we can't be splurging like all the time.

It was old man's first biz class flight while I had mine with Etihad to-and-fro Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

为生活，为旅行，干杯！

Sibei happy.

There was a ipad which we were too tired to use and the mini bar was an amazing feature.

Nice headphones.

Bvlgari amenities kit for gents.

For ladies.

Old man fell asleep as soon as the flight took off.  People always talked about the service, the food, big space, but people never mentioned these minor points which made a big difference:

1) air quality, more oxygen, less dry compared to economy, cos less people is sharing the space;

2) you don't have to sit 90 degrees upright during take off, that how PapaVoo fell asleep at a comfortable angle.

After the champagne came this really nice mint/lime mocktail.

Potato & leek cream soup.

Monk fish with cous cous I think.

Didn't take pic of old man's food, these were our desserts.

After the meal we took a stroll to the lounge.

Of all things I picked a banana.

I never felt so rich in my whole life sia.

The whole cabin was quiet with soft snores till the the pilot gave an abrupt announcement.  Wrong move, cos everybody started to look for food, especially those who didn't take the meal service earlier.  The crews were running like headless chickens.

The few hours of deep sleep on biz class literally saved our lives.  Dubai to Singapore flight was "banished back to cattle class".

Food was good although no more luxurious space.

Thank god for the safe flights.

Back home on 8 Dec, we had ba chor mee at 11.30pm at our neighbourhood coffee shop.

Bought this key chain for Ber (my son's ex).

Bvlgari ladies, show you all what's inside.  I had 2, gave my kid sis one.

My hubby's, let my sons bring to Japan, heehee...

Brought back a ton to tea/coffee from all the hotels lolxx...

This was FOC from Switzerland.

And a mountain of laundry.

About a week later, received Longchamp Eiffel Tower print limited edition from Boss Joe and Wang Lei as birthday gift.

I completed my Europe posts muaaahaahaaahaa.... great achievement!  I can go to Japan in peace liao.

So the Japan trip will be from 18 Mar to 12 Apr, most likely I'll do 26 daily posts.  Will be taking a break till then.  Meanwhile will still have updates at www.ordinaryauntie.blogspot.com.

Big thank you to all of you!  Muacks!