SIN-HND-NRT-LAX on SQ 777 Economy and SQ A380 Business Class

[yflyer]

Before dinner, I visited the Executive Lounge in the Marriott, which I was eligible to use as a Marriott Gold member. This was a secluded lounge located behind closed doors on the ground floor next to the Hotel reception. It was a compact lounge, but one which was rarely crowded when I visited.



It had a very good selection of starters and light snacks, as well as a full self-service bar (And a daily cocktail mixed by staff on request).







Nikka Japanese whisky…



A very impressive selection of snacks and hot appetizers…









Among the selection were Japanese snacks, such as edamame and chicken skewers, but also Western snacks selected to give American businessmen and businesswomen some comfort food while away from home, including onion rings, and salsa and guacamole and tortilla chips.

[yflyer]

There was also a refrigerated counter with a range of cakes and desserts…







Breakfast was not served in the lounge, but Marriott Gold members were given vouchers for a full breakfast in the lobby restaurant.

The lounge was located on the ground floor, and did not have the windows and views of a lounge located on a high floor of many other hotels, but their very generous drinks policy more than made up for it: Not only was the full bar in the executive lounge open from 5.30pm to 9.30pm, after the exec lounge liquor selection was stowed at 9.30pm, Marriott Gold members could head to the lobby lounge and bar for a “nightcap” from 10pm to 11.30pm, which provided a free flow of soft and alcoholic beverages from a special menu…



Marriott have probably discovered that the way to a business traveller’s heart in this part of the world is through his liver…

[yflyer]

After visiting the lounge, I headed for dinner at the Shinagawa Nadaman Garden restaurant, located in the Marriott hotel.

I ordered a sushi set, which began with an elaborate set of starters…









A fairly unique chawan mushi (Steamed egg custard), with minced meat and bitter gourd providing a very savoury flavour to complement the light chawan mushi…





The sushi platter was a thing of beauty…



Amazingly fresh and delicate sushi atop glistening grains of lightly vinegared rice…







Dessert was a jelly dish with mild and subtle flavour, quite unlike the overly sweet jelly desserts that are a staple of Western convenience food.



A thoroughly enjoyable first dinner in Tokyo!

[yflyer]

The next morning, I took in the view from my room on the 17th floor.



Far below, high speed and regular commuter trains whizzed by in silence…



If I were a trainspotter, I would have spent hours just standing by the window observing the comings and goings below.



A range of different commuter trains, and the occasional “Shinkansen” or Japanese bullet train.



Far in the distance, I also caught a glimpse of Tokyo Bay, and aircraft landing and departing from Haneda airport.

[yflyer]

I had a fairly tight schedule in Tokyo, and was resigned to the fact that I would have to do most of my sightseeing by taxi, as usual. The route to my workplace took me past the Tokyo Tower…



I would pass it again on my way back to my hotel that night, all lit up like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which it bore a passing resemblance to, at least at night.



There is actually another tower in Tokyo now, the newer (And taller) Tokyo Skytree, but I did not have the opportunity to visit it on this trip.

After hectic morning at work, my colleague, Hiro (Not his real name), brought me to a nearby eatery for lunch.

“Do you like ox tongue”, Hiro asked?

“Yes!” I replied…

Hiro brought me to a restaurant which specialized in ox tongue (“gyutan”), an unusual, but uniquely delicious, dish…



The restaurant name was a real tongue twister in English: Morinomiyakotasuke.

We stepped inside…



Behind a glass panel, ox tongue was being barbequed over an open flame…





We ordered lunch sets, which came with rice, clear ox tail soup, and tororo, or grated Japanese mountain yam…



The beef had a wonderful barbequed flavour, and a delicious texture which was tender, and “bouncy”.



Hiro also showed me the proper way to eat grated mountain yam (Which apparently Mrs yflyer and I had been eating the wrong way all this time.), which was to add a little shoyu (soy sauce) and pour the whole thing over your rice and mixing it up. “For energy”, Hiro said.



This was delicious. And over lunch, we talked about different kinds of food. I waxed lyrical over the ox tongue, and described to Hiro how Mrs yflyer and I were heading to Osaka at the end of the year, and were keen to try different kinds of cuisine there, whether traditional cuisine, casual dining or street food.

[yflyer]

Hiro must have got the sense that I really enjoyed a good meal, even if I was a little ignorant of what Japanese cuisine had to offer, because that evening, after our work was done, he brought me to a traditional Japanese restaurant, “Tamasaka”, which served cuisine described as “Kappou” or “Kappo”, which translated to “Fine dining at counter”.

This was not a term I had come across before. “How is that different from Kaiseki?” I asked Hiro.

“Kaiseki is a type of meal, typically prepared with seasonal ingredients, Kappou is a type of restaurant serving traditional Japanese cuisine.” Hiro explained.

[yflyer]

Tamasaka is a restaurant in Marunouchi district, a commercial district of Tokyo between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace.



Dedicated elevator up one floor to the restaurant…



This was an intimate 28 seater restaurant, with a large counter for diners, and a private room for a party of six.



Hiro asked for the menu, which was in Japanese.



“English menu?” Hiro asked in Japanese.

“Sorry, only Japanese menu…” the waitress replied…

Hiro looked worried for a second, but brightened up I told him, “No English menu? Even better! That means only locals come here! That’s great!”

I would leave the ordering to Hiro…

There were set meals available, but Hiro decided to order a la carte…

“I eat anything” I told Hiro. Famous last words indeed, but I figured that this was Tokyo, not Seoul, and it was unlikely that a live wriggling octopus would appear before me.

Thankfully, Hiro did not feel that shock-and-awe tactics were needed that night, and what followed was a range of very finely prepared dishes that topped, both in flavour and presentation, almost any Japanese cuisine I had eaten to date.

[yflyer]

Choice of cups for sake…



Starter…



A selection of very fresh, subtle yet amazingly flavourful dishes. Cold beans, water chestnut, white radish, eggplant. The creamy paste between white vegetable slices was an uni paste with that distinctive flavour of the sea. I savoured every morsel…

Then a plate of sashimi with fish that tasted indescribably fresh…



Hiro also showed me the traditional way to garnish the shoyu with the tiny sprig of shiso flowers and leaves…

Simply tear the petals and leaves into the shoyu…





At that point, our first bottle of sake ran out, and we ordered another small bottle…



Hiro took some time to explain to me the different types of sake, right down to the types of rice that were used to make sake. As an example, Hiro pointed to五百万石 (Gohyakumangoku) which is apparently the 2nd most popular sake rice in Japan. He tended to choose sake based on type of rice, and where the rice was grown, which he insisted was a significant factor in determining how good the sake would taste.



Maybe the subtleties of sake tasting were lost on me, but the tiny glasses of cold sake were a perfect complement to the cuisine that day…

[yflyer]

Next up, a platter of tempura, deep fried to perfection…



Not the soggy, starchy tempura you sometimes get in lesser establishments. There was real art how this was prepared…this was light and crisp, with the texture of the batter not overpowering the flavour of the vegetable or mushroom within.



With tempura of this quality, it was better to dip it lightly in salt, rather than the sauce provided.



Following that, a dish of grilled chicken…with an intense flavour of the grill and perfectly crisp skin atop tender and moist meat…



And finally, mushroom rice…



…each grain a perfect, moist and slightly sticky oval…



…accompanied by miso soup and pickles…



Green tea…



For dessert, ultra-sweet grapes....



An amazing meal, and a restaurant I would want to return to with Mrs yflyer, even though we would probably need the help of a Japanese speaker to make the reservation.

Tamasaka is located on the 2nd floor of the Marunouchi Brick Square complex, just above La Boutique de Joel Robuchon which is at street level.

[yflyer]

The next morning, on the day I was due to catch SQ12 from NRT to LAX, I began my day with a run from the hotel to Tokyo Tower and back to the hotel via the same route.



The run took me through the busy streets of Shinagawa, running along the tree-lined, and spotlessly clean, pavements, and weaving past pedestrians and cyclists along the way.







This was not a long run, just under 8km in total, but it gave me a glimpse of daily life in Japan…

The crush of peak hour human traffic at railway stations such as Shinagawa Station…



A Toyota showroom, with cars on display, such as this Toyota Crown, priced at JPY 5,046,920, which is the equivalent of SGD 58,180. In Singapore, that sum would barely cover the COE…



Neat solutions to limited carpark space, such as the carpark lift and turntable…



And other solutions to problems you never knew you had, like the Dog Life Planner…



This was the route that day, starting and ending at the Tokyo Marriott.

[yflyer]

I returned to the hotel just 15 minutes before the close of the breakfast buffet – ample time for me to have a small but very satisfying breakfast from the extensive buffet selection.













After my morning run, I could not really eat a lot for breakfast, but I did pick out a selection of the more interesting dishes from the buffet to sample...



A beautiful egg dish...soft egg with bright orange yolk, poached in a jar with cream, mashed potato...

[yflyer]

I still had some time before my afternoon bus ride to Narita, so I took a taxi to Shibuya to visit what must be the last great music store, Tower Records Tokyo.

This is the iconic Shibuya Crossing, reputed to be the world’s busiest…



And nearby…Tower Records Tokyo…a massive music and CD store, which I could have spent the entire day in.



Eight solid floors of music and merchandise…



…each floor chock full of music of a given genre…



…it was as if ipods and streaming music never existed…



I spent most of my time browsing the classical selection on the classical floor, which even had it’s own mini recital area, complete with grand piano.

[yflyer]

I spent as long as I could there, before heading back to the Marriott to check out and catch the express airport bus to Narita, for the 2 hour journey to Narita Airport.



Arriving at Narita…



SQ uses Terminal 1 (South Wing).



Large flight display…



It was now 3.23pm. I had arrived early at NRT that day because SQflyergirl was in transit in NRT that afternoon as well, coming in from FUK before catching a flight to KUL after 5pm. This looked like a great, and very rare, opportunity to meet another SQTalker face to face.

SQflyergirl was already airside in NRT, enjoying the lounge and airside shopping.

But there was a spanner in the works. SQflyergirl was airside, and check-in for SQ would only open at 4.15pm. Until then, I would not have my boarding pass, and would be stuck in the landside area before immigration/security.

And SQflyergirl’s flight would depart at 5.15pm. The available time window to meet was short.

Star Alliance on-line check-in facilities, but unfortunately not for Singapore Airlines.



If all went well, and I checked in at 4.15 on the dot, I would probably make it in time for a brief meet-n-greet…

In the mean time, I would head to the landside restaurants at NRT for a bite…

[yflyer]

There are quite a few restaurants landside at NRT. This one looked interesting…dashi-chazuke…a dish whose main feature was green tea, dashi, or hot soup / water poured over a bowl of rice and ingredients. This was a dish that I had not tried before…



A range of toppings, ranging from sashimi, to tempura and meat, were available.



I sat at the counter and ordered a combo: two smaller bowls, each with a different topping.



“Do I pour the pot of soup into the rice?” I asked the chef behind the counter. He nodded…





This tasted really good!

I did the same for my other mini bowl, topped with slices of tuna sashimi.



This was delicious as well. I polished off both bowls. I suspect the tea in the soup stock contains at least a little caffeine, though, as I did not feel as sleepy as I normally would be onboard my flight later that day.

[yflyer]

Now that I had eaten, I headed to the SQ check-in counter, which was due to open in 15 minutes time, at 4.15pm.

There was already a long queue of passengers in the Economy line, waiting for check-in to open.



Thankfully the queue for Gold and F/J was much shorter.



Five minutes before 4.15pm, they began directing passengers into the queuing area, and not long after, check-in began.

At the counter, the check-in agent seemed to have trouble with my reservation. I had used Krisflyer miles to upgrade my Y booking to Business Class, and even had my seat assigned. I did all this online on the SQ Krisflyer website, using the same process and web page that I had used for upgrades before, but for some reason there was no corresponding ticket issued that linked to my J reservation. I should have guessed that there was an issue, as I was not able to do an online check-in the day before.

A lot of tapping on the terminal, and consultation with her supervisor…and the minutes were ticking away.

Soon SQflyergirl would have to board her flight…and I might still be here at the counter!

It looked as if time was running out...

I messaged SQflyergirl, “…starting to look iffy…”

“They board at t-40 with the bus gate…it is now t-57”, she replied…

So I still had 17 minutes, but it was becoming increasingly doubtful that I would make it airside quickly enough to meet up…

“You are Star Gold, right? Use GOLD track!” she messaged…

“Thanks for letting me know!” I messaged back, “…would have felt very silly if I used the normal queue”…

I didn’t even know the Gold queue existed!

“Do you have a copy of your ticket or reservation?” the agent asked.

I had to login to the SIA website on my iPhone to retrieve my reservation, and show it to the agent. At that point, she asked me for my iPhone to show her supervisor and off she went, taking my phone with her.

Now I was at the counter, with no phone, while she and her supervisor huddled deep in discussion behind the check-in island counter 10 meters away…and the minutes continued to tick by…

Finally, the check-in agent came back with a big smile on her face…”We found your ticket…everything is ok! Here is your boarding pass!”

‘Thank you!” I beamed…and began trotting towards the security and immigration…

“Heading in now!” I messaged SQflyergirl, who replied with a thumbs up…