Cabo San Lucas (SJD) the long way around

[JohnSydney2000]

Hi Oz and plus one. Best wishes for a great trip. John.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Sun 13 Apr BR116 TPE/CTS 1010/1500



Looking back at the interior of the A321 from J class.



Our cartoon character F/A makes a comeback.



View of Taipei's Taoyuan Airport as our aircraft pushes back from the terminal.



Close up of our A321 aircraft which more often than not is the "Hello Kitty" A330 however we had a last minute substitution.



A Xiamen Air B737 touches town.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Sun 13 Apr BR116 TPE/CTS 1010/1500



Entrée consisted of pate & a seared seafood scallop.



Main course was prawns with pasta. Even though there's no alcohol in the pic we did have a glass of bubbly which was quite nice. SO asked the F/A what it was & she replied "sparkling wine". Well she was technically correct but I think he was referring to the label on the bottle.



These cigar shaped Yoku Moku's look like Chinese fortune cookies but taste like Danish butter cookies.



The F/A's get busy with the duty free cart. Even on this short flight duty free is still offered however an abbreviated version of what is offered on longer BR flights.



If in-flight display while we're heading up the West Coast of the Japanese island of Honshu.

 

[kevrosmith]

Re: Sun 13 Apr BR116 TPE/CTS 1010/1500

Late to the party, but enjoying the trip report.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Sun 13 Apr BR116 TPE/CTS 1010/1500



Getting closer & flying past Niigata.



A snow capped mountain top en-route.



Flying over an airport up north on the island of Honshu which is possibly Nagano, Niigata or Aomori unless there is a military air base in the vicinity.



Approaching Japan's northern most island of Hokkaido.



A Cathay 744 arriving from Hong Kong at New Chitose/Sapporo Airport.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Arrival at New Chitose/Sapporo Airport CTS Sun 13 Apr



The airport signs are in what (I think) is Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Russian, Japanese & English.



Besides our flight from TPE on BR116 there was also CX580 from HKG around the same time then later in the afternoon TW251 from SEL, HA441 from HNL & KE795 from SEL.



The international departures board. I believe the HA442 flight CTS/HNL is seasonal however would come in handy if wanting to do a circle trip of the Pacific & combine a now holiday in Sapporo with the sun & surf in Hawaii.



The domestic terminal is separate from the international one however only a short 300m stroll away.



Making our way down to the bus stop to catch the shuttle to our overnight accommodation the ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Arrival at New Chitose/Sapporo Airport CTS Sun 13 Apr



Group tourism within Asia is just as big a deal as Asian groups touring overseas as they seem to like the structure of having every detail taken care of. The group leader is rounding everyone up by waving his flag which is a common sight even in Australia. There is also a big tour desk assisting people with transportation to the ski fields such as Niseko.



International Terminal at New Chitose. Outside looks very bleak and cold & it was about 5 degrees celsius.



Departures level which was fairly deserted. One thing I would probably do next time when booking the hotel is check the frequency of the airport to hotel shuttle buses as we had a couple of hours to kill before the next ANA Crowne Plaza Shuttle bus at 1740. We could have taken a taxi but we decided to spend that money on something to eat instead and have a look around the airport which is probably the most kid-friendly airport I've even seen.



Whilst we dined on spaghetti bolognaise we watched some kind of performance which looked like a Hi-5 type set up with a couple of teenage girls singing & dancing but instead of little kids in the audience is was grown men - maybe late teens early twenties dancing along almost starstruck.



As there were heaps of toy stores in the airport whilst we were eating a glanced across at the girl sitting along side us & I noticed what I assumed was a stuffed toy she'd bought from the Steiff Bear shop but it turned it's head around I guess smelling our spag bol meal & I realised it was a real Papillon dog.

They didn't speak English in the restaurant so it's a case of nod & point to what you want on the menu. A lot of eating establishments have a plastic mockup of what the meal looks like which gives you a fairly accurate indication of whether you would want to consume.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Arrival at New Chitose/Sapporo Airport CTS Sun 13 Apr



Smile Road shopping at New Chitose Airport.



Steiff Bear shop. If you love furry animals you'll love this shop. Want want!



Pandas at the Steiff shop.



Hello Kitty. No surprises there. I should buy some shares as these felines are bigger than Ben Hur in Asia.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Transfer from New Chitose Airport to ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel



Leaving the airport we passed what looked like old fashioned hangars. Check the shuttle times when you make your room reservation to ensure your flight arrival lines up with the shuttle times which are not frequent. Alternatively you could take a taxi or the train.



The buses on Hokkaido were older than what you would see in bigger cities like Tokyo or Nagoya.



I've never been to any Eastern Bloc countries in Europe but looking at the buses and trains somehow made me feel like I was in Poland or the Czech Republic as Hokkaido appears to be quite industrial.



Our room at the ANA Crowne Plaza Hotel. Nearby there was an Aeon Mall but not as big as the one near Narita. This hotel is very handy to the airport for overnight transit stops & ANA air crew stay here. The railway station is not that far away & the express train to Sapporo takes about 30 minutes.


View from our hotel room in the early evening. We ventured across the road to a little restaurant for dinner rathen than eat in the hotel. The hotel described it as an Italian/Japanese restaurant but it was more like a Japanese style Denny's type of diner which was fine with us.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Mon 14 Apr CTS/NGO NH702 0810/0950



The breakfast buffet in the lobby starts at 0540 which allows plenty of time to eat before catching the first airport shuttle bus departs at 0620. The ANA F/A's are at the buffet prior to their transfer to the airport.



Our airport shuttle bus. After departing the ANA Crowne Plaza at 0620 we stopped enroute at the Wing International Hotel & Hotel Grand Terrace Chitose arriving at the domestic terminal at 0637. The shuttle continues on to the international terminal a short distance away.



A cab out front of the hotel.



A lot of the bus drivers wear white gloves which looks more like what a limo driver would wear.



On our way to the airport.

 

[boomy]

Enjoying the photos, thanks for posting!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: Mon 14 Apr CTS/NGO NH702 0810/0950



There wasn’t a queue at checkin but the girl at the queue entrance checked our passports & asked us if we had a connecting flight which we did on to GUM that night. She then escorted us over to the checkin agent at the international connections desk telling her of our plans. The staff were extremely courteous and polite.

The CSA was very thorough. We’d already advised our TK *A Gold numbers on a previous flight last month NRT/PEK on the first part of the ticket however US DM couldn’t give us the NH pnr so we couldn't do our seating online. Even though we had separate pnrs we were given seats together in 6HK which was second row of economy. We were also given our onward boarding pass for later in the day on UA for NGO/GUM.



Just after the Premium checkin counters there is an entry landside to the ANA Lounge but we avoided this thinking that it was a landside lounge only as we wanted to get through security to a lounge airside. It wasn't wasn't until we entered the lounge that we realised that the lounge has an entry landside and airside with its own security screening point for landside entry.



The lounges at CTS appear to be all work no play with plenty of desks and business magazines. No runway views either & I found myself just wanting get out into the main terminal to look at the shops & aircraft.



A departure screen within the lounge displaying the ANA departures.



An airside smoking room. It looked weird as there wasn't a door but there's a vent above the entrance so I'm guessing that the down draft of air works like some invisible curtain preventing the smoke from escaping.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Mon 14 Apr CTS/NGO NH702 0810/0950



Another departure screen from the lounge displaying the flights for other airlines. It does also show everything in English but I snapped the pic while displaying Japanese.




The seating area which has power outlets. To say a splash of colour wouldn't go astray would be an understatement! Maybe even a painting. Probably a good example of how not to furnish a lounge. The food and beverages on offer was fairly sparse from memory. Made mental note to never whinge about Neil Perry's party pies because right now I would kill for one but it must have tomato sauce.



An Air Do B737 which flies to Haneda. I wond whether anyone has ever thought of doing some creative graffiti by adding an "H" in front?



Animation reigns supreme once again as I spot an NH777 in Pokemon livery with the happy smiling little fella on the tail.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Mon 14 Apr CTS/NGO NH702 0810/0950



Our Boeing 767-300 aircraft operating our flight NH702 CTS/NGO. It also operates as codeshare flight with *A partners SQ5960, TG6039 & OZ9123. In the background is an ANA B737 about to touchdown & a JAL B787 taxiing out.



Boarding commenced 20 minutes prior to departure from gate 10 which was only a short walk from the ANA Lounge. They do make boarding calls for the flights however we left before boarding started.



Houston we have a problem. I had taken a random snap of the cabin earlier & it transpires that the guy in the 'G' aisle seat three rows back has an 'issue'. There is now a discussion going on between him and ground staff and it seems the passenger is displeased with something or perhaps a more accurate description would be mad as a MF. In an accent unmistakeably LOTFAP he exclaims "we are not leaving until we get our original tickets back."

I love (not) the way he says 'we' like it's just him and his family that are happy to delay the flight displaying zero consideration for his fellow passengers.



A ground staff member is going back and forth from the aircraft & our wayward 'friend' heads down to the door of the aircraft to continue the discussion. It's not like ground staff were raising their voice at him so he really had no excuse to yell at them.

I was fully expecting him to be off-loaded as there's plenty of people who have been frog marched off an aircraft for less than that, albeit in the USA. We've gone past our departure time however old mate returns to his seat, the forward door of the aircraft is closed & we're now ready to depart.

I use my Samsung Galaxy S4 to take photos & was hoping to take a few more snaps of aircraft however the flights attendants asked passengers to switch their devices to flight mode & power them off completely prior to take-off.

As we were taxiing out several Japanese Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles took off which looked spectacular against the backdrop of snowcapped mountains - photo opportunity wasted - bugger! :evil:

There was a thread on AFF recently about whether people still take a camera on holidays with them and this was a classic example of why you should, assuming of course that cameras don't fall into the category of the electronic devices that have to be switched off.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Mon 14 Apr CTS/NGO NH702 0810/0950



The catering onboard the 1.40 hour flight was juice only no snacks however we'd had a decent buffet breakfast at the hotel so it's not like we were hungry at this stage. The F/A's also offered blankets prior to take-off.



The IFE onboard was TV screens on the bulkheads only - no individual tv screens in each seat. The headsets handed out were complimentary however we didn't watch anything on this short flight. In-flight PA's were made in both Japanese and English.



There were plenty of photo opportunities to snap snow capped mountains once we were able to turn our phones on again after take-off. I didn’t see any male F/A’s nor female pilots however after asking one of the F/A’s the airline does apparently have both.



It wasn't until I went for a walk around the cabin that I realised how light the loads were on that flight as there were plenty of empty seats everywhere. The 2x3x2 seating config in economy is AC DFG HK & 2x1x2 config in J is AC D HK & on this particular aircraft there are only two rows of J which I assume is used on domestic routes only as we've flown on an NH 763 before NRT/PEK and there were at least 5 rows.



During the flight the Captain made a PA that Mt Fuji could be seen out the left hand side of the plane. It's visible just forward of the wing in the above pic.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Mon 14 Apr CTS/NGO NH702 0810/0950



More views of Mt Fuji above the wing.



.....and below the wing.



Heading back to my seat after snapping pics out the left hand side of the aircraft who should I pass on the way backbut Mr Grumpy Bum and one of his kids with, wait for it - a smile on his face. Either he's taken some happy pills or he's had a 'come to Jesus' moment mid-flight.



I can see the sea! The arrival PA said "welcome to Central Japan Airport" rather than Nagoya & for a minute I thought we'd ended up in the wrong place.



Heading towards the arrivals hall out the window is a JAL B737 & a Finnair A340.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Nagoya Airport Mon 14 Apr 2014



Enter the dragon.



A tribe of beckoning cats at the baggage carousel. Sometimes you need all the luck you can get when it comes to checked baggage arriving. A wonder if these little guys make priority baggage work too?



The sign under the neon dragon said "Toyoda Gosei makes a contribution to the future of LED lighting."



Domestic arrivals into Nagoya around the time we arrived at 1000 included NH342 from Miyazaki, FW44 from Sendai, NH434 & GK582 from Fukuoka, NH332 from Kumamoto, JL3100 from Sapporo & NH1810 from Niigata.

International arrivals into Nagoya were 7C1602, OZ122 & KE757 from Seoul, UA137 from Guam, CZ619 from Dalian, CI154 from Taipei, DL630 from Manila, MU529 from Shanghai-Pudong, EY888 from Abu Dhabi & KE753 from Busan.



We headed out into the arrivals area & located a left luggage facility to leave two of our carry on rollaboard pieces there before heading into Nagoya city. The cost per item is JPY500.00 and you can pay by credit card.

There are also coin lockers you can store items if leaving the airport which may work out cheaper than paying per item as you could fit two items into one locker but as the name suggests you do need coins to pay for the rental.

Both the domestic and international terminals are linked so as we’d arrived on a domestic flight from CTS & were departing that evening on an international flight to GUM we would be coming back to the same place.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Nagoya City Mon 14 Apr 2014

After putting our hand luggage into storage we headed across the walkway to the railway station. We thought we’d try out the first class train which cost JPY2340.00 for both of us which when converted to AUD would be roughly the same price you would pay from SYD Airport to the CBD but in this case better value as the distance is twice as long and all carriages are first class with reserved seating in pairs with an onboard WC not just a regular suburban train.



You can only pay cash for train tickets so I had to go the ATM first. I’d already loaded USD onto my Qantas Cash card but not any JPY so quickly logged on to the airport free Wi-Fi (FreeWi-Fi-Centrair) & did an instant currency transfer of USD to JPY in order to do an ATM withdrawal. I’d definitely recommend getting some JPY cash before you leave to save doing that on arrival. Note that some ATMs have a minimum withdrawal limit of JPY10,000 while others don’t and some ATM’s will charge a fee eg JPY1,600 to do so.



Prior to our departure cleaners come onboard to clean the train that was already immaculate.



The first class fare includes allocated seating just like you'd get on an aircraft.



The train ride on the Meitetsu line is a very smooth one and makes two stops enroute the first one being Jingumae then Kanayama after that which are towards the end of the journey. Total journey time is approximately 30 minutes.



The tv screen displays the next station you're stopping at as well as a camera so you can see where you're going and what speed you're travelling at. The fastest speed I saw was 119 kmh.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Nagoya City Mon 14 Apr 2014

We asked a tourist info place at the airport if there were any half day or full day sightseeing tours that departed from the airport but were told we'd have to go into Nagoya City for that.

When we arrived in town we ask the tourist info place at the railway station if there were any sightseeing tours that visited the various attractions but they replied “no, nothing like that” almost as if we'd asked if there were any day trips to the moon.



There seems to be a bit of a gap in the market with sightseeing so one end of the scale is you're on an organised group tour where you're all but lead around the place by a nose ring vs DIY where you have to take public transport to each place. It would be good if there was some kind of double decker bus tour that allowed you to hop on and hop off at all the sights.



We made a quick pit stop at Starbucks before heading across to the Midland Square shopping complex. The weather is sunny and very mild compared to Sapporo so it's good weather for walking outside.



A taxi rank outside the Midland Square shopping centre.



The shopping centre is conveniently located right across the street from Nagoya Station.



Midland Square showcases a number of high end stores such as Van Cleef & Arpel, Lexus, Louis Vuitton, Dior - in fact just about every kind of store you would want to keep SWMBO away from.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Midland Square Shopping Centre Nagoya



Impulse buying could be hazardous to your health - "honey I'm just ducking out to the shops to buy some milk.....and a Lexus." :shock:



Dean & De Luca.



If you can't afford a Lexus car you could always buy some Lexus clothing & pretend.



Tendresse café & deli. Note one of the patrons seated at a table is wearing tradition Japanese dress. I did see more than one lady dressed like this which I thought would only be worn for ceremonial occasions.



Fortnum & Mason if you are hankering for a high tea.