A Dedication To The B747: SIN-NRT-SIN In Raffles Class

[jhm]

Too many toilet connoisseurs nowadays!

Agreed but for me, nobody comes close to who I consider to be the ultimate toilet connoisseur! I'm speaking of course of the following classic trip report:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...n-sin-lhr.html

I made my way to the toilet for an inspection. What greeted me is similar to what I saw with previous SIA flights. In the toilet, I only produced watery excrement and hence on this flight, there was no solid excrement test to be had. However, the amenities were very interesting. There are SIA cups which are shades of blue with the SIA logo above the toilet, along with two types of tissues. In addition, there are sanitary towels. [...]

The SIA sanitary towels have not changed. For Shame! The sanitary towels are provided by Cin – Can? They smell intriguingly and have wings. However, these wings are not flexible unlike Vietnam Airlines’ (see below). An absorbency test would be carried out on both Singapore Airlines’ and Vietnam Airlines’ sanitary towels/napkins when I get home to England.

And other gems which I won't post for copyright reasons and also to spare blushes in case the author is reading this!

[Kyo]

That's a gem, thank you jhm! LOL...

[StarG]

Pen's lobby is also quite small -- intimate, but small.

Defintely too small for HUGE AL's grand entrance!

[9V-SIA]

Devil Is In The Details

My personal favourite. Control for not just air con but humidity.

Whenever I go to a low humidity country, I request a humidifier in the room.

The better hotels will provide one otherwise it's the old damp towel by the bedside



In the walk-in wardrobe is a hatch



No need to answer the door in a state of undress for valet anymore. Everything is delivered through here



Biggest safe I've seen. A tray for all my wife's bling



Next to the dressing table. Hairdryer yes. Expected. But this? For the diva in us all..



What to wear? Check your personal weather station



Stress? Listen to some music



Even more stressed? Soak in the tub. Press Spa.

The lights dim. "Spa music" fills the room. The phones & door bell are deactivated!



And finally, the reason this is my favourite hotel in TYO now is that the room has such great sound insulation.

Important for a light sleeper like me.

Double glazed windows & double door probably have something to do with it.

But it is a new build hotel so I'm sure building technology is state of the art.

No street noise, elevator/corridor noise, can't hear my neighbours or upstairs.

That second door to bedroom



Views from my room

Imperial Hotel, new and old wings, can be seen ( where antenna sticks out of roof ). Hibiya Park on right...

Below those railway tracks, a lot of good eats to be found..



.. Odaiba can be seen in the distance at 10 o'clock

[HUGE AL]

They used a lot of the requests from the PHT when designing this property. It is, indeed, quite outstanding.

Defintely too small for HUGE AL's grand entrance!

[9V-SIA]

Lobby Of Peninsula

Some may find the Lobby too small. The Lobby is a place I walk through to get to my room.



However my wife feels that the afternoon tea served in the Lobby is too noisy & ruins the ambience of the place

Reminiscent of HK Peninsula with the orchestra in the balcony



Seats awkwardly placed in the way of traffic to Reception



Reception is straight ahead as you walk past afternoon tea. The lifts are behind the installation art work



Lift Lobby looking back at Reception



Installation art in Lobby is behind the wall

[jhm]

As far as in-room gadgetry is concerned, the TYO Pen blows the PHT (and indeed any other hotel I've ever stayed in) out of the water!

[9V-SIA]

As far as in-room gadgetry is concerned, the TYO Pen blows the PHT (and indeed any other hotel I've ever stayed in) out of the water!

And bear in mind I have omitted, in the interests of brevity, pictures of:

• Other control panels in the room
• Fax machine.
• Coffee machine ( Lavazza )
• The Rolls Royce and Audi R8 to ferry guests ( complimentary ).
• Views from the pool overlooking the Imperial Palace.

Ginza

You will notice that I like to stay near to where we shop ( and eat )

The reason is that when my hands are full of shopping bags, I can go back to the hotel room to dump the parcels, then go back down to shop.

I look at myself as an A320 not a A380 in that way. Not much cargo carrying capacity!

So this is our breakfast place right behind the hotel.

Pronto is all over TYO and I love it.



Choose your breakfast & pay at the counter



This picture does not do justice to the freshness of the sandwiches. I'm having 2 types of sandwich!



My only complaint is that they allow smoking in there. Luckily we ate as the salary men were leaving for the office

Coexisting side by side is:

Shiny Ginza

Old Apple. In its day ( my time ) Sony was a powerhouse with the Sony Walkman



New Sony. Apple has seized the initiative from Sony with its iPod



But this shop is the one we liked the most. A true mosaic of interesting stores at 20-50% discounts



Mitsukoshi has a great basement supermarket. We ate sushi in this restaurants upstairs.



Old Ginza

But I love the shops and restaurants they have under the railway arches a stone throw from the Pen.

You can see the railway tracks from our room





At night the lights are beautiful



This place serves horse sashimi

[9V-SIA]

Sushizanmai

Under the railway line..



.. next to Imperial Hotel..



.. is this 24 hour sushi restaurant: Sushizanmai.



It has very reasonably priced set lunches



The sushi maestro who served us..



But like the A345, which takes only premium PAX, my belly only eats premium calories

O-toro & chu-toro...... many, many, many o-toro & chu-toro



Uni..



Aburi toro



Kanimiso ( crab roe )



Anago ( sea water eel as opposed to fresh water unagi )



Shirako?



Everytime a train passes overhead, the ceiling & floor shakes. Thus tenderizing the sushi even more

[jhm]

This place serves horse sashimi

Basashi! Whilst I wouldn't order it myself, I eat it when others have ordered it.

This reminds me of phaleesy's story of ordering what she thought was sashimi in Japan, tasting it and thinking it's not quite right. Then she looks again at the menu and sees the Kanji (Chinese) character for horse (ma)!

[HUGE AL]

Some may find the Lobby too small. However my wife feels that the afternoon tea served in the Lobby is too noisy & ruins the ambience of the place

Reception is straight ahead as you walk past afternoon tea. The lifts are behind the installation art work

IIRC, during opening week, reception was straight as you walked in. This is a nice change.

As far as in-room gadgetry is concerned, the TYO Pen blows the PHT (and indeed any other hotel I've ever stayed in) out of the water!

On this, we agree.

• The Rolls Royce and Audi R8 to ferry guests ( complimentary ).

They do have the largest fleet of RRs in the world.

It has very reasonably priced set lunches

That is one OUTSTANDING price. And quality looks equally good.

[hsf]

Really great report so far! Loving it

[StarG]

[*]The Rolls Royce and Audi R8 to ferry guests ( complimentary ).

Did you mean Audi A8?
As cool as R8 is, capacity is only one guest per car if this is true!

They used to offer RR Phantom and BMW 7 but at a price. I didn't know they are now complimentary.

I'm scheduled to return to this hotel in April.

[9V-SIA]

That is one OUTSTANDING price. And quality looks equally good.

It was recommended by concierge and was very good.

There's another restaurant further up the track even more popular than Sushizanmai because they give so much fish you can't see the rice.

When wife gets back from HK will ask her the name

Edit: It's called Midori, but be prepared to queue

Really great report so far! Loving it

Glad you like it

Did you mean Audi A8?
As cool as R8 is, capacity is only one guest per car if this is true!

Then you had better travel light. Can you survive with one Tumi?

They used to offer RR Phantom and BMW 7 but at a price. I didn't know they are now complimentary.

I can't find it on the Peninsula web site. ( only offering comp Mini! ) Nor do I see R8 on web site.

However, since I knew about the offer when I was in TYO, it must be a promotion I read in the room literature

Complimentary first come first serve within certain radius.

It's faster to walk in TYO though!!!

[StarG]

Complimentary first come first serve within certain radius.

It's faster to walk in TYO though!!!

Wow, very cool!