ANA to Hokkaido - Autumn Snow, Seafood and the Art of Onsen Appreciation

[yflyer]

What I did appreciate about the lounge was the strict no-phone call policy within the seating area. In a separate part of the lounge, there was a phone call zone...



...and there was a separate designated zone with work cubicles where you were allowed to do video calls (Speaking softly, with headphones for audio).



For the most part, the lounge was quite quiet and peaceful while I was there, without a lot of the usual loud phone chatter that you hear in many other airline lounges.

There were also restrooms in the lounge, but no showers.

[yflyer]

As for catering, there were beverages on offer, but no food. None whatsoever.



There was a small liquor selection...



...including shochu...



...and whisky.



Apart from Japanese whisky, there was also Maker's Mark.



There was also beer...



A couple of other beverages in the fridge...



A kale drink, which seemed an unlikely choice for an airline lounge, but which I found that I quite liked in a bland but healthy sort of way.



The only 2 snacks available...

[yflyer]

But then I started to notice what was different about the ANA domestic lounge compared to the international lounge. While there were many seats, there were no recliners or loungers where one could lie down or recline to take a nap. It was just seats. I was just off a red-eye in Y and badly needed 45-90 minutes of sleep, and there was nowhere to lie down here.

In the end, I just sat in one of the chairs, shut my eyes, and fell asleep for a while.

I guess for the domestic lounges, it was mainly pax going the lounge briefly before heading to their gates for a short domestic flight. But what about folks off long flights and connecting to shorter domestic sectors? Maybe for most pax connections were short, but wouldn't it still make sense to have a sleeping zone in the lounge for those with longer connections?

[yflyer]

The lounge was large and spacious...



There were large windows running the length of the lounge...



...which made for excellent tarmac and runway views...



A range of seating options were available...



...including bar counter style seating.



Corridor seating was perfect for additional peace and quiet, plus some plane spotting on the active runway...

[yflyer]

I headed to the ANA Lounge in the domestic section of Haneda T2. This was the designated Star Alliance Gold lounge. There was also an ANA Suites Lounge, but Star Gold flying in Economy were not eligible to use that one.



At the entrance, a display of model aircraft...



...showcasing some of the history of ANA, and how their livery had evolved...



There was a display of ANA million miler luggage tags, showing how ANA valued their loyal customers.



I could not help contrasting that with how I perceive SIA treats their customers. Sure, if you are PPS, Solitaire or Lifetime Solitaire, you get wonderful treatment, but my cynical side thinks that these days, all SIA sees in a passenger is customer lifetime value in dollar terms, and nothing else.

I haven't kept careful track of how much I have flown on SQ, but I am certain it is more than a million butt-in-seat miles, and I have never been more than Krisflyer Gold because I fly mainly Y. Recognition? Forget it.

And now, even PPS is awarded based on "PPS value" which is based on dollar value spend. All very objective -- a beautiful scheme from a CFO's perspective. I can't prove it, but my gut says that loyalty is something that should be measured using more than financial terms. Sounds like a topic for a future management guru.

I'll end this rant by saying that I think there might be some intangible, and even tangible, benefit to SQ if they took a more holistic view of customer loyalty, rather than simply how much cash one has forked over in the past 12 months.

[yflyer]

My flight had arrived at Haneda T2. After rechecking my luggage, I headed through security to the domestic airside area. There was an express lane for priority pax/frequent flyers so security was quick.

My connecting flight to Nagoya was departing at 7.25pm in the evening. Mrs yflyer and Miss yflyer no.2 were already in Nagoya. Their vacation had started a week earlier in Tokyo and Hakone. I would join them in Nagoya that evening.

It was still early in the morning. Months ago, when I booked this itinerary, my idea was to leave Haneda and spend the day in Tokyo before heading back to the airport in the evening to catch my flight to Nagoya.

The end of the year was usually a quiet period for business and I did not anticipate any issues when I applied for my annual leave. However, work-wise this was an unexpectedly busy November, and I still had business from work to wrap up before heading for my vacation. Not ideal, but in these challenging economic times, it was better to have work than no work.

I scrapped my plans to head to Tokyo that day, and decided to spend the entire day in transit in the ANA Lounge to try and get work done before my flight out to Nagoya.

I headed to the ANA Lounge in the domestic zone in the terminal. I had spent time in the ANA international lounge in the previous Haneda international terminal, and thought that the ANA domestic lounge in HND T2 might have similar facilities. It turns out I was quite wrong...

[yflyer]

Not much of a view out from my seat. The emex door window was tiny...



We landed in Tokyo at 5.40am, 15 minutes ahead of schedule, just as dawn was breaking.



After deplaning, I cleared immigration and customs, which included picking up my luggage, then rechecking them in for my domestic connection. I already had boarding passes in hand for my onward HND-NGO flight, and my bags were tagged all the way through, but it was still necessary to pick up the bags from baggage claim at HND, then carry them over to the domestic transfer counter after exiting baggage claim. This was an extra step, but pretty much expected for international to domestic connections in most countries, and in this case, it was all done very quickly and efficiently by the ANA staff at the airport.

Overall I had a good flight. While a 6 hour flight is not enough time for a good night's sleep, I did manage to sleep during the flight, perhaps because I was quite tired to begin with. I would have preferred a hot meal just after take-off, and then uninterrupted sleep till time to prep for landing, but ANA's service format was ok as well (I could just have skipped the hot meal if I wanted to sleep more). The cabin crew were polite and efficient, and everything ran like clockwork.

A good start to the trip!

[yflyer]

Two hours prior to landing, a hot breakfast was served. You had the choice of an international/western meal, or a Japanese meal. I picked the Japanese.



The main was sliced pork with rice. This was quite tasty.



I appreciated the real metal cutlery.



I really liked the noodle appetiser, as well.



Only the western/selection came with a breadroll.

[yflyer]

My seat on this flight was the emex row middle seat...



Lots of legroom tonight!



Headband-style headphones.



Pillow with soft fabric pillow case, and large blanket, for each pax.



Foldout IFE screen for emex row pax.



After take-off, the cabin crew came round to distribute snack packs.

ANA does not do a post-take off meal service on these red-eye flights. All you got was a snack pack. A full meal would only be served 2 hrs prior to landing.



I was aware of this, so had stuffed myself with a pre-flight dinner before boarding.

The contents of the snack pack...



A round of drinks was served. I requested sake...



This was served in a paper cup.



Not the best way to drink sake, or wine for that matter (Also served in paper cups...), but still it was a decent nightcap.

After that, I managed to sleep quite well for the rest of the flight.

[yflyer]

The bathroom...



ANA's Dreamliner bathrooms had a unique feature...

[yflyer]

My trip began at Changi T2, with NH844 SIN-HND.

This was a 10.20pm departure, with scheduled arrival in Tokyo at 5.55am, and flight time of just under 6 hours.



This flight was operated by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner rego JA895A, a 7 year old aircraft.

This was a 3 class aircraft, with a J cabin in staggered 1-2-1...



A PEY cabin laid out 2-3-2 (Pics of the PEY cabin later in the TR, on my inbound HND-SIN sector)...



Y cabin laid out 3-3-3.



I still wish airlines would configure their Dreamliners in 8-abreast 2-4-2 in Y, the way JAL does, but every other airline does 9-abreast and ANA was no exception. At least seat pitch was ok.



Widescreen IFE screen, with USB port...



A/C power...



No underseat obstructions...

[yflyer]

TR INDEX

1. Introduction

2. Flight - SIN-HND on ANA NH844 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in Economy
3. Lounge - ANA Domestic Lounge in HND
4. Flight - HND-NGO on ANA Wings NH85 Boeing 737-800 in Economy

Nagoya

5. Hotel - The Royal Park Canvas Nagoya
6. Nagoya Attractions
7. Takayama Attractions & Dining
8. Nagoya Dining
9. Shinkansen - Nagoya to Tokyo

Tokyo

10. Hotel - Hilton Tokyo Odaiba
11. Run - Odaiba
12. Tokyo Attractions - DisneySea & TeamLab Planets
13. Concert - Vienna Philharmonic @ Suntory Hall
14. Flight - HND-HKD on ANA NH553 Boeing 787 Dreamliner in Economy

Hakodate

15. Hotel - La Jolie Motomachi
16. Hakodate Attractions & Dining
17. Run - Hakodate

Lake Toya

18. Hotel - Lake View Toya Nonokaze Resort
19. Run - Lake Toya
20. Lake Toya Attractions

Noboribetsu

21. Hotel - Noboribetsu Onsen Dai-Ichi Takimotokan
22. Noboribetsu Attractions

Asahikawa

23. Hotel - JR Inn Asahikawa
24. Asahikawa Attractions & Dining
25. Shirogane Blue Pond
26. A Drive in the Snow

Sapporo

27. Hotel - Sapporo Grand Hotel
28. Bar Owl&Rooster
29. Run - Odori Park
30. Dining - Jingisukan Yukidaruma

31. Nikka Distillery in Yoichi
32. Otaru Attractions
33. Sapporo Attractions & Dining

34. Sapporo New Chitose Airport (CTS)
35. Flight - CTS - HND on Air Do Boeing 767 in Economy
36. Lounge - ANA T2 International Lounge
37. Flight HND-SIN on ANA NH843 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in Economy

37. Final Reflections

[yflyer]

Some of the best moments in this Trip Report will have to be written up without photos...

On this trip, I spent a lot of time in Japanese onsens (hot springs) and public baths, where you take in the waters in your birthday suit...naturally no photos allowed. While I have tried these in the past, both in Japan and in their Singapore equivalents, it was only on this trip that I began to fully appreciate, enjoy, and even crave, the whole bathing ritual in a Japanese onsen. We went to many of these during our trip, with our last being the onsen within Chitose Airport (CTS), Sapporo's main airport, which must be one of the few airports, if not the only airport, with an onsen right in the terminal building.

Apart from Hokkaido, I also spent time in Tokyo and Nagoya. In Tokyo, I attended a concert at the reknown Suntory Hall, where the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played as part of their Japan tour. This was a stunning venue, but once again, they had a strict no photo, no video policy. The music making that evening was superb, and the atmosphere at the concert electric. I will have to try to convey it all in words.

Fortunately, for the rest of the trip, I was able to snap away, and have a full set of pics to share!



My holiday with Mrs yflyer and Miss yflyer no.2 began in early November. This trip would take me first to Nagoya, then to Takayama and Tokyo, where we visited DisneySea, before flying to Hakodate, in the south of Hokkaido, to begin our exploration of Hokkaido.

From Hakodate, we rented a car and explored Lake Toya, Noboribetsu and Asahikawa before heading to our final stop, Sapporo, where we made side trips to Yoichi, home of the Nikka Whisky Distillery, and Otaru. We were advised to ask for snow tires for the Toyota Prius we rented, and this turned out to be quite fortuitous as we did experience a couple of days of autumn snow while in Asahikawa.

In Singapore, they don't cover driving in the snow in our local driving school syllabus, and it was nervewracking on the days that I had to drive on slick roads, covered in ice and snow. More on that later. Suffice to say, I found driving in the snow more terrifying than any ride I took at DisneySea.

We flew there and back on ANA, on 787 Dreamliners to and from Singapore via Tokyo Haneda, but we also had the opportunity to check out ANA's domestic service from Haneda to Hakodate, and an Air Do 767 from Chitose back to Haneda. We travelled via Shinkansen from Nagoya to Tokyo, and were very impressed by the whole bullet train experience.

While we had been to Japan in the past, this was our first ever trip to Hokkaido. While many Singaporeans head to Hokkaido in winter to ski, there is actually a lot to see and do in Hokkaido during the rest of the year. It was late autumn while we were there, and it was wonderful.

Many folks in Singapore are headed to Japan for their end-of-year break, and your social media feeds are all probably flooded with pics and stories from holidays in Japan. If you don't mind yet more content on this subject, read on!