Munich -Tokyo

Getting to Japan:Bos-yyz-bru: curse you mother nature

Getting to Japan: Munich -Tokyo
Day 1: 12/24/13 Hyatt Regency Tokyo, N'ex & suica cards, Japan Rail Pass, Shinjuku
Day 2: 12/25/13 Park Hyatt Tokyo, Tsukiji fish market, Roppongi, Kichijoji
Day 3: 12/26/13 Room Service,  Club on the Park, Akihabara
Day 4: 12/27/2013 Girondole buffet, Yokohama Ramen museum Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, Gold Rush
Day 5: 12/28.2013 Biking through Yoyogi Park, Harajuku, Shibuya, New York Bar
Day 6: 12/29/2013 Harajuku & Shibuya Shopping, Ramen alley, Hyatt Regency Kyoto
Day 7: 12/30/2013 Kyoto, Good Samaritan Tours
Day 8: 12/31/2013 New Years Eve, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kaiten Sushi NYE Traditions
Day 9: 1/1/2014 New Years = Black Friday Maddness, No place to eat!
European stopover: Zurich, Park Hyatt Zurich, Brussels, Delays

I was ecstatic about trying ANA's business class flight.  I have heard great things about the service and have never experienced an Asian Airline. But before that, we were able to experience Lufthansa's intra-European service.  After putzing around the lounge for a few hours, it was time to board our Lufthansa flight to Munich.

Brussels airport is really small making connection times very easy.  I should note that Brussels downtown is extremely convenient and accessible to the airport. We probably could have gone into the city and walked around. But after our winter wonderland adventure in Montreal, we were loathe to venture out of the airport. Once we arrived at the gate, we saw a very cool feature of how green Europe is - bicycling stations to charge your electronics!

After working up a bit of a sweat, I made D cycle to charge the rest of his electronics (novelty over). Moving on, found a few features of intra-Europe flights in business class I was pleasantly surprised about. The business class cabin had 2 columns of three seaters but they leave the middle seat open so that only two seats are occupied in the row. More space between each passenger. The flight attendant (FA)chuckled when she saw that I sat directly next to D. She probably thought "these lovey-dovey Americans are such noobs".  What makes intra-Europe flights demonstratively better than intra-US flights is that European airlines serve a full meal no matter how short the flight is. Hour flight was literally not even an hour from bru-muc and I was served this.

Upon landing in we breezed through customs, got another stamp in the passport (yay!) and ran to our gate. At first, we had a bit of an problem getting the gate attendants print our tickets - something about Air Canada not fully issuing the ticket.  But it was quickly resolved (thank goodness).  They put us in the middle aisle since the business cabin had a 1-2-1 seating configuration. They let us know we had a big divider separating us, but those seats were at least together. Before long, we were lined up and boarded.

Contrary to the Air Canada flight, I was awake and was able to enjoy the boarding process. Once I got to my seat, the FA quickly stored away my winter jacket. Another offered us a pre-departure drink of either champagne, orange juice or water. I took water since we were running around earlier. On the seat, we found new slippers to use onboard, blanket, pillow, noise cancelling headphones (awesome!) and best of all an amenity bag. I forgot to take a picture of it, but inside the bag were socks, toothbrush &paste, ear plugs, eye mask and L'Occtaine en Provence lip balm and lotion (score!). I used everything except the socks.

The aircraft was extremely quiet. So quiet that D didn't even realize we were in the air!  He put on his noise cancelling headphones and napped a little during take off - missed the whole process.

Now let's move on to one of my favorite parts of the flight: FOOD! You had a choice of a Western dinner or Japanese dinner. D got the Western which consisted of duck confit and salad for app and salmon for main. Voila.

My Japanese dinner felt extensive! I had three beautifully plated dishes for apps. Don't remember what they were, but you can view them below. And for the main I had herring with rice and miso soup. Yum! I skipped the cheese course as usual and dessert, opting to get some sleep. 

The sleep was really comfortable because the seats are awesome. Like ACanada, they're fully lie flat but with so many control options on how you can adjust your seat. The seats are amazing (look at them here). After a few hours of sleep, I woke up feeling a bit peckish. What can I snack on? Ippudo ramen, of course! Dude, I love 

I passed the time watching a few movies and episodes of the big bang theory on the huge screen. 

I got a little more sleep and before I knew it we were about an hour outside of Tokyo. The 12+ hours literally flew by.  Prior to landing, we were served an arrival meal. 

 All the food was just delicious. But what really set ANA apart from any other airline and taking its place as my favorite airline (so far) was the service. The FAs were so attentive to the more than 70% full cabin. They were just so genuine! One saw me with my big ass camera and asked if we wanted our picture taken together. How thoughtful! All their questions started with, "May I". "May I serve you? May I throw this trash away for you? May I offer this?" Just so refreshing. They were also so impeccably dressed. I loved their scarves tied into fashionable bows that never seemed to look disarrayed after 12 hours of working. Not one hair was out of placed ever. Smiles were genuinely given. Gosh, I'm in love the FAs. It was a great way to start our adventure in Japan.