Tuesday, 2 December 2025

Having migrated to a hotel connected to Haneda Terminal 3 the night before it was a relatively relaxing start to the day even with a 9:40am flight. I was flying premium economy with Japan Airlines to Hong Kong and the queue to check in was relatively short although very slow moving. Signage to departure customs is sorely lacking but I eventually found it and “helpfully” it had a screen indicating the “wait” time at both sets of line and I had chosen correctly (although the official wait timing seemed optimistic). It seems that I had someone making sure I left.

I picked the correct security line and they decided that my backpack with a huge amount of camera gear and a laptop did not require further scrutiny and so I was through and searching for the lounge, which of course seemed to be at the far end of the terminal. I found a seat and grabbed some breakfast before going through the day 46 photographs.

Japan had one last go at giving me a chance to climb some stairs since we were bussed to a remote stand and then had air stairs to climb to the Dreamliner. The flight was uneventful, and premium economy (PE) on JAL has a nice amount of leg room. The meal was nothing to write home about. The IFE system seemed pretty poor so I didn’t bother with it and I discovered too late that to get Internet access out of the wifi you need to manually go to a specific landing page. No idea if there is a cost if you are in PE since I didn’t get that far. No idea why they don’t just do an automatic redirect.

Customs was fast and efficient in Hong Kong and I walked towards the Airport Express station. I had brought my two old Octopus cards to see if they could be brought back to life. I inserted them in the machine to check their status and it spat them both out as invalid so they are historic museum items now, like my Pasmo card which got a similar reaction in Tokyo. I downloaded an Octopus for Tourists card, and that works much like the mobile Suica. Just add it to Apple Wallet and you can use it even with the phone locked, although I discovered that it seems the reader is more sensitive to the position of the phone than the Suica one is. In Hong Kong I needed to touch the top of the phone (or point it at the reader) to make it fire up. The Suica you could tap it anywhere and it pinged. I had received a tip on where to go for sunset photography but I had time to kill before that and I had estimated that I could get to the Peninsula Hotel, have Afternoon Tea and then get to the appointed sunset place in time so that’s what I did.

If you are doing it properly you need bubbles to start.

This was a very sweet oriented afternoon tea and I don’t rate it as one of the better ones I’ve had. It is a long way below the one at Burj al Arab in Dubai and the Fullerton in Singapore and as a tea for one it doesn’t match the menu as they drop items from the top and middle plate.

Anyway I finished it off and was out of there and back underground in plenty of time to get across the harbour and start a walk along the promenade from North Point towards Central Wan Chai Bypass East Vent Shaft!

Unlike Japan the weather in Hong Kong wasn’t going to play nice so there wasn’t really a sunset to appreciate but the walk was pleasant (and there were plenty of people out there) and here’s a collection of the shots I took.

This promenade is under an expressway and there are kids playgrounds and exercise equipment along the way.

There were fishers casting a rod too. No idea if they were aiming to catch something for dinner or if it was just a form of entertainment.

It would seem that this path is relatively new and is still a work in progress.

There were places to just hang out too. I decided to walk in the general direction of Admiralty and see how far I would get.

I have no idea what election this is trying to promote, nor why there are three of them in a group.

About now I got (more) tired of walking and dealing with Hong Kongers who live in their own tiny world and walk around and stop semi randomly with their noses stuck in their phones that it was time to board a tram.

And back across the harbour. I probably should have taken the Star Ferry but the mind was fixated in the MTR so it was underground again.

I got to the harbour front on the other side for it to start raining. It 
wasn't hard but it thinned the crowd. My umbrella was packed in my 
suitcase at the airport so that wasn't much help and I would rather be 
damp than hot and damp so I continued to carry rather than wear my 
puffer jacket (it's pockets are useful for security controls at airports).

Mission accomplished so it was time to return to the airport, and on the way I walked past the Peninsula Hotel so here’s the outside.

By this stage I was running on fumes but got to the airport by backtracking. I tried to enter security using my Tokyo to Hong Kong boarding pass which didn’t work well, then I dropped everything. Next step it wanted to scan my passport again and I dropped it again. Eventually made it back into the secure area and headed to my favoured Cathay Pacific Lounge, The Pier near gate 65. Found what should have been a quiet spot only to some guy talk loudly into his phone. I really didn’t need to hear about his current issues while I writing up Day 46 to send before departure. Fortunately I had a nice Negroni. The flight finally got a gate and I lost again since it was gate 7, which is quite a hike from 65 so I set off about 45 minutes from departure. I passed these characters on thee way.

They are clearly starting a holiday given the smiling faces.

I got to the gate and boarding had commenced but Cathay’s idea of boarding in groups is stuffed. I was in group 2 and there was a queue for groups 0 & 1, 2 & 3, 4 & 5 etc. When the queue for groups 0 & 1 emptied they took people from 4 & 5 to that queue rather than process the 2 & 3 queue faster! The gate had separate doors for business and economy so the logical thing would have been to process queues for those doors but no that’s too efficient, or something. Eventually everyone boarded and we were away.

This sector I was in business and used Cathay’s version of book the chef so I got a fish dish that wasn’t on the menu. To complete the dinner photos here it is.

And with that the trip is done.

Monday, 1 December 2025

Final full day in Japan, day 47 is more about the brief stop in Hong Kong.

This trip was all about chasing autumnal leaves from Hokkaido, through Aomori and down to Kyushu before rebounding to Tokyo. On my final day in Tokyo I kept at it so parks were on the agenda, as was a trip on the Tokyo Sakura Tram. Sadly I didn’t score a historic tram but just the fact that Tokyo still has them when it is awash with trains and subways is amazing. It’s also amazing what you see when you are walking and occasionally look up. I don’t know this history of this building but I’ll try to find out as it was a surprise.

The first park target was Ueno Park, which I hadn’t visited before. I had considered visiting the zoo but like all the museums it was closed on Monday! That left me looking at the leaves instead.

And the other major autumnal colour too

But I was mostly hunting red and there was plenty of it.

And what’s a park without a pagoda, Kan’ei-ji.

And of course a shrine, Ueno Toshogu Shrine.

There is a large lake, with paddle boats, and this is about as close as I got to the Skytree.

Sometimes you visit in the wrong season for a plant but it still puts on a show anyway.

The next stop was Imperial Palace East National Gardens. Back on a previous trip in 2008 I had discovered a cubic water feature but the camera wasn’t really up to the task back then so I thought I would see if I could find it before the gardens closed.

I remembered that the cube I was looking for was somewhere around here.

It would seem that people don’t come this way often

And here it is!

One last thing to attempt was to get to the observation deck at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. It’s a free observation deck and while working for Juniper I must have passed it every day when going from the hotel to the office but I never visited. Today was the day!

Walking to the station I passed some neon installations which were interesting but I had a dinner with friends to make so I didn’t hang around to photograph more of it.

And as promised I found another of those orange juice vending machines so here is a full shot of it.

And finally after a very fine dinner with the APAN Japan crowd I headed to a hotel at Haneda so I wouldn’t need to deal with Tokyo traffic in the morning and this is a blurry picture of the taxi holding bay as the coach zoomed past it. The iPhone didn’t really cope with the motion or the darkness but the shot is interesting anyway.

And that’s it for the Japan trip. Day 47 is a travel day to Hong Kong, afternoon and evening there, and a late night flight home.

Photos from Hong Kong will appear once I’m home.