Haneda to LA on ANA Business

November 27, 2012 (Tuesday) -- Kamata, Harajuku, and Haneda Back to L.A.

Our last day in Japan before heading home. We still had a whole day in Tokyo before leaving on the midnight ANA flight back to LAX. Breakfast was not included in our room at Vista Kamata Hotel so we went to look for food in the area. Kamata is an area that has a very local feel to it, nothing touristy here. It was kind of neat watching stores opening up and people rushing on their way to work in the morning.



We looked at many eateries along the way and not until we went past the train station before we found this place. The pictures on the window of this fast food restaurant attracted our attention. The food looked delicious and we all agreed to try it. They had some breakfast items but we were interested in the pork with rice and not sure if they serve that for breakfast.

 

After confirming that they serve all items all day long, the waitress showed us how to purchase tickets from this machine. It turned out that the waitress could speak Mandarin because her mother is from Taiwan.



Delicious "highland" pork with rice and miso soup.

tender pork

A great breakfast!

 

We went into the train station to the other side, I think west exit, to look for the airport bus stop. There are many shops at this train station, kind of like a mall. After finding the bus stop and checking out the schedule, we walked back to the to the hotel.

The square in front of the JR station.

Entrance to the JR station

across from the station

this passage took us back to the hotel

After checking out from the hotel, we left our luggage with the office and went off to visit Harajuku one more time. Our time spent there on Sunday was just too short and we didn't really see anything worthwhile there. We figured that we have enough time to spend a couple of hours there before leaving Japan.



Across from the Harajuku station is the very busy and touristy Takeshita Street. There are many stores selling interesting clothing items here and they do not like people taking pictures of them.

There were many tourists from Hong Kong here because I kept hearing Cantonese speaking people around me.

food being served at Wolfgang Puck

Yay, crepes!

"Squid balls" takos (?) or something like that.

We were stuffed after these.

Time to get back to the hotel. Actually it was still too early for us to go to the airport for our midnight flight. But we didn't want to hit afternoon rush hours so we went back to the hotel, picked up our bags and walked back to the JR station where the airport bus stop is.

It was surprisingly crowded on this bus because it is not particularly an airport bus. It has several stops on the way before arriving Haneda Airport. It was also not the final stop when we got off so it made it very difficult to tag our luggage off the bus in a timely manner. There were not a lot of space to put our luggage on the bus either. Seems to be a bus line that is used by many locals. Unlike the airport buses we used in Vienna and Narita.

The very empty Haneda Airport in the afternoon. After checking in we spent some time exploring this beautiful airport before going through security.

restaurants on the 2nd level

stage

stores and restaurants

There is also an observation deck on the 3rd level where people can go out and watch the planes but it was very cold and windy outside.

We finally got inside the ANA lounge. Again, it was very quiet.

It remained as quiet as this until around 9:00pm when it was packed to full capacity.

noodle kitchen

On the plane. Snacks was served before they turned off the lights for the night flight.

The main meal was served about two hours before landing.

To tell the truth, I was kind of disappointed at ANA. They did not live up to my expectation in service and food as a competitive Asian airline. I can say that I like Austrian Airlines even better than ANA.

Finally home after almost a month away.