We had an early start to the day – left the hotel at 7:30am to catch our 10:15am flight to CGK. Hopped back on the Keikyu line at 7:40am and reached HND at approximately 8:05am. With the morning rush, security took around 15 minutes, another 5 minutes for immigration and then off to the lounge.

The lounge was packed and we managed to find bar style seats near the buffet stations. Got breakfast for ourselves, did some work, Junior passed the time on the ipad and we made our move to the gate around 45 minutes before departure. Got lucky and had a bus gate – we waited 5 minutes before boarding was called and we hopped into the front of the bus. Even though J passengers boarded first, Y passengers soon boarded right after – sucked that there was no dedicated J bus. At least the ride was fun and Junior was tickled by it.

Outside Shinagawa station

ANA lounge

Full lounge at 8 in the morning

Buffet zoo

At least there was delicious curry

Bus gate

My brain cells did not fire quickly enough to realize there was a staircase for J passengers

We were directed to turn left and the cabin was 50% full by the time boarding was completed. The seats were not comparable to The Room but were still fine for a 7 hour hop to CGK.

PDB’s were offered and I went with the champers again

We pushed back a bit later than usual but we still made it on time to our destination. We taxi-ed down to the overwater runway (as I like to call it).

So long HND – a take off video is away on my ANA 2023 IG story highlight.

Mount Fuji

Menu for this flight

Amuse plus ANA original Kabosu drink

Meal choices were taken before take off and served shortly after the seat belt sign went off.

I went with the Japanese meal this time – Zensai and Kobachi to start.

Kobachi round was served next

Dessert to end the meal

Junior chose the ANA hamburger steak and he liked it

It was an uneventful flight and I napped for a few hours. Shortly after waking up, an announcement was made that we were one hour away from landing.

Welcome to CGK

Once off the plane, we made the LONG walk to immigration. I purchased eVOA’s ahead of our trip and we walked up to the immigration counters. Even if I did not purchase it online, there were counters available for purchasing the VOA before proceeding to immigration. The officer took his sweet time processing our visas and we just stood there twiddling our thumbs for 15 minutes while he was surfing on his phone and doing things very slowly. Eventually we passed through, collected our bags that were already on the belt and made our way to customs. We had to fill out an online form, so I quickly fired up the interwebs on my phone and got the formalities done. We walked outside and there was a Batik representative waiting for us who was representing the Marriott hotels (I pre arranged a taxi service through the hotel who reached out to me via email). We hopped into the Silverbird taxi and were on our way to the hotel.

Final look at the bird

Baggage hall

Hotel rep

Roomy van

A very comfortable flight overall with no issues whatsoever. The crew were friendly and attentive. They were so nice to Junior and again came out with the surprise for him. The Japanese meal set was delicious and I was happy to try it on a flight out of Japan.