Round The World and other travel

Flight Log 3: NH156

Shanghai (PVG) - Osaka / Kansai (KIX)

Although I had visited Japan on three previous occasions, this was to be my first flight on a Japanese airline. It seemed appropriate that it was the one whose website had been an indispensible tool in helping me to find all those wonderful bmi Diamond Club redemption flights to so many different parts of the world in the period 2009-2012 - happy days indeed, but now very much in the past.

Back to the present, and I was given a warm and polite welcome by the cabin crew as I stepped aboard. The business class cabin had an unusual 2+1+2 layout and I had selected 7D, one of the solo seats placed down the middle of the immaculately presented cabin. Even more unusually, the row numbering system used odd numbers only! One advantage of the middle seats that I quickly spotted was that they had useful little storage compartments at the side, a feature not present on the seat pairs along the cabin sides. The flight attendants were very helpful with cabin baggage storage, but I was surprised to see them pushing duty-free goods before departure.

I was offered a magazine and I noticed that the menu was already in place in the seat pocket in front of me:

LUNCH MENU		WINE and SAKE
Appetizer		Champagne
Prosciutto and papaya		Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Réserve
Smoked duck and apricot jam
Marinated shrimp and scallop with dried tomato		White wine
		Mâcon-Igé en Thuzot 2012, Antonin Rodet
Main Course
Fillet of beef steak with black pepper sauce		Red wine
		Château Les Faix 2010
Bread
Soft roll		Sake
		Yuki-no-Bosha Junmai Ginjo
Dessert
Mango jelly and fruit in syrup		Shochu
		Tsurunashi Gendi
A light Japanese-style meal is also available on request		Hanamugi Moriya

The seat-back pocket also contained a pair of slippers: clearly this idea was catching on fast! The safety video was shown at the gate and at the scheduled departure time of 1210, the captain announced that there would be an air traffic control delay. In the event, this only lasted for five minutes. Once the tug had been detached after doing its duty, the ground crew stood in a line and waved dutifully until the entire aircraft had passed by! We joined a long queue for the runway at 1230. After what seemed like an eternity, four 'bings' were sounded to signal that our turn had finally come and we took off at six minutes before 1pm, nearly 40 minutes after leaving our stand. It was enough to make Heathrow look efficient.

Once we were airborne, the captain apologised for the delay and gave a revised ETA of 1545; meanwhile, cabin service got underway with a distribution of hot towels. Lunch proceeded in line with the menu and the photos (see column on right) - note that all three starters were present on the trays. I drank champagne to begin with and had a glass of the red wine with my main course. The service was attentive and friendly throughout.

With no-one occupying 7A/B/F/G, once the meal service was over I was able to wander over and have a look out of the windows if I felt like it. The rest of the flight was fairly unremarkable, but I smiled at two very Japanese touches after landing:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you can now use electronic devices that emit radio waves; however please refrain from talking on cellphones out of consideration for other passengers."

... and ...

"Please note that Business Class passengers will deplane first. Thank you for your co-operation."

Halleluja!