Moving to Austin: Tokyo to Los Angeles and onto Austin

• Introduction
• Penang to Tokyo
• Tokyo Layover
• Tokyo to Los Angeles and onto Austin
  

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First up back at the airport was a much needed shower. My preferred lounge for a shower in Narita is the United Club since they sometimes give out pretty good amenity kits. No such luck today with only some generic stuff available.

After the shower, I helped myself to a beer from the only in Japan beer machines.

I got bored and still had about 45 minutes before my flight, I decided to switch to the ANA lounge that was closer to my departure gate. This is the lounge to head to in Narita for business class or Star gold passengers since the food and drinks option are far more superior. There's plenty of hot food and a noodle bar. In spite not being a sake fan, I went on sake tasting at their sake bar but didn't find anything to my liking. I was somewhat disappointed that there's no more Fauchon ice-cream being offered and they downgraded their Japanese whiskey choices.

Snooze Area

Noodle Bar

Work Area

I was surprised to hear my name being paged in the ANA lounge and was requested to look for an agent at the check-in desk. Hmm... upgrade to first on SQ?? Hell no - the agent just wanted to verify that I had a US Visa. Lol - curious how they manage to track me to the ANA lounge in the first place.

The business class line was empty when I got to the gate. I was seated in the front cabin and I couldn't fit my roller in the overhead which then had to be stored in cabinet by one of the stewardess. Might be annoying if you need something from your carry-on during the flight but I bet the SQ stewardess wouldn't have a problem getting it for you.

Seat 12K

 

The stewardess came around with the usual pre-departure hot towels, newspaper and magazine and champagne run. 

Main business class cabin

I once again went with the Japanese option for dinner after an extra serving of satay. Wonder when will be next time before I get satay as good as the ones served on SQ. The Japanese options came in a bento box with a cold selection first followed by a hot one.

It was straight to bed after dinner. I snoozed off while watching a movie and didn't wake up until it was about 2.5 hours from Los Angeles and was woken up by the stewardess for breakfast. The bed sure was comfortable. I skipped the Japanese option this time round and opted for some noodles.

We arrived 30 minutes early into Los Angeles. After the usual long taxi at LAX, the captain came on the PA and informed us that there was still another aircraft at the gate and we had to sit and wait.

A 747 welcoming us in LAX

I got very lucky at immigration when they open new lines when I got to the immigration area. There were only 5 people ahead of me in line. It took only another thirty minutes to clear immigration, re-check my luggage to Austin, clear security again and into the United club at T6 which is something of a miracle at LAX.

I now had a too long and boring wait till my United Express flight to Austin. I couldn't find other non-stop options which left earlier and spent the 4 hours at the United Club endlessly surfing the web, reading and even failing asleep on their sofas. There was nothing exciting about the hop to Austin. I arrived at my new home around midnight tired but excited about what laid ahead for at least the next year for me in Austin.