UnfinishedKit Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 JAL drives me slightly insane. I love flying their planes, even if ANA puts a lot more thought and effort into their sake selection; however their digital experience is ghastly if you are a foreigner. The local Japanese app is a lot better than the foreign one, but there’s a tonne of stuff you can’t do in it if you have a JAL login registered to an overseas address, some is obviously legit like apply for a JAL NeoBank account, some is just annoying. As for the dedicated app for foreigners, they changed to a new one about 18 months ago and it still doesn’t work properly. There’s basic stuff like not displaying multi-leg trips properly that should never have made it out of testing and I’ve never been able to successfully check in with it. Luckily I still have the old app on my phone because it still works a lot better. 1 Link to comment
Gunzel Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 The JAL self check in machines for domestic flights in Japan are also entirely useless for foreign passengers in my experience (not that most all the ones I’ve ever used are very good), have given up on them now and just go straight to the special desk. I’ve never tried the JAL app, but my experience has been they are pretty good with emails about purchase and changes. 1 Link to comment
UnfinishedKit Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 JAL could learn a lot from the Delta app experience c2012-2013 (when I left the US). It was rock solid and I actually ended up putting most of my travel on Delta because of how good their service recovery was through the app back then. You’re always going to run into weather delays or misconnects flying domestically in the US and many’s the time I’d end up sitting on a plane or at a gate waiting for a departure that clearly wasn’t going to happen and I’d jump the queue for a reroute by doing it through the app, whilst everyone else was lining up for the gate agent. So kudos to delta for getting that right so early and a pox on all airlines who can’t even get the basics right 12 years later. JAL’s phone team, or at least the ones in Hong Kong I get routed to, are excellent as are everyone I’ve ever met on the ground or in the air. 1 Link to comment
Little-Kinder Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 On 2/22/2025 at 5:11 AM, UnfinishedKit said: Bookoff/Hardoff might be helpful there but they can be a pain to search through the stores and what’s online isn’t necessarily in any store. If they have what you want online get it delivered to your hotel. The basement of Akihabara Popondetta is their second hand department and I found some good stuff there last time I was there. Did you look and see if there were any shows of club meets on when you are there? probably should ask this as a general question because I’m interested, but have you ever done time on a rental layout? akihabara popondetta has a nice little N gauge one but I really want to go and see who’s running what on Imon’s HO1067 and Oj ones. For book off. Not all of them sell trains. You can check each store on their website and they will tell you what they have Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 @UnfinishedKit and @Gunzel - good info about the JAL app. They promote their Touch and Go feature for use at the airport but I will just go right to the desk for check-in when we leave Fukuoka. Having this input is very helpful. @Kingmeow - currently I have seven airline apps on my phone (sort of surprising as I usually don't do much with apps) and interestingly enough, the United app is state of the art and probably one of the best in the business. In addition to the normal functions you can check where your plane is coming from while you are waiting at the gate, follow the route with flight details while on the plane, use a flight simulator and a lot more. The airport navigator is pretty cool as well - coming back on our last trip I knew we had to change terminals and I sort of knew my way but checked the app for fun. Got a step by step guide with map for my route including time estimates for each leg and turns. Pretty impressive. Ciao, Tony 2 Link to comment
UnfinishedKit Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 Possibly the only other thing worth knowing about flying JAL is that you can upgrade to Class-J (just a bigger seat in the main cabin) or First Class for quite reasonable prices through the booking management tools in the website. It’s been a while but class J was something like 1200円 extra IIRC. TBH I’d only bother with it if I couldn’t get a window seat otherwise. 2 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 @Tony Galiani I really agree the united app is really well done. The few flights ive done in the last year or so it was amazingly useful. They had some odd nav stuff in their onboard ordering [funny as most folks on the flight must have been struggling on it as the flight attendants an hour in came over the pa with pointers of how to get to the food ordering], but i expect they have cleaned that up. It was probably someone’s new idea of nav that failed horribly with a large test group [us]! The app kept better info than the gate folks had when we had equipment problems and changed gates and equipment back and forth four times. jeff 2 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 Travel time is getting close - flying on Sunday - so now I am in my pre-travel nervous state: will there be issues with our flights, will one of us (or one of our pets) get sick on Saturday, and so on. Hopefully all will go smoothly. I did get one bit of very good news - I discovered a knitting/fabric shop in Hakata Station. If I play my cards right, I can walk by there with my wife and she will be excited and distracted and into the store for three days or so while I ride trains around Kyushu! Hope springs eternal! Weather looks iffy - some rainy days in the forecast for Tokyo, Kyushu and Shikoku though we have both indoor and outdoor things we want to do so not really an issue. Now I need to find something to distract my wife in Tokyo so I can hit some stores there as well. I really don't have much of a shopping list but hoping to find a few items. Ciao, Tony 3 Link to comment
UnfinishedKit Posted February 27 Share Posted February 27 If she’s into ceramics I can find the site that listed all the ceramic shows in Tokyo and elsewhere. (I have a small guinomi collection because there’s nothing better than drinking sake from a small work of art). You can just cruise around the gallery floors of department stores but that can be a bit hit and miss. also I always stop first at the d47 shokudo on the 8th floor of the Hikarie building in Shibuya. Not only is it a delightful cafe, showcasing regional cuisine, with a view over the station and scramble square, but there is also always a range of popup art and craft stores and the corridor by the lifts has posters for many of the art shows in town. There’s also a good range of antique and flea markets, just search for dates. I’ve only really been to the one at odaiba racecourse, which I think is every Saturday, that one is a bit grungy but I came away with a nice Tin Chirori, there was a little bit of very beat up model train stuff there. (Mainly tinplate O IIRC) can also do Nishi Ogikubo for antique stores. need any restaurant recommendations?I’ve got some bangers. 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted February 27 Author Share Posted February 27 @UnfinishedKit - Thanks for that info. Some new places for us to check out. We tend to eat pretty light with Tonkatsu Wako being a big night out for us but always happy to have suggestions. Cheers, Tony 1 Link to comment
tridentalx Posted March 2 Share Posted March 2 Have a great trip. Looking forward to some pics and travel info. 1 Link to comment
UnfinishedKit Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Let me start by saying forgive me if you are not a drinker because you’ll notice a certain theme. I be been sending lots of people to go worship with the sake priest (Sake Bouzu) in Youogi Koen. Very tall Japanese hippy with a platted beard and a staggering collection of rare sake. Never quite worked out what the system is other than message him on line or instagram a couple of days in advance. He brings food and booze till you tell him to stop and it never costs more than ichi man a head food is light a simple and complements the sake really nicely. https://maps.app.goo.gl/HiWc1epk8CFkWsXM6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy eureka Roppingi. Marie Chiba is a legend of sake food paring, she wrote the definitive book on it. Modern style izakaya, eat as much or as little as you like and let her guide you through her menu. This is a great place to eat lightly it really leans into the Izakaya style of eat as much or as little as you like. Definitely try the blue cheese ham katsu which is a bit of a signature dish. https://maps.app.goo.gl/g6pZ3PbUw5MGuENs7?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy Sake to Kotobuki in Kagurazaka, this is my favourite Izakaya in Tokyo, old school U shaped counter which you can book and tables in the back which you can. Never have to wait that long for a seat. They are a fish specialist and Menu is hand written and hard to read. Great sale list but they also have good Shochu range. One of the few places I see lots of people drinking Hoppy, it really is old school. I normally sit down and order sashimi moriawase and tsukemono with something from the sake list and puzzle through the menu or ask for recommendations. last time this resulted in a game of let’s see what the gaikokujin will eat with the chap sitting next to me. Turns out this gaikokujin will eat sea pineapple but is glad that sea pineapple tasted of the mirin and ginger it was cooked in. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vbMyeH5LGTG4JyGBA?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy for more upscale you can book into fushikino round the corner that does a sake, food and drinking vessel omakase, but that is far from light, come empty and not eat again for days. Sake pub gashue in Ueno - another great sake spot. Very modern style food, again a good place to graze/eat lightly. Very broad sale suggestion. I have a friend, Chris Hughes, who runs guided sake tastings in their very intimate private room. Good English spoken here. https://maps.app.goo.gl/oKrhnBv1AKeSKojT7?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 3 Author Share Posted March 3 We are now in Tokyo getting ready to head to Haneda Airport for our flight to Fukuoka. Our flights went well though it is a long day of traveling - 14 hours from Newark and an hour from RDU up to Newark before that. As usual, I found a Japanese movie to watch on the flight over, in this case it was The Crescent Moon With Cats. Nice, low key movie which I enjoyed. Interestingly, Akira's cat was named Maygue but pronounced without the U. Thanks @Pashina12 for the info on that in the previous thread. Arrival sort of went smoothly - 2 kilometers from the plane to the Monorail with most of that being the zig-zag queue which had something like 12 switchbacks - it was sort of comical. We had screen shots of our QR code so that made things easy and much quicker than for those who were using the paper forms. My only issue was that it took a while for my fingerprints to register - wonder if my musician's callouses cause that? However, my eSim was not cooperative and we could not get it sorted out. Mira finally got it fixed by redoing everything when we were at the hotel while I was checking us in for our ANA flight. ANA only allows you to have your own boarding pass on your phone (unlike United or Austrian) so I had to do separate check-ins for each of us. During our eSim troubles I ended up sending two messages to @Kingmeow in the middle of the night. Sorry about that. My entries meant for Mira went to Mike. Good thing we try to have some flexibility as my original arrival plans did not work out. It took way long to get ourselves to the hotel and sorted out and the weather was not cooperating - rainy and 38F/4C so pretty cool. Thankfully, as we were leaving Mira suggested taking light jackets (as opposed to only the waterproof windbreakers I had packed) and they came in handy. Especially for me as I had gloves in the pocket which I need for my hands in cool weather. I had originally planned to walk over to the Tokyo Sky Tower from the hotel and go through Shiba Park and the shrine there but it was pretty dark and getting colder by the time we were ready to go out. We decided to go ahead and stumbled our way over to the tower - the park was sort of dark and there were some construction spots so navigating was a bit difficult. Though we did have the tower as a very visible beacon to guide us. We finally made it and opted not to go up the tower but had a snack in the food court before heading back to the hotel. Couple of pics below. Heading out to Haneda shortly and on to Fukuoka. Ciao, Tony 9 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 No problem with the text in the middle of the night Tony. I don't take my phone with me up to the bedroom. It's sitting in the kitchen so I don't hear the ding of a text message. Now if you call me and let it ring.... 🤣 I've never seen Tokyo Tower in those colors. Some kind of (festival) celebration? 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 (edited) @Kingmeow - phew! Glad I did not disturb you. We were very tired and a bit frustrated with the phone so I was not totally with the program. Currently at Haneda relaxing before our flight. We got here relatively quickly via the Monorail and breezed through baggage drop and security so plenty of time to sit and have a latte before heading to the gate. I wanted to note in my previous entry how helpful people have been. Wonder if it is our grey hair! On the Monorail yesterday it was crowded and we did not have easy access to seats but a gentleman and his wife pointed to seats next to them and when we were having a big of trouble with our bags assisted us. (There is a step up to some of the seats which I had forgotten about.) Then, we had to take an elevator down to street level at Hammatsucho and, as we paused to figure out a young woman spoke to us in English with directions as to where we need to go and then, outside, as we struggle with our phones for the route to the hotel, another woman stopped and helped us. It just makes things so much more pleasant and less stressful. The weather forecast in Fukuoka is not so great so I am going to spend some time now checking on what to do after we arrive. I believe there is a model train shop in or near Hakata Station so the weather may force me to spend the rest of the afternoon there. We shall see. Ciao, Tony Quick edit addition - just checked and there is both a Popondetta shop and a knitting/fabric shop in Hakata Station. Let it rain! Edited March 4 by Tony Galiani additional info 6 Link to comment
Madsing Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Next to Hakata station you have Poppondetta, Yodobashi and Hobby Land Pochi. https://goo.gl/maps/NXVNoiBAPnq https://goo.gl/maps/yeFJQaKg5dx https://maps.app.goo.gl/iSpXdERkv6tfGkv26?g_st=in Also consider Tamtam, 40 mins from Hakata station on the Kagoshima line https://g.co/kgs/tqZ2qc Marc 4 Link to comment
RS18U Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 4 hours ago, Tony Galiani said: just checked and there is both a Popondetta shop and a knitting/fabric shop in Hakata Station. Let it rain! 😁 And the Popondetta has a rental layout 😉 1 Link to comment
Little-Kinder Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 Just now, RS18U said: 😁 And the Popondetta has a rental layout 😉 If you want rental layout just go to n scale town in ikebukuro, nothing will top that 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 I like to post in the mornings when I am relaxing at breakfast but figured @cteno4 is eagerly awaiting a donut report so after we stopped at the hotel we went to Mister Donut. Actually, we stumbled on it while checking out the Hakata Station area and, since we had not had anything since breakfast, decided on a quick snack. We ordered what we thought (no English menu available) were small cups of soup but they both turned out to be ramen bowls. And, of course, we each got a donut and coffee. Everything was pretty good and we enjoyed our first donuts of this trip. Ciao, Tony 9 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 13 hours ago, Tony Galiani said: Quick edit addition - just checked and there is both a Popondetta shop and a knitting/fabric shop in Hakata Station. Let it rain! Hallelujah! Let the shopping begin! 🤑 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 10 hours ago, Madsing said: Next to Hakata station you have Poppondetta, Yodobashi and Hobby Land Pochi. https://goo.gl/maps/NXVNoiBAPnq https://goo.gl/maps/yeFJQaKg5dx https://maps.app.goo.gl/iSpXdERkv6tfGkv26?g_st=in Also consider Tamtam, 40 mins from Hakata station on the Kagoshima line https://g.co/kgs/tqZ2qc Marc We are such enablers! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 1 2 Link to comment
chadbag Posted March 4 Share Posted March 4 2 hours ago, Kingmeow said: We are such enablers! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 That's our job. All good friends support each other. 1 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 (edited) Okay - I will confess that I let down the enablers a bit yesterday. I did get to Popondetta and actually saw a few KoKi's that were used and favorably priced but passed on them until I could get to Hobbyland Pochi - which I did - right after it closed. So maybe more action today after we go out and do some touristy things. I did buy a modeling book at Maurzen which is on the same floor as Popondetta, mainly for the pictures and scenery ideas. Yesterday was mostly low key since we had to travel in the middle of the day. Headed to Haneda Airport via the monorail after a light breakfast at our hotel. At checkout, they gave me a 500 yen rebate but no idea why! It was a short walk to the monorail and and easy ride to Terminal 2 where we checked our bags and zipped through security - all way quicker than I expected so headed to the lounge for pre-flight lattes. We headed to the gate about 45 minutes before departure to find out that boarding would not start until 20 minutes before departure. Not sure there are many places where a widebody B787 can be boarded in that short a time (most US airlines allow more than half an hour) but, being Japan we were boarded and off the gate right on time. Nice flight down to Fukuoka but limited views as it was cloudy the entire route. During the beverage service, there was an English speaking flight attendant who noticed us and made sure we had the info about the flight and arrival. She was really nice (as were all the ANA staff). Once at the airport, I was able to confirm our JAL flight for Saturday and also got a printout with all the info for when we check in so that was a relief. Then on to the subway which was struggling with delays and train cancellations for some reason. While we were there a subway employee came to the platform making announcements. I figured we would just sit tight a bit to see what the crowd did but she spotted us and came over and explained to us in English what was going on and that our train to Hakata Station would run soon. After getting into town - only two stops - we got to our hotel near the station. I had high hopes for our "View" room but apparently that just means it has a window! Though if you have the right angle, you can see Yodobashi Camera from our room so I suppose that is some sort of view. We then went to wander around the area and, as previously mentioned, stumbled on Mister Donut where we had our life sustaining donuts. And afterwards, checking on the interweb, we found out the soups we had were Taiwanese specialties that they are currently offering (along with several other Taiwanese themed food items). We like them enough to go back sometime before we leave Fukuoka. Making it up as we go, we have decided to go to the Nanzo-In Temple today and, possibly, walk the trail back towards Fukuoka as that goes to the previous station on the line and is supposed to be a nice hike. The weather forecast is cloudy but no rain so this seems to be a reasonable plan. Likely on to Canal City tonight for some of the water and light shows. Ciao, Tony Edited March 4 by Tony Galiani spelling correction 4 Link to comment
Tony Galiani Posted March 4 Author Share Posted March 4 Oops! I forgot to add some pictures! A view of the rental layout at Popondetta. Action was light when I was there with only two people running trains. And the escalator at the Hakata City Station shopping area with a neat steam train motif. Ciao, Tony 7 Link to comment
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