After arriving in Tokyo I actually began to feel slightly better but still felt weak and super tired.
Transiting to another international flight in Tokyo was so quick and easy - I simply followed the "international connections" sign to a small security checkpoint where I put through my bag and was on my way. And unlike in Beijing, the security staff were very polite.
I was then able to enjoy the Japan Airlines Sakura Lounge. Wow, what can I say... this was one of the nicest lounges I've been to yet, and in fact I think it was almost as good as the Qantas first lounge (note that I said almost)! But tragically, I only had 45 minutes there!
My first priority was to have a shower before the long flight to Paris. The showers were so nice!
I would have liked to have a massage but they were fully booked until after my flight left. Never mind, I settled for one of the six massage chairs they have in a room off to the side. It was just what I needed! Where can I buy one of those??
I didn't have enough time left by that point to head upstairs to the dining area and have a nice lunch, so instead I got a beer and some biscuits from the downstairs area. My family wanted to speak to me on Skype but it was a pretty bad time as the airport began testing their earthquake and evacuation alarms at 2pm, which meant I coudn't hear them over the constant loud alarms and announcements - most of them in languages I do not understand.
JL415 Tokyo (Narita) - Paris (CDG)
Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner | JA826J
Departure time: 14:35
Arrival time: 20:10
This happened to be my first flight on a Dreamliner, so I was looking forward to that, but with a flight time of 12 hours and 35 minutes, I wasn't really feeling up to it.
My first impressions were that the cabin seemed really nice. One of the first things I noticed was the controls underneath all the windows - instead of window shades there is a button to make the view brighter or darker. I thought that was fabulous, particularly later in the flight as you could still see out the window and have a dark cabin without the sun in your face.
I asked for a bulkhead or exit row seat at check-in and was allocated seat 22K in the front row of economy. (I don't recall seeing any exit row seats on the plane.) Mercifully, this seat had a pretty decent amount of legroom.
I could see into the business class cabin until the curtain was drawn after take-off and not surprisingly, it looked very nice.
A glimpse into the business class cabin
After pushback the ground crew once again waved goodbye to us and the captain came on the PA from the fright deck to wish us a preasant fright.
Before we took off the head flight attendant came over to welcome me on board, but this wasn't the real reason she wanted to talk to me. Apparently I was sitting in a bassinet seat and there was someone with a baby who had requested my seat so they could use the bassinet. By now I just wanted to sleep and the bulkhead seat at least offered some comfort, so in this case I wasn't going to move if offered a worse seat. She asked me to move to seat 50D, a regular aisle seat at the back of the plane. If she had have offered a business class seat, or even an equivalent economy seat, I would have gladly moved but not to 50D. I actually felt really bad but with such a long flight ahead I had to put my own comfort first. As it happens someone else did say yes, which meant there was a crying baby across from me for most of the flight. Not ideal either, but at least I still had my legroom.
Lunch was served an hour or so after takeoff. There was a Western and a Japanese option - I chose the Japanese meal, which was quite tasty, while the Japanese man sitting next to me chose the Western food.
When drinks were offered at the start of the flight I decided to go for something strong in the hope that it would help put me to sleep. I did manage to get a few hours of sleep after lunch and felt better for it. The plane itself was very quiet but I was woken up several times by that crying baby.
We took a northern route which took us quite close to the Arctic Circle and the North Pole.
The flight attendants on this flight were very good at two things in particular - bowing, and offering drinks. There were regular drinks runs all through the flight, both with drinks trolleys and just with jugs of coffee, water or green tea. I even had a flight attendant come to my seat a few times out of the blue just to ask me if they could get me something to drink. (Perhaps I looked thirsty?)
The 787 had a 2-4-2 configuration (as opposed to 3-3-3) which meant both the seats and aisles were noticeably wide. The economy cabin also felt smaller and a little more intimate than usual. Clearly JAL designed their 787 aircraft interior with comfort in mind.
