As I mentioned in the last post, I have recently arrived in Tokyo, the first leg on an extended business trip to the Far East. I’ll be visting Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Singapore.

The trip started off with a twist. I had put in a request to be upgraded to First Class with frequent flier miles and had made the waiting list. When I got to the airport, I did not receive a seat assignment as Business Class was overbooked. Everything turned out well. Not only did I get the upgrade, but because they didn’t use the correct “inventory” for issuing my first class boarding pass, I didn’t have to use my frequent flier miles!

The flight was uneventful and long, about 11 hours. Because the flight left as 12:30pm and arrived at 5:00pm, I did not sleep on the flight. My only complaint is that the flight attendant gave me my overcoat and jacket 30 minutes before we landed. I still had my briefcase out, magazines open, etc. I put the jackets in the overhead bin. What is the point of taking your jacket if they are going to give it back to you an hour before you reach the gate?

There was a 45 minute line for immigration. Then a 10 minute wait for currency exchange. Then a 30 minute wait for the bus. So an hour and a half from leaving the plane to getting in the bus into Tokyo. Tokyo’s Narita airport in a long way from Tokyo. It was another hour and a half before I got to the hotel.

The Tokyo Grand Hyatt is a very nice hotel. It is in the Roppongi Hills district, a newly redeveloped area. I met my colleague, Sim Choo, at the hotel and he took me to dinner at Monseiur Ton Ton (I think that is the name), a Japanese steak house. We sat by the grill while the chef made dinner in front of us. The food was excellent. Notable were the very fresh shrimp (so fresh they objected to being cooked) and excellent beef.

After dinner I was able to watch some of the Turino Olympics live, as the time change is my favor with Turino 8 hours behind Tokyo.

This morning, Mount Fuji was visible in the distance as the day broke clear and cold.