Exceptions must be made!

What does one do after waking up from a lovely jet lag induced nap at 7:30pm? Process some photos and post them, obviously.

Exactly half of April was spent in Tokyo. How was it spent? Well, on airplanes, trains, in assembly lines and conference rooms, and with some excellent colleagues and friends.

Time warp at SeaTac

The first leg of the trip was spent on an old AS B737. I had reserved a window seat up front, but was somehow bumped into the middle seat of the last freaking row. It probably had something to do with the fact that I didn’t check in until 2-minutes before check-in for the flight closed.

Lesson learned…

At least I got my 0.5-oz bag of pretzels and got to chat with the line of people waiting for the lavatories. Fab stories were shared.

A: “Doesn’t this suck?”
B: “Yeah, totally.”

Just kidding, I only chatted with the person seated next to me. He was an engineer and we had the same work computer. The convo went more like this:

A: “Oh dear god, the Dell Precision M4600?! why are you lugging that brick of lead around?”
B: “It’s my work computer”
A: “My condolences.”
B: “Thank you.”

Things got a lil better at LAX. My next flight required me to check-in at the new Tom Bradley International Terminal. It was pretty hyped up earlier this year, and I was expecting greatness similar to SIN, BKK, or HKG. Well, it’s still a work in progress as everything before the terminal is still under construction, but at least they had some neat art installation.

But boy, the Star Alliance lounge was nice. All airports should have alliance lounges; rather than airline lounges.

^Overheard in the dining area: Tell her that she can’t eat dirt!

Remember that old and busted 737? Check out this shiny new hotness. I know, I know, I’m a fan of locally sourced airplanes, and I had stayed faithful for about 2.5-years…but EXCEPTIONS MUST BE MADE!

LAX reallllly needs to clean its windows…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W647gDp-u-s]

The other exciting part? It was an SQ flight.

When I took my seat, I realized we were in a line of A380’s from LH, AF, and EK. It was a pretty impressive sight to see. Unfortunately, the windows on the upper deck are pretty small and have a crazy amount of space between the inner window and the outside of the plane, so getting any sort of photo is tough. Oh well…

The flight had some pretty rad movies. Despicable Me II was great. As was that orange juice. Also the sock/booties. Movie reviews will come later.

The LED lighting scenes were a nice touch. The interior could have used some wash lights on the bins though. One realllllly cool thing = the bins have a motorized assist mechanism that activates when you close them.

Other exceptions? Photos of food. I don’t take photos of my food… unless I’m on an airplane, and the meal was prepared in a fancy airplane kitchen.

^Seared lamb in black pepper sauce. Those Steam Ovens work!

The SQ galleys also had Iacobucci Espresso Makers, so cappuccinos were consumed with my ice cream and macarons.

After dinner service, I started wandering around the airplane. The lead flight attendant asked if I wanted a photo of my seat, but I explained that I was curious about their galleys. While they didn’t allow me to take any photos of their galleys, one of the flight attendants took me on a tour of them. The AFT galleys were RIDICULOUSLY LARGE. And the amount of ovens downstairs was also crazy. Also, cart lifts were used. All very neat!

We talked shop, they complained about stuff, and praised the 777 😀

I didn’t snap too many photos of the cabin, but I did snap this shot in the FWD upper deck lavatory, cuz it’s also huge, like so many things on this plane…