Review of Singapore Airlines flight from Tokyo to Singapore in Business

A bowl of thick miso ramen.

Visit to Asakusa, which was super duper crowded!

Nice stroll in great weather to Tokyo Skytree.

Sinful cheesecake platter at Cheese Garden.

Ginza evening.

World's largest Uniqlo store in Ginza! 12 storeys!!

Snacking on Takoyaki

And Yakitori

Simple meal

Kabukicho comes to 'life' in the evening.

5th May is Japan's Children's Day, which is one of the public holidays of Japan's Golden Week. On this day, some streets in Shinjuku were closed to vehicular traffic!

Chanced upon a stand-up sushi bar in Ikebukuro, offering very fresh and affordable sushi!

And Yakiniku grill on the last night in Tokyo.

Did some supermarket shopping prior to departure on the last day. It is strawberries season!

My flight back would be departing from Haneda, which is much nearer to the city centre and only entails a 30min Airport Limousine Bus ride to reach.
Some sort of arty structure while approaching Haneda.

The bus made stops at Terminals 1 and 2 first.

On the way to the International Terminal from Terminal 1. International terminal was not too busy at this time of the day.

FIDS in the International Terminal. Much less international departures/arrivals than Narita.

We reached Haneda rather early, about 3hrs prior to departure. The Departure Hall is rather big, but not too busy at this time of the day. I figure it will be busier in the late evenings when the late-night bank of flights depart.

SQ check-in counters are located at row A, right at the end of the terminal. Total of 6 counters opened to handle check-in for the flight.

Business Class counter.

Check-in agents giving the obligatory Japanese bow before opening counters. There was also a First counter, though unmanned as First is only offered on the red-eye flight.

Check-in was swift and headed to security and immigration. See the carp kites koinobori decorations to celebrate Japan's Children's Day!

Departure waiting lounge was rather quiet as well. It is a long corridor with shops aligned long it.

Some last minute shopping for Japanese goodies!

Proceeded to the lounge after finishing with the shopping. SQ J Class pax are invited to use the ANA Lounge.

ANA model planes display

As expected with the few departure flights and being a public holiday with few business travellers, the lounge was pretty empty, offering a conducive and serene environment to relax prior to the flight.

There were 2 buffet areas in the lounge, with a smaller one offering only soup, cold selections and beverages at this hour.

The larger buffet offers a wider selection of dishes.

Including a Noodle Bar, whipping up a selection of hot udon or soba noodles.

Filling up my stomach with simple but delicious dishes! I especially loved the warm soba noodles from the Noodle Bar.

Rounding up with a fruit punch dessert and cold green tea.

Our SQ plane arrived on schedule from Singapore.

ANA B77W arriving from a long-haul destination.

06 May 2015
Singapore Airlines
SQ 633
Tokyo Haneda (HND) - Singapore (SIN)
B777-200
9V-SRQ
Business Class
About 25min before STD, we headed to the gate where boarding has just commenced. Premium passengers (ie. Business Class and PPS Club) had the use of a premium boarding gate/lane 108A, which is separated from the Economy boarding gate/lanes.

9V-SRQ, retrofitted with the New Regional Business Class, would be operating the flight.

Boarding.

Was warmly welcomed at the door and directed to my seat at 17K, which is the bulkhead row of the smaller Business cabin after Door 2. This row offers heaps of legroom!!

I can stretch all I want and still won't touch the bulkhead.

Seated just beside the Rolls-Royce Trents.

As usual with the famed SQ service, welcome drinks were offered. I chose the welcome cocktail, Tropical Fizz. Newspapers, magazines and hot towels were also offered.

Boarding was completed very swiftly and no wonders, as the load was very light on this flight. Load was 14/38 in Business and less than 1/3 full in Economy!! With the very light load, we had 5 cabin crew dedicated to Business Class, making it a First Class crew to pax ratio!
Pushed back on schedule, with flight time estimated to be 6h40m. Safety video played.

Taxi

Short taxi later, we departed from Rwy16R towards Tokyo Bay and into the sunset.

Mount Fuji can be seen in the distance!! Glorious Fuji in the sunset.

Watch the taxi and takeoff below!

Shortly after takeoff, socks and eyeshades are distributed.

The month's inflight magazines.

Surprisingly, the headphones offered on this flight was of the older model and not the newer Phitek ones that I have used on my last couple of flights in J.

Even though this retrofitted aircraft does not offer the latest IFE system, the selections are still sufficient for this regional flight. I chose to watch The Wedding Ringer.

Satay was served! 2 chicken and a mutton stick each. With the very low loads, no carts were used and our satay orders were taken and served directly from the galley. My post-takeoff drink of Choya (only available on Japan flights) was also promptly delivered.

Cruising

A look at the cabin and seats. Even though the seat model is similar to the ones on the A330, I do feel that the ones on the B777s are definitely wider and offers more legroom, after having flown on the A330 just a few months back.

Amenities in the lavatory.

Enjoying my movie.

Sun is setting.

About an hour after the satay service, dinner commenced. The timing was just right as I was still a bit full from the snacking in the lounge earlier.
The normal selection:

And the Hanakoireki selection.

Of course I went for the Hanakoireki option, which came in 2 sets. The first set was a cold set, consisting of soba noodles and cold starters. For most part, I did not know what I was eating and had to refer to the menu to find out haha.

Second set was the warm set, which came with a miso soup. A really unique dining experience I must say. I was totally stuffed!

As for the normal menu, the starter is Prawn with citrus salad.

My travel partner's Book-the-cook dish of Unagi Kabayaki.

After being totally stuffed, the Inflight Supervisor appeared with a selection of desserts on a smoking tray with dry ice! Wow! Seeing that we could not make up our minds on the dessert choices, she offered us both each, assuring us that there were more than enough to go around. Both desserts were yummy!

Next up, the crew coerce us to have some cheeses and fruits. I did not partake in the cheese platter though.

I had some strawberries and a mango. Strawberries were very sweet! Pralines were also offered.

Seeing that I had finished the fruits, the crew offered even more! Had more strawberries and a really sweet melon slice. Ok, no more food for me please! (Well, if they had offered me more dessert, I might accept it….)

After the meal service was completed, lights were dimmed to allow pax to rest. We still had about 4hrs to go and I continued with my movie.
After finishing the movie, we were nearing Philippines.

Reclined my seat to the max to an inclined lie-flat bed.

And started on a second movie, a Chinese comedy.

Still almost 2hrs to go after the second movie, and took a short 30min nap.

Soon we were approaching Changi, with arrival information shown on the screen. We will be arriving at Terminal 2.

Nearing Singapore and cabin was prepared for landing. The inflight supervisor came around and thanks all passengers for flying with SQ.

Overflying Batam on the approach to Changi.

Video of landing into Changi on Rwy02C and taxi to the Gate F41 at Terminal 2. We only had a very short taxi to the gate and as expected, the Japanese crew could not finish making her Japanese arrival announcement. She continued after the engines were shut down and doors were unarmed.

My comfortable seat for the last 7hrs.

Thanks for reading this very long report! Your comments are very welcomed.