Welcome to this week’s Quick Takes. I am back after a month of traveling and planning, and we have plenty of news to catch up~
- Plane news: ANA introduce A380 planes to Tokyo/Honolulu line, as well as 787-10 to Tokyo/Singapore line. Air Canada also introduce 787-8 to their Vancouver/Kansai line, with business class. Seems like the market is optimistic about the Japan inbound tourist growth.
- Muji’s Ginza flagship hotel first look: Muji had always been about their particular lifestyle, which is simplistic yet refined. Last week, they had opened a global flagship store, with its own restaurants and hotel, all in an eleven storey building all by itself. While most of us aren’t there to experience it, we can have a sneak preview in the article here.
- Shibuya underground exits to be reorganised by November: The underground streets of Shibuya were well known as a pseudo-labyrinth. This might change when Tokyo Metro and Tokyu Electric Railway start reorganising the exit numbering system this November. The exits will be divided geographically into four sectors, A to D, then numbered. By this summer, there will be announcements on the actual numbering of the exits.
- Tokyo Monorail to add more trains during 10 day Golden Week: Tokyo Monorail will enhance their “Haneda Express” schedule in Golden Week this year. This is in anticipation of the massive increase of passengers going to and from Tokyo to Haneda Airport. The schedule will only call all the terminals in Haneda airport, and then go non-stop to Hamamatsucho terminus. The number of “Haneda Express” trains will increase from 132 to 178 daily, and will be in effect from April 27th to May 6th.
That is it for this week. Now that I am back, we could now catch up on the various topics in development. These include step-by-step guides of various ticketing services for JR East and West (namely e5489, Smart EX and Club J-WEST).
When I was in Kyoto during the last two weeks, I have visited some very interesting places. Aside from having a field week of sakura hunting, I also visited a very posh French restaurant in Higashiyama-Ku. I am also present at the opening day of a new hotel, co-operated by JR West and First Cabin, with an extensive review in the works. These will drop later this week, so stay tuned!