Japan trip day 1: Sydney-Singapore-Tokyo

As a consequence of passing, I now have a worry free vacation as a reward for 2 years of intense studying.
One difference of this trip is the fact that I’m leaving on a weekday, as opposed to a Saturday. As a result, I caught the train to the airport. Since the flight left at 8am, it meant that I had to be at the airport early, and consequently, the journey in was very uneventful, apart from me being surprised at how many people catch the train at 5:15am.
Singapore Airlines offers online check in up to 2 days in advance, which I took up, so all that was needed was to have my luggage tagged, and to pick up my boarding passes, which took the best part of 5 minutes.
Immigration & security were relatively painless, and I was through within 10 minutes. Boarding commenced, and by when the doors closed, I found myself in a row with an empty middle, so that gave more room to stretch out.
We pushed back on time, but took ages to take off, eventually taking off closer to 8:30 then 8. Breakfast was served ~90 minutes after takeoff, and there was a choice of noodles with char siu, or a frittata with chicken sausage.
One of the strengths of Singapore Airlines is the range of entertainment features on board, which I utilized on this flight. While waiting for breakfast, I started with Die Hard 4.0, which I originally had a double pass for, but couldn’t attend, as I had a focus session on that night. The movie was what you would expect from an action flick, with a predictable ending.
Following Die Hard 4.0, I chose the Simpsons Movie, and that was as the critics described it – 4 episodes of material in 1 movie.
Apart from the dozens of movies on the entertainment system, there were a myriad of TV programs & short features, one of which was Rick Stein preparing a Japanese inspired meal, which was entertaining.
By the time the show was finished, lunch, which was a green curry or a beef stew, was served. This was followed with ice cream. Based on past experience, I was expecting a Magnum, but they came around with Splices instead. Maybe they ran out of Magnums…
While Singapore airport is a very good place to spend time in, it’s even better to get out of the airport and wander around Singapore. It just happens that a work colleague was recently transferred to Singapore, so I visited the Singapore office and paid him a visit.
After visiting him & having dinner, it was back to the airport, a long shower (as Singapore is quite humid) and free internet access, which I’ll be utilizing until my flight leaves tonight.
Tomorrow, wandering around Tokyo/Yokohama (as I haven't decided yet)