Japan

KLM Launching Direct Service From Amsterdam to Fukuaka, Japan

KLM Launching Direct Service From Amsterdam to Fukuaka, Japan

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will launch direct service to Fukuoka, Japan, on April 3, 2013. The airline will be the first to offer direct flights between Europe and the Japanese city.
Fukuoka will be the third KLM destination in Japan, along with Tokyo and Osaka. Service will operate three times a week, with flight KL869 departing from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and arriving in Fukuoka the following …

ANA Boeing 787 Dreamliner First Flight Seattle to Tokyo Narita – Review

ANA Boeing 787 Dreamliner First Flight Seattle to Tokyo Narita – Review

The Boeing Dreamliner is the newest, sleekest, and most rarely-seen airliner currently in service.  If you want to fly on it from the United States, you currently only have two choices and one of them is ANA (All Nippon Airways) the launch customer for the program.
ANA initiated service from Seattle to Tokyo’s Narita Airport on October 1 of this year and will start a second route, from San Jose, California, …

How to Call For Help Around the World: Emergency Numbers and Instructions for Travelers

Relatively few travelers take basic precautions when checking into a hotel, such as identifying the nearest emergency exit and looking at the emergency floor plan.
What is equally important is knowing what to do in an emergency, how to (literally) call for help and what number to dial on the phone in the event of an emergency, be it an accident, a fire, a heart attack, or something else of similar …

Ritz-Carlton Okinawa Opens in Japan

Ritz-Carlton Okinawa Opens in Japan

Ritz-Carlton has opened its first resort hotel in Japan, the Ritz-Carlton Okinawa.
The Okinawa Prefecture consists of hundreds of the Ryuku Islands which extend in a chain over 1,000 miles (620 kilometers) long from Kyushu in the direction of Taiwan.  Okinawa Island is a tropical island known for outdoor and waterborne activities.
The Ritz-Carlton Okinawa offers 97 rooms and two suites, all of which feature balconies or terraces. The resort was …

Japan Airlines Adds Boston-Tokyo Non-Stop, First Regularly Scheduled 787 Service to U.S.

Japan Airlines Adds Boston-Tokyo Non-Stop, First Regularly Scheduled 787 Service to U.S.

Japan Airlines will become the first airline to offer regularly scheduled service from Japan to the United States on Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner when it launches a Tokyo-Boston non-stop on Sunday April 22.
The start of service will also be the first regularly scheduled Dreamliner route anywhere in the Western Hemisphere and also the first long-haul service to use a Dreamliner between city pairs that previously did not have non-stop service.  …

No One’s Recipe, Hotel Bleston Court, Karuizawa, Japan – Restaurant Review

No One’s Recipe, Hotel Bleston Court, Karuizawa, Japan – Restaurant Review

The somewhat mysteriously-named No One’s Recipe in Karuizawa, a town one hour north of Tokyo by Shinkansen (bullet train), is a restaurant at the Hotel Bleston Court, a property that specializes in weddings. (It even has two churches, Karuizawa Kogen Church and the Uchimura Kanzo Stone Church.)
While I didn’t stay at the Bleston Court, I did stay at the Hoshinoya, which is under the same ownership.  Guests at the Hoshinoya …

Yukawatan, Karuizawa, Japan – Restaurant Review

Yukawatan, Karuizawa, Japan – Restaurant Review

A popular getaway for residents of Tokyo, the city of Karuizawa is easily accessible by Shinkansen (bullet train). While the trip takes roughly only one hour, but the difference between the two cities is striking.  Karuizawa is not only the home of a well-known resort, the Hoshinoya, but also of a classic French-style restaurant, the Yukawatan, which is part of the Bleston Court Hotel (which is under the same ownership …