TeamLabs Tokyo: a spa for the brain

Update from Carrie: Today was mostly dedicated to team obligations like the Ask us Anything and…oh yes, getting to our highly anticipated flight in the ANA first class suites. More on that here! But team TYO had a small patch of the afternoon reserved for their last surprise activity…

Before I dive in, let me explain this challenge to anyone new: If you’ve been following along, you know that the entire Frequent Miler team just embarked on a group trip where no one person knows the entire itinerary. As you may recall, this particular trip divides us into two teams with Greg as our referee. Team Tokyo has designed a five day surprise itinerary in Asia, (originating in Tokyo), while Team San Francisco has designed five days of mystery adventure in the Americas, (originating in San Francisco). Even though Greg is our judge in this contest, each team has tried to make great use of points and miles to build a trip our whole "family of 5" will love.

Not sure what this challenge is? Start at the beginning for a full explanation.

Though most of the day was a sort of work day for the team, we did have one last special activity planned for the hours before our 10pm flight in ANA first class suites. We haven't been highlighting it too much, but Stephen and I designed our trip to have one little Easter egg for each of our travel companions. The resident-chef at our Philippines Airbnb was our Easter egg for Greg (since his 3 Cards, 3 Continents trip was built around culinary adventures, complete with culinary concierge.) Nick's Easter egg was the Wynn Palace fountain show (since he's a big fan of Vegas’ Bellagio fountain.) Stephen's Easter egg was sadly the VR park which we weren't able to reach because of our failed Macau navigations, and the panda's in Macau were my Easter egg.

So that left Tim as the only person who hadn't received an Easter egg yet. By the time we got to his easter egg in Tokyo, it should have been (and maybe was) pretty obvious what it was. You see, months ago even before the challenge was planned, Tim had suggested that if any of us ever end up in Tokyo, we’d need to check out the teamLabs "Borderless" interactive art experience.

Unfortunately the "Borderless" experience was closed for renovations, but the smaller "Planets" experience was open. Even as a paired down version of the larger exhibit, this blew us all away. The experience takes you through interactive rooms where lights, mirrors, giant balls, bean-bag floors, smoky rippling water, and even live flowers are all part of an interactive, otherworldly experience. We spent almost two hours exploring these rooms. It's hard to describe other than to say it felt like a spa for your brain – and it left us all feeling in awe. This put us in a great mood for heading off to Haneda for our ANA Fist class flight in "the suites", which you can read all about here.

Starting the day in the Grand Hyatt Macau, (where we’d enjoyed spreading out amongst 3 suites, all with incredible views of the Wynn Palace water fountain) we joined up for breakfast in the meza9 restaurant. We spent a not insignificant portion of breakfast discussing which hotel we liked best between the Four Seasons and the Grand Hyatt Macau. The verdict almost unanimously was for the Grand Hyatt Macau, though there were elements we liked better about the Four Seasons. The thing that stood out about the Grand Hyatt Macau was the incredible service. Just as one small example, the attendants at breakfast took mental note of exactly where we were sitting so they could help us take our plates to our seats. Very impressive.

Unfortunately, it was time to get back into transit mode. Since a large part of this trip has been built around incredible award availability we’d found for all 5 of us to fly ANA's "The suites" from Tokyo to SFO, Steven and I have been very careful to plan our itinerary with a fair amount of buffer space so that we wouldn't be in jeopardy of missing that flight. That means, you guessed it, we spent the day making our way back to Tokyo. Thanks to the HK Airport Direct bus line, we had a very smooth transit experience from Macau to the HongKong international airport. And of course as we left the hotel this morning, I winced a bit at how beautiful the weather was turning out to be today. If only we could have had that nice weather yesterday.

Our journey back to Japan was a lovely one. First we checked out the Chase Sapphire Lounge by the Club Hong Kong, (which ironically, didn't accept the Chase Sapphire card for entry – only Priority Pass), then we boarded a JAL business class flight to Haneda where we checked into yet another stellar hotel – the Hyatt Regency Tokyo Bay. Even if we struck out with yesterday's activities, you’ve got to admit we’ve been managing some pretty incredible accommodations.

Our good luck must have stayed behind in the Philippines because anything we tried to do outside of our hotel doors flopped like this panda's sleep posture.

Our spirits were sky-high when the day started with an incredible and truly interesting breakfast at the Four Seasons Macau. Not only was the food great, but the variety was even better. I saw a bagel with bacon, almonds, and candied orange peel on Nick's plate, a solid array of dim sum on Greg's plate, double-smoked black chicken soup on Tim's plate, and lobster claws on Stephen's plate. And on our shared plate – we all mustered the courage to try the weirdly rubbery century egg.

Most of our plan A wouldn't have worked in the rain, but Stephen and I thought we’d come up with a decent alternative to accommodate the day's rainy forecast. We first headed to the Giant Panda Pavilion – a small but free exhibit with Giant pandas, red pandas, lemurs, and more (and the only part of our original Plan A which was still ok with rain). A first sign of back luck (and a metaphor for the rest of our outings today,) the panda decided to relieve himself right as I started photographing him. (The second sign was the pavilion's vending machine vehemently spitting Greg's Curve card out into a puddle on the ground.)

A bad omen to be sure. Next, a slew of construction made our walking route to the next stop impassable, and the cabs all refused to stop, seemingly all on a system we don't have access to (and none of the ride-share apps seemed to work either.) Finally we got an apartment front-desk attendant to call a cab for us, but at this point, it was time to return to the hotel so we could make use of our dining credits before checkout.

This was only the beginning, but we had a bad-luck-break when we transferred hotels – moving to the Grand Hyatt Macau. Here, we had 3 suites, all with club access. Stephen will share more about how this was booked later, but it was an instant win. For one, we all had a view of the Bellagio-like fountain show, and for another, we had a view of the planes taking off of a runway over the water. For a moment, we felt the day was redeemed.

After the lounge closed around 7:30, we made the mistake of leaving it for another attempt at activities. We watched the fountain show without a hitch, but then the gondolas at the Venetian failed us with unexplained closure and the St. Regis Jazz Bar failed us with no more tables left (on a Tuesday evening.) At this point, we threw our hands up in the air and decided a bottle of wine in our suite overlooking the fountain would be our activity for the night.

The lesson we learned? Macau is a huge success as long as you don't leave your (incredible) hotel rooms. Are we wrong? What are your experiences with Macau?

It often takes a lot of transit logistics to visit tropical islands, and today we did it all in reverse and then some. We managed to improve our transit conditions a bit from our Tokyo to Puerto Galera run. For instance this time the ferry's "business class" was a lot less crowded (though the movie playing in the background was unimproved), and this time we got to fly Cathay Business Class (instead of JAL economy). Upon landing in HongKong however, Steven and I had a lot of stressful puzzle pieces to work out – none helped by the fact that it was after 9 pm.

When Drew and I travel, I kind of just buckle up and assume there will be some trial and error and guess work in sorting out if google's how-to for getting from airport to hotel is at all realistic with the actual on-the-ground options – especially in certain parts of the world and at greater distances. It's one thing to slog through late night transit puzzles for yourself and it's another to do it with a whole group of people you’re meant to impress and delight throughout the competition. Needless to say – I felt nervous about this piece of the journey, but we made it ok with the help of our patient travel-mates, and 6 varieties of transportation. The Jeepney + ferry + van + plane + taxi + bus made arriving at the Four Seasons Macau (with rooms upgraded to suites) feel all the more wonderful.

Goodnight from Macau, and watch for more updates from my weary travel companions tomorrow!

Carrie says

Today we returned to the "Jeepney" to hit some of Mindoro's hot spots. First, we visited the Tamaraw Falls and Tukuran Falls. At the latter, we made use of a "Caribao Cart" to travel from the road to the falls.

We had a nice, leisurely time swimming in the pools around the base of the falls (and even getting a "waterfall massage" as the locals called it), but the real highlight of today's activities came at our next stop – a snorkeling "tour" of the coral garden in The Muelle Bay. None of us had ever experienced snorkeling while being sort of towed by the traditional Bangka boat.

We held onto ropes on either side of the boat while the captain led us directly over a stunning and extensive garden of coral. We spotted giant clams, brightly colored coral and fish, and even a pair of giant sea turtles. And best of all – our whole "family" seemed to love it.

Nick says

I love waterfalls, and after a few days being hunched over my computer instead of at a desk at home, I was happy to get a "water massage" from a waterfall at Tukuran Falls. The scenery was beautiful and though the hiking was a bit tricky, I was glad to have a set of rubber sandals that I purchased a year or two ago with a Platinum card Saks credit (I almost only packed sneakers for this trip, which wouldn't have worked well with hiking through some water today!). For those curious, these are the sandals on Amazon and I find them very comfortable. For those more interested in seeing the entire Frequent Miler team get pummeled by a waterfall, I present:

A post shared by Frequent Miler (@frequent_miler)

Then we moved on to a snorkeling tour built for someone who wants to lay in the water and not have to work to see amazing ocean life. That's because we were essentially able to hang on to a rope on an outrigger and get motored along a coral garden with the chance to see countless fish, a greater variety of (healthy) corals than I’ve ever seen in one place, and even a pair of sea turtles. Stephen and Carrie really rolled the dice coming to the Philippines just ahead of peak typhoon season and it paid off with a gorgeous, action-packed day.

A post shared by Nick Reyes (@nickatfm)

We even encountered a colony of bats during a walk along some mangroves.

One member of the team was especially excited to see bats (no joke!). Care to venture a guess as to who was most excited about our bat sighting? Leave your guess in the comments.

Stephen and Carrie have certainly set the bar high in terms of "wow" factor. Can they keep it up? They’ve been pretty lucky with the tight layover in Tokyo, and the mostly fair weather in Puerto Galera — will they continue to tempt fate?

Stephen says

The snorkeling experience was incredible. Getting pulled along by the boat meant we got to see so much more of the coral and fish than we’d have been able to see just swimming along. Add to that (mostly) beautiful weather, waterfalls and more and we had a great day here in Puerto Galera.

Tim says

After two days of traveling, we were ready to finally get out and explore Mindoro Island. Team TYO hired a "jeepney" for the day and, while billed as a method of transportation, I’m not convinced that it wasn't an attempt by Carrie and Stephen to scrunch my 6’3″ frame into submission for the rest of the challenge. Regardless of their motives, we took a jungle trek with a water buffalo to a series of waterfalls north of our Airbnb. The idea was to walk behind the waterfall and jump through the cascade. Unfortunately, the cascade tried to take my swimsuit..and it was all I could do to keep from mooning the Filipino families swimming in the pool beneath (keeping my trend of losing things on this challenge fresh and vibrant). Afterwards, we snorkeled Muelle Bay, where everyone but Greg saw sea turtles…tough luck for the referee. Dinner was fresh shrimp and adobo and now we’re ready to head off to Team TYO's 2nd destination.

Greg says

Carrie says…While yesterday was all about positioning, Stephen and I finally got to show off what we’ve been scheming. The day wasn't without its transit however – we started with a 2 hour van ride to Batangas where we caught a ~1.5 hour ferry to Puerto Galera, then a 15 minute "Jeepney" ride up into the hills where the most incredible Airbnb awaited us. If you’re wondering what a Jeepney is…it's basically a bus-sized tuk-tuk.

The Airbnb is both hard to describe and hard to properly photograph, but imagine a castle made of shells, tapestries, sculptures, and artwork from all over Asia. This 10-room mansion includes a personal chef, a pool, a pool table, a fabulous view of the water, and a million things to look at. It's such a labyrinth of oddities and artwork that after receiving a tour of all the bedrooms we could choose from, it took me half an hour just to find my way back to the one that had caught my eye. This Airbnb is an experience in and of itself.

Stephen says…Today was the day on our portion of the trip that I’ve been most looking forward to. We’d found an incredible Airbnb in Puerto Galera which has to be seen to be believed. The photos on Airbnb gave a good idea as to what it would look like, but it's simply magnificent in person. Its 10 bedrooms, pool, stunning views and private chef absolutely make it worth taking the relatively short economy flight from Tokyo to Manila yesterday.

Nick says…Wow, what a day! After a long journey, we got to what can only be described as the most incredible looking Airbnb that you’ve never seen. Pictures and video do not do this place justice by a long shot. We’ll see how everyone sleeps, but so far it seems it would be hard to top the level of surprise of walking in here with anything else on this trip. I can now see why Carrie and Stephen seemed so confident. They’ve set the bar high – here's hoping they can reach it again for several more days!

Tim says…Today we woke up in Manila listened to Referree Greg's breakdown of how successful Team TYO was in wowing him on challenge day 1. While the rest of the day was effectively a long travel day, split between vans and ferry, Stephen and Carrie definitely brought their A game with their Filipino Airbnb find. It's part Disneyland, part Xanadu and part… I’ve never seen another Airbnb (or house) like it…and we have a swimming pool and personal chef to boot. Gauntlet thrown!

Greg says…The first half of this day was all travel again. First by van, then by boat, then by Jeepney (I previously didn't know what that meant either). While on the boat I assumed that Team Tokyo had found a good deal at a beachside hotel. Nope! Instead they had found what must be one of the most unique Airbnbs in the world. It's an eight bedroom Asian fusion wonderland with a pool, a driver, a private chef and more for just over $200 per night. The house was built piece by piece over many years and it has become a maze. Most rooms are connected to other rooms by doors or by circular staircases going up or down. Seriously, if you don't hear from us tomorrow, we’re lost in here. I wish I had a video of us trying to pick rooms, where we popped in and out of locations all over this sprawling estate, and then struggled to find our chosen rooms again when we returned with our bags. Anyway, kudos to Team Tokyo for such an incredible find!

Carrie says…It's been a long time since I’ve flown business class, so I was thrilled to have that experience again. I slept great, and even though the vegetarian food was pretty lackluster, it's kind of what I expected and therefore, more my fault than JAL's. In hindsight, I would have rather not made any special requests with my menu in advance, and simply picked from the many vegetarian items on the standard menu. Aside from that, I enjoyed it all (and had way more leg room than I needed, as usual.)

Then, Stephen and I took over as soon as our SFO-NRT flight landed, and somehow incredibly withheld our onward plans from the team all the way to our next gate, (despite needing to share those onward plans with the friendly folks at the Sakura Lounge during our brief layover.) Our onward tickets were economy tickets, but our incoming Business class tickets with JAL allowed us entry where we (quickly) enjoyed the lounge's dining, then dashed off to board a flight to…Manila! While the Manila destination may have been a pleasant surprise for the team, the 5 hour economy flight wasn't.

After an exhausting flight, we’d purposely booked the Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport city because of its location right by the airport – a convenient jaunt down to the next terminal, we thought. However, in Manila, you’re not allowed to board the terminal shuttles unless you have an onward ticket, with a flight the next day for example. This leaves a clue as to what we might or might not be doing next, and left us taking a Grab to the hotel instead.

While this was a snafu we weren't expecting and added some salt to the economy wound, we felt lucky enough that we escaped any trouble from Typhoon Mawar, especially since our Narita transfer was a short one which didn't have wiggle room for delays. And hopefully the rest of the team trusts us that the economy flight will be worth the treats which await…

Before we check in with the team to see what they thought of our Day 1 itinerary, here are some notes from Stephen on how it all got booked.

Stephen says…Greg had originally booked the NRT-MNL flight in economy using 20k American Airlines AAdvantage miles + $27.80 per person as this meant it was easily cancelable. We ended up flying that same route a day earlier and he chose to book that using 11k British Airways Avios + $120.70 per person. Another option was – in theory – Iberia as that was 11k Avios too, but only ~$26 in taxes and fees per person. However, that wasn't bookable online as their website kept erroring out and so I think he chose not to call in to try to book for five people.

The cash pricing for the flight was $1,431.20 per person on Japan Airlines, so from that perspective it was a great redemption. However, there was a nonstop Jetstar flight costing $303.20 per person that evening. However, it wouldn't have gotten us in until 11:40pm which, at the time, was much later than we’d have liked. However, a delay in our departure from Narita due to weather meant that we ended up landing about that same time anyway.Side note: British Airways somehow had Carrie down as Viscountess for her title – that thankfully didn't cause any issues when checking in.

One of our challenges is to try to impress our Frequent Miler Family, so let's see what they thought of Day 1.

Nick says…Day One is in the books and it has been a ride already. Service aboard Japan Airlines was splendid (as expected) and both the ramen and vegetable curry managed to exceed my expectations. I can understand why people love the Japan Airlines business class Apex Suites, but that seat continues to be my least favorite business class option thanks to very limited storage at the seat and a lack of elbow room. The seat space had all the length one could want in a business class seat, and aisle access even on the window is great, but overall I find that Apex Suites leave me appreciating all of the other styles of business class seats a smidge more. Our arrival in Japan was full of anticipation and despite a couple of moments where Carrie thought the surprise had been blown, I didn't know where we were going until I saw it on the board at the gate. Curiously, Carrie and Stephen flew us from Tokyo to Manila in economy class and put us up at a Holiday Inn Express, both of which were good value options but neither of which score any extra points on the comfort & luxury scale. That leaves me *very* curious to find out why we’re here in Manila….and I guess that thrilla is to be continuined in the morning….

Tim says…The team challenge is underway! After pizza party in a Premier Suite at the Hyatt Regency SFO, we traveled for just shy of 24-hours getting from San Francisco all the way to Manila. We got to try out Japan Airlines (JAL) 787 business class and Sakura Business lounges in Tokyo and San Francisco. The Tokyo lounge was terrific, the San Francisco lounge was, uh, not terrific. The catering and service throughout were very good. I actually unknowingly left my wallet the the SFO-Tokyo flight and someone found it, ran it over to our departure gate and it was there when we got there…before I even knew it was missing!

Greg the referee says…Pre-game notes: We stayed at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport the night before flying JAL business class to Tokyo. The hotel was a fantastic choice: I booked us directly into a premium suite with points; and our second room, for which I paid only ~$150, was upgraded to a premium suite. There was plenty of room for all 5 of us. Plus, the first room had a pool table, which proved to be lots of fun. The JAL flight to Tokyo was excellent. Service was fantastic, and the food was very good. The seats were great for sleeping as they had tons of legroom, and mattress pads were available as well. The seats weren't great for working, though, because there was no place to put a laptop when food service was in play.

Once in the Tokyo Narita airport, Team Tokyo took over. They did a fantastic job in hiding our ultimate destination from Team SFO. We spent a bit of time in the business class lounge before boarding our JAL flight to Manilla. This time we flew economy as that was the only award space available. Normally a sub 5 hour flight in economy wouldn't be too bad, but I was wiped out from the previous long flight (where I didn't sleep much despite the comfy sleeping conditions) and so I was a bit more uncomfortable than I normally would have been. Luckily I slept for the first two hours of that flight! I’m writing this now from the Holiday Inn Express Manilla where I have a private room (thank you!) whereas the other four are sharing two 2-bed rooms.

I now have to put my referee cap on. Most of the travel so far has been positioning us to Manilla so there's not much to give bonus points for (but I do need to do some homework to see how good of a deal the flight and hotel were so that I can optionally award bonus points for those). Now that we’re here, I’m looking forward to amazing activities, food, and lodging so that I can start giving out the big bucks points!