October saw us board a domestic flight to Seattle with the Bob Marley airline (aka Alaska) and “endure” an amazing dinner during our overnight stop over.

….and then a wonderful All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight to Tokyo-Narita on the wonderful Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner.  This is a hybrid two class configuration – business class and economy (split into Premium economy and the great unwashed!) and our Premium Economy seats were remarkably comfortable and spacious.  

ANA provided an excellent service experience and I thoroughly recommend them over US carriers for a trip to Japan.  The 787 has better atmospheric pressurization and climate control than any other plane I have been on – although our daytime flight (all the way) was rather warm – no individual air vents to play with.

ANA provided our first peek into Japanese culture and formality.  I’ve never encountered a friendlier and more customer-experienced focused airline before.  This would become a recurring theme over the next two weeks.

The airline food was very good (choose menu A over menu B) and the whole in-flight experience made the transition to the land of the rising sun a pleasant one.

Next – Tokyo.