After a grueling 14 hour flight on Japan Airlines where the in flight entertainment system didn’t work, I am here in Tokyo and I just returned to the airport after heading into Narita for a little bit for lunch. It’s been 8 years since I was last in Japan and I forgot just how different the Japanese culture was from American. From the organzied group plane exercises to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) to the scores of Hello Kitty nonsense that goes on-it’s funny but at the same time interesting.
First, today was my first time ever flying on Japan Airlines and I have to say I was pretty disappointed.?They have nothing on any of their Australasian competitors: Singapore; Thai; Qantas; Malaysian and Cathay Pacific all crush Japan Airlines in terms of service, food, comfort and certainly entertainment. Additionally, I don’t recall ever sitting in smaller coach seats, especially on a 747-400. I hate not being upgraded! I will give them credit however, that as a result of the entertainment system not working-they did give everyone ?10,000 vouchers. I may never use it but it was nice that they offered it.
I am pretty tired right now and not looking forward to another seven hour flight to Bali in about an hour but I still do get a kick out of the Japanese. They are just so different from us. It’s easy to make jokes (which I do) about Hello Kitty being a global goodwill ambassador for the country-I mean it is a cartoon. Also, there are a lot of their customs which we cannot possibly understand but underneath it there is a global technology power and the worlds second largest economy that these people have built since the end of World War II.
They are also just so happy all of time, or so it seems. The flight attendants on the plane, the people in the airport and everyone who I have interracted with this time or when I spent a lot of time here 8 years ago-they’re always happy and very friendly and pleasant. Nobody says that about Americans or certainly not the Brits.
As I am deliriously rambling here, I also wanted to point out that the Japan Airlines Lounges are phenomenal-almost as good as British Airways lounges and the people as I mentioned are very pleasant and they have free sushi-the real kind-not that prepackaged box stuff you get at the store in the States.
By the way I can’t believe the Wimbledon final and I can’t believe I missed it. Must’ve been awesome and I just hope my DVR got the whole match because it ran over by like 3 hours or something I heard.
I will write again from Bali.
The japanese and hello kitty are out of control
Wow! An 8 hour flight from Tokyo to Bali? Gotta to love how World maps really misconstrue the actual size of countries and the distances between them!