Traveling to Japan from Seattle was quite the experience. If you are going to fly to Japan, ANA Business class is something I would highly recommend. ANA is outfitted with the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Upon boarding the plane, we were greeted with friendly stewardesses asking us if we would like Champagne or Orange Juice. Knowing that this is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity, I decided to live it up.

Champagne of course.

The seats alternate between rows (i.e. Row 1 A might be a seat and Row 1B would be a table, while in Row 2 A it would be a table and Row 2 B would be a seat) This way your feet would be underneath the table in the row in front of you. This was extremely nice because you could stretch out with your feet and lay down perfectly flat if desired. (The seats actually leaned back farther than 180 degrees, but that position seemed like it would be uncomfortable, so I’m not sure who would enjoy that…)

One difficulty with this whole arrangement was talking to my wife. The middle section of the plane (normally 3 seat locations) had a wall divider separating the 2 outside seats. Nice for privacy, difficult to have a conversation with the misses. For our flight, my seat was right behind my wife’s.  Trying to get her attention was difficult as I couldn’t reach her with the seat belt on, and the noise cancelling headphones ANA gave out made calling her name useless.

The headphones were nice for the 4 movies I was able to plow through. Watching them on a 17 inch TV screen was also nice. When I got on the plane, my seat had a comforter, a sleeping pad, a pillow, a small bag with lotion and a toothbrush, and slippers. The stewardesses would walk by frequently, always ready to refresh your drink.

The first meal was deluxe. You have your choice of Japanese or an International meal. Knowing that I wouldn’t be having American food for a while I stuck with the International meal. It came with an appetizer of prosciutto and fruit, as well as some sort of seafood dish (I’m not particularly fond of seafood…) For the main course, I had a steak, and dessert was a Chocolate Mousse cake. The Japanese meal came with quite a bit of seafood… again not quite fond of seafood… Later in the flight, a second meal came around,  again the options of Japanese or International. International was a gourmet lasagna. It wasn’t the best lasagna I’ve eaten, and actually I prefer Stouffer’s, but maybe that’s just me. They also had “Light” meals that you could request anytime during the flight. My wife had Ramen. After tasting the lasagna, I’m wishing I would have gotten the Bacon CheeseBurger.

For each meal, they setup a new table cloth. I did feel as though I was dining like a king.

The plane flew on a path north near Alaska. Looking out the window, I was trying to determine if I was seeing some strange currents, or if there were layers of ice on the water.

It would be funny if the company I just left made the seats for this airplane. If so, I will say they did a pretty good job.

I’ve never been on a Dreamliner before. So it was my first time to see the magical windows. They are actually pretty cool the first time you see them. Clicking a button with magically make the window darker. No window shade or anything.

This website explains a little bit about how they work http://gizmodo.com/5829395/how-boeings-magical-787-dreamliner-windows-work

I’m sure as I fly more planes in the future that have this ability, the wow factor will wear off and most likely kids in the future will ask “Mom, what’s a window shade”… At any rate, it seemed cool.

The customs process was rather painful….. We got in a line that took a long time, probably about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Once we got to the front of the line a lady directed us to lane 11. We waited in that lane for about 15 minutes until we finally got to talk to the Customs agent. She had a look at my passport and found that I had a Japanese Visa. She yelled for the lady who was directing people at the first line, and we were swiftly redirected to the back of lane 13… It took another 20 minutes or so to get to the front of than lane, but finally I was issued a residence card and allowed through customs.

We must have been the last passengers through customs. There was no carousel moving with bags from our flight, but we found them on a cart with an agent in the back of baggage claim.

Our next flight was almost 3 hours later. Since we flew business class, we were able to sit in the lounge area for ANA. It was rather busy, and not as luxurious as I was imagining, but the seats were more comfy than normal airport seats, and they had free drinks and snacks.

We flew on a small Bombardier plane the last leg to Kanazawa. It was a quick flight, 45 minutes or so, but they still threw some juice at us really quick which was nice.

Finally, we arrived in Kanazawa where my wife’s parents picked us up at the airport. The drive to their home was another 45 minutes away, but I managed to stay awake for the ride. We talked for a few minutes at their home, and then I went upstairs and passed out around 9PM I think. I believe I was awake for nearly 24 hours.