Takeoff!

August 23, 2023

Looking out the window of a plane flying out of San Francisco.

And we’re off! Two months in Japan starts now.

Our journey started at Paine Field, which is a tiny airport with 2 passenger gates 20 minutes north of Seattle. Alaska has been ramping up service there, and if you’re ok with one of the two flights a day, the prices are nearly the same.

Empty Paine Field — The new (and very empty) remodeled terminal at Paine Field.

After experiencing the chaos that is SeaTac, Paine Field is a breath of fresh air - any time TSA outnumbers passengers you’re going to have a good time.

Two backpacks and plane tickets — All you need for 63 days in Japan.

We took ZipAir, which is a low-cost carrier from Japan Airlines. Tickets are usually $350/person, each way. The planes themselves are almost new Dreamliners leased from JAL. On the flipside, the low price means you pay for everything - yes, even cups.

Screenshot of what ZipAir charges for a cup. — 10¥ for an empty cup!

We prepared by going out with friends in the Mission the night before and grabbing a couple burritos at El Farolito (and ZipAir sells ramen if you’re not feeling airplane food). The plane was almost empty so most people stretched out on middle rows to sleep.

Empty middle rows. — Why pay for lie-flats when you can roll the dice on a middle row?

ZipAir offers both limited in-flight entertainment (with maybe 10 movies) and free in-flight wifi. It was good enough for basic Googling and messaging but definitely preload any video. I tried to stay up most of the flight to adjust to the new time zone (16 hours ahead).

We breezed through security and customs since we filled out the forms online. After a very, very long train ride (Narita is so far, but we couldn’t get any cheap Haneda flights), we arrived at our new home for the next few days - Meguro station. No time to explore today - just enough to grab a few snacks from FamilyMart and pass out.