The difference between our flight to Japan this time vs. our flight in 2011 was astronomical. It was SO much better. Of course, having the kids be old enough to entertain themselves was a big part of that difference. Also, this time our flight was operated by ANA (a Japanese airline) rather than United, and the atmosphere in the cabin, the attention from the flight attendants and just in general, it was a nicer flight experience. Here's our rough timeline:
10:00am We arrived at our gate all checked-in.
11:30 Pre-board (not many kids on the flight so they let us pre-board)
12:00-ish: Take-off
We had the second to back-row of the plane which meant that we had the 3 middle seats plus the 2 seats on the right side of the airplane (normally there are 3 seats on each side but this row only had 2), so no one else was sitting with us. Chad sat with Tristan on the right side and I sat with Jamie and Abby in the middle. The kids quickly figured out how to watch their individual tv's and also got out their video games and snacks. We were served drinks and dinner. There were no American style dinners by the time they got to our row so we got the Japanese ones. They weren't bad but I wasn't really in the mood for fish and it was quite fishy. That was the one thing I didn't like about ANA was that every time a meal was served, the whole cabin smelled like fish. I watched a movie called the The Giver (not bad, a lot like Divergent) and then I finished knitting my dish cloth. Some people slept for awhile and then they brought out the final meal which none of us ate much of (out of the American meals again) and then soon after that we started to descend. At this point, Abby felt pretty sick and she had to keep the barf bag handy. She made it though and felt much better after landing.
3:40pm: We arrive at Narita airport. We proceed to customs and almost don't get our SOFA stamp (the stamp on our passport that will allow me and the kids to stay longer than 90 days). The shipyard had not yet put out the official letter yet that was supposed to have had all our names on it and the orders only have Chad's name. We showed birth certificates and a marriage license but still the custom's officer said she could not stamp all our passports. Finally Chad showed a copy of an email from work and she agreed. PHEW! [enter big sigh of relief] And it was a bit ironic considering the email copy was so much less official than all the documents she refused to accept.
We then took a van that we had rented (with driver) along with a coworker of Chad's. It was a perfect fit for all of us and much more relaxing than having to haul our luggage on and off the train.
6:00pm (or so): We arrive at our new apartment - the front desk staff move all our luggage up to our room for us. We check-in and move up to our apartment. Abby's stomach was pretty messed up from the plane and she had an accident in the bathroom. Normally it wouldn't have been that big of a deal (thankfully she made it all the way to the apartment), but given our lack of cleaning supplies and how tired we all were, it was a bit overwhelming.
Chad finally figures out where his coworker Matt is located in the building and he brings us the air mattress he picked up for us at the NEX and also some dinner that his wife made.
After dinner we make beds and all go to sleep.
4:00am: the start of our week-long struggle with jetlag!
