Flying to Las Vegas

My first ever JAL Pack trip

Last week I flew to Las Vegas with four Japanese guys who also do magic. The idea was that since some of the great magicians are pretty old now, they might retire soon. And it would be good to see them perform live at least once.

We met up really really early (I had to get up at 4:30 a.m.) and flew to Narita to change planes. There we had to wait for eight hours, which was not that great. We had some nice sushi there, and I shopped a lot. I bought small ear cleaners that look like samurai swords and things like that. I buy a lot of stuff like that in a vague hope that some of them will be useful in some magic trick.

In Tokyo the sold noodles from our small zoo in Sapporo. It is surprising that a small zoo in Sapporo can reach Tokyo. It is also surprising that a zoo sells noodles.

We boarded a flight to LA, and during 11 hours I sat next to a crying kid who was about 2 years old or so. Every time he stopped crying and started playing with something, his father got mad at him for playing with something he should not touch, and then slapped the kid... So there was of course even more crying. In Sweden it is illegal to slap kids, so to me the whole concept is just foreign, but even for someone who presumably grew up in a country where hitting kids is considered OK, you could at least stop hitting your kid when you are in a plane full of people who would prefer to sleep undisturbed by kids crying from being hit by their parents...

Swedish movie in the plane!

Since there was not that much chance of sleeping, I checked what movies they were showing in the plane. They turned out to be showing a Swedish movie! I watched a bunch of Disney movies instead, though. Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6, and more.

These looked like they cold be good, but they were not. They were completely devoid of taste.

In LA we were met by two Japanese women from JAL Pack (we had bought a pack with JAL airplane tickets and hotel included) who walked us to the transfer desk and explained what we needed to do. Which I guess might be nice if you have never traveled abroad before or if you do not understand English. We got on a flight to Las Vegas and flew above the desert for an hour or two.

Flying over the desert we could see circular spots of irrigated land where some farming was going on.

I am not sure what these mirror like areas were. Solar power, perhaps?

There was a golf course in the middle of the desert.

Once we reached Las Vegas, more JAL Pack staff showed up and helped us find the shuttle bus taking us to our hotel, and one of them even stood in line with us at the hotel and helped us check in. There were two more from our plane who also had booked JAL Packs, but we lost them somewhere between the baggage return and the shuttle bus. Considering that the JAL Pack staff always explained everything in excruciating detail, it was quite impressive for these two to manage not to understand where to go, especially considering they just had to walk behind the rest of us. I later saw them downtown in Las Vegas, though.

In Las Vegas you can even gamble in the airport.

The whole parking lot was filled with limousines.

WiFi in the airplane

In the plane I tried out the "In flight WiFi" service. Not long ago everyone was very paranoid about wireless devices in the airplane, but now most airlines provide WiFi for you when flying. Which is convenient. Internet access is still pretty expensive, though. But the free entertainment content on the WiFi was pretty funny.

Airport shopping

I got to the airport earlier than expected, so I walked around and did some shopping. I bought a deck of cards that also teach you Kyoto dialect (Kyoto is very close to Osaka). Kyoto dialect sounds very cute, according to my Japanese friends.

I also saw a t-shirt that says: "I am a pervert" (for girls, though there was probably one with male Japanese available too). I was thinking of buying it as a gift for the girl who keeps asking me to show my underwear in bars. But since by now five different people have asked me to do that, maybe it is not that strange in Japan?

Apparently it is 666 miles from Osaka to Sapporo

Mount Fuji and Osaka castle from the sky

Small remains of heavy snowfall in Sapporo

On Sunday I had to cancel my private plans (I was invited to a nabe party) because my boss wanted me to attend a meeting in Osaka early on Monday morning. On Sunday there was a snowstorm that hit the airport outside Sapporo, so I was a bit worried that the planes would not fly. My plane managed to get out of Sapporo slightly before the storm arrived, though.

For once, I had a window seat, and the seat was on the side of the plane where you can see Mount Fuji. I also saw Osaka castle during our descent towards the Itami airport.

Mount Fuji in the distance

Mount Fuji again

The moon

The shadow from our plane

Osaka castle

In-Flight Entertainment

Roses folded from the JAL paper napkins (by me)

During the 11.5 hour flight from Tokyo to Frankfurt, you easily get bored. As usual, I folded my paper napkins into roses, and this time they were placed on display in the self service area by a stewardess that thought they looked nice.

A step by step instruction for preparing your own hamburger.

The breakfast meal also contained an entertaining piece of food. It was a collaboration between Mos Burger and JAL, and it was a hamburger that you put together yourself. The instructions were very detailed. The strangest part was that the buns and the meat patty were separated by paper and the instructions said that you had to remove these papers (step 3). Why was there paper there in the first place?

Me halfway through with my hamburger.