IAD-NRT leg was long. Really long. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly long it is. [apologies to Douglas Adams]
I mean, no matter how many times you see
the 14 hour flight time, and even though I’ve done that flight at least 3
separate times now (6 if you count roundtrips) I always forget just how long
that actually is. It’s so long that I: read a novel and a half, two magazines,
ran my laptop battery totally dead doing work, ate two meals and a snack, dozed
off for a bit, and the flight still wasn’t over.
I don’t really sleep on
planes, not because I have to “help them fly” or anything, but I have a bit of
a catch-22. I’m 6’4” and most of it is legs. Since I can’t remove them to stow
them in the overhead bin (or worse, gate-check them because they won’t fit in
the bin), I usually try to get an exit row or bulkhead set so that my legs
still work when I get off of the plane. But on most long-haul flights (777,
747, etc) the exit row and bulkhead areas are where people go to stretch and are
usually right near the lavatories, so there’s always noise and light and
activity, not conducive to sleeping without chemical aids. Also, I can’t seem
to sleep sitting up – I can’t do it in a car either.
You know, people are fond of joking about us living in the
future, as in “we live in the future, where’s my flying car, jetpack,
hoverboard, etc” but really, on flights
like that, my response is always “we live in the future, where’s my suborbital
(or supersonic) flight?” This is also put into sharp relief because typically while
on these excruciatingly long flights, I’m reading some near-future
sci-fi/cyberpunk novel where people can be on the other side of the world in a
matter of a few hours. Being able to get to Asia in half or a quarter of the
time (aka, not having it eat a full day) would be such an improvement. Remembering
a documentary I saw about the Concorde, I continue to be disappointed that we
actually took a step backward in commercial air flight evolution, and are still
using tech that is nearly 50 years old. However, I’m becoming convinced that
just making traditional jets (those that fly at 30-60k feet) fly 2x or 3x the
speed isn’t really the right way to go. There just doesn’t seem to be a way to
make that efficient enough to be cost-effective, considering thrust, heating,
and noise problems that limit your potential routes at those altitudes. Taking
the thing to the edge of space (say 300k feet) and letting the earth rotate
under you would be far more effective, the key is getting the launch/takeoff to
the point where that is cost-effective, and getting the whole thing to the
point where it’s routine. I keep hoping that Virgin Galactic and others have
concrete plans to take their nascent space programs beyond the “rich-man’s
bucket list” stage, but I understand that this initial trip to nowhere is
probably necessary to bankroll the R&D to make it accessible for us
commoners who can’t reliably get their companies to spring for a business-class
ticket to Asia, let alone something exotic like a suborb. I do wonder if
anyone’s done the math on what the break-even point would have to be for some
of the longest routes to make it cost-effective for business travelers (or even
just executives) based on the value of their on-clock time.
While I didn’t have to go through customs and immigration in
Japan, I did have to go through security to get to my transfer gate. A couple
of interesting observations – the English translation of the posted notice to
passengers made me chuckle – “…In order to prevent hi-jacking and other acts of
aggression, all passengers will be required to undergo a security check for
hand-carry items and parsonal [sic] effects…” As with every other country
outside of the US, you don’t have to take your shoes off in security. However,
I noticed several pairs of slippers in the hand-search area, so that if they
pulled you aside for a secondary search, you didn’t have to stand there in your
socks.
I actually made it
through Narita in enough time that I could have made the earlier flight to
Taipei, (I know this because I went to that gate only to discover it was the
wrong one) but I didn’t want to risk losing my exit row seat and having to wait
for my luggage, so I didn’t try to get on that flight. Instead I killed an hour
or so charging my phone and laptop and taking advantage of free WiFi. Sprint actually
has CDMA roaming agreements in both Tokyo and Taipei, and sends me a helpful
text message to tell me the local dial code, per-minute and text rates, and
also that mobile data is not available except with GSM “World” phones. But
since the alternative is my throwaway 2G Nokia with a prepaid SIM, and the 12
hour time difference makes it unlikely that I’ll be using my phone except in
emergencies, that’s ok by me. I do miss the data access though. Perhaps I
should look into a secondhand Android GSM phone for traveling…
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