'DumboJet' pilot's account of flying to Narita

[Taro Toporific]

Here's 1st-person pilot's account of what the dread Narita flight is like for them.
The Big Non-Stop
AVweb.com / May 30
.... We drove and drove and drove some more. The scenery was boring. In fact, we never even saw the Pacific Ocean on this crossing. It sometimes amazes me how we can fly for hours and hours with nothing but a featureless white cloud layer below. We could have been over Peoria or St. Petersburg -- Florida or Russia, take your pick. This view also numbs us to the reality of our passing over miles of very deep, very cold water -- a terrible place to try to land a big jet if the worst happens.
As we near the coast of Japan and again regain VHF radio coverage, we contact Tokyo Control; you notice that Japanese controllers speak English, "the universal language" though it's not the same English you and I learned in Kansas or Texas or even Pennsylvania. ...

[Andocrates]

Yea, my flight over to Narita Saturday I wound up on an aisle seat. These 2 Thai or Malaysian women were sitting next to me - sleeping the entire time. So in order to go piss or stretch my legs I had to wake them up. I really despise Northwest it's so cramped - but it was the only flight I could find. My Laptop batteries lasted 2 episodes of Sopranos then died. All in all it sucked! I want, one time, to fly first-class! But I'm too cheap.

[jingai]