charlesfromage

We're flying to Tokyo soon with two kids (11 and 6). We'll all be in business class, but trying to figure out what flight times will be best for jet lag. There are three options:

1) Leave SFO at 11:15, arrive Narita at 14:10

Pro: Flight times probably work well for a mid-flight nap and then try to stay up to reasonable time the first day.

Con: Might be a bit hard to sleep at all given late morning departure. Narita further away from central Tokyo.

2) Leave SFO at 19:25, arrive Haneda at 22:45

Pro: Probably the easiest for sleeping. Kids and adults will have no problem falling asleep for a while.

Con: If we sleep on the plane, will we arrive at the hotel at midnight fully awake?

3) Leave SFO at 1:35, arrive Haneda at 4:45

Pro: ??

Con: I don't even know how we would work this one? My son normally goes to sleep around 7:30. Do we put him to bed and then wake him up to go to the airport? Does everyone stay up late and then just sleep the entire flight? We wouldn't be able to check in at 6 AM.

Would love to hear opinions from people that have tried it.

basscadet75

The 2:10PM arrival is probably best. You'll all probably sleep at least a little bit on the plane and will be able to stay awake when you arrive until a more normal sleeping time.

Different people are affected more or less by jetlag, though. The problem isn't just the amount of sleep you get or staying up an extra 8 hours that first day. Your brain doesn't adjust its own internal clock in a single day; it still thinks it's day when it's night and night when it's day for a little while. (It just thinks you slept through the day that first night.) For some people this isn't a big deal, but you never know how it'll affect you until you try it.

I've done JFK-NRT more than 20 times and even if I think I've done things perfectly to avoid jetlag (slept a bit on the plane, timed things so I sleep at 11PM the first night), I still find myself wide awake at 5AM and out like a narcoleptic at about 3PM for about the first 4-5 days. My wife is usually ok outbound but is even worse than that coming back.

Taiwaned

For us, we do our best to arrive in Japan in the late afternoon. Enough time to get home, open our luggage, dinner and then go to sleep.

jib71

+1
After landing, keep the kids awake until as late as possible. If everyone is thoroughly exhausted when you go to bed that night, you stand a chance of sleeping through until the morning and getting into a decent sleep pattern.

abmj-jr

It is really not going to matter. You are going to have to deal with jet-lag no matter which option you select. It will be even worse coming the other direction on the way home.

I am also from the west coast and find the 11:15 am (UA) or 12:20 pm (ANA) departures for NRT work best for me. They get into NRT at a reasonable time. The train into Tokyo is kind of a fun, relaxing way to unwind from the hassles of arrival, with a bottle of something cold and a bit of window tourism along the way. I get to my hotel at a time I can actually check in immediately, dropping bags. And there is time to go for an easy walk to get the kinks out and grab a light meal before going to bed at a normal bedtime. That last is a key to getting my body clock adjusted to local time as quickly as possible.

KPT

AFAICT #3 (JL1 SFO-HND) is aimed at business travelers like me going HND-SFO-HND.
Exit Haneda around 5am and enjoy the last N minutes to the office in a cab.

Supposedly you'll get a good night's rest on the flight unless you're someone like me who has trouble sleeping in any moving vehicle.

Note that JL 1 used to leave at 6:30pm and arrive at 10:30pm; I've done this one several times with mixed results. IMO that was worse for leisure travelers because you're scrambling to figure out how to get to your accommodations since the last train out of Haneda is quite soon after arrival (and a bunch of DL flights land around then too, adding to the queues).

frankmu

If your kids use electronic gadgets (Nintendo, iPads, etc.), hide it! On our first trip to Japan, my youngest woke up at 3 am, and secretly played it while the rest of us were asleep. He was very cranky the rest of the day.

In fact, count on cranky kids for a few days. Be sure to add rest and snack periods frequently. They will have a blast once they are adjusted.

armagebedar

Agreed. The late departure time from both airports is quite businessman-friendly as well. However, the arrival time in SFO is in the middle of rush hour, which a late-morning arrival would miss. Just something to think about for your return leg.

evergrn

We've been doing US-Jpn and US-HKG over and over with our kids ever since they were born. As an adult, I have no flight time preferences strictly from jetlag standpoint. So with us, the question of jetlag and sleep mainly only regard our kids. We've taken different departure times (including all of the timeframes you list below), and we've always sort of tried to plan our kids' sleep/nap time leading up to the flight accordingly. Mind you, our kids are still much younger than yours. You don't have that type of control over an 11yo. Anyways, with that in mind, here's our experience...

Kids tend to stay awake for the first half of the flight. They'll dim the cabin for much of the flight and our kids usually sleep for at least a few hours, charging them with enough energy to last at least a few hours after they land at NRT.

This is similar to SEA-HND on DL, and we've done this a couple times now. I believe this is really the best option from kids' jetlag/sleep standpoint. Kids sleep much of the flight, and yes they'll be up for a while after checking into the hotel late at night. But you still find yourself tired enough from the travel and you/kids will end up falling asleep for a few more hours again only to wake up again fairly early Jpn time for a fresh start to basically a full day.

We often do this time slot for flights from SEA/YVR to TPE/HKG. Our kids get fair amount of sleep and we get to our hotel in HKG at a fair time (9~11am). Then we're usually able to enjoy our much of our first day in HKG although kids get tired by mid-afternoon. But I don't know how this will work out for you, as your flight will be shorter and arrive at HND at a pretty inconvenient hour.

So in summary, I like #2>#1>#3.

ksandness

Whenever I arrive in Tokyo (and it's usually some time in the afternoon), I make a point of staying up till 10PM local time, even if I have to force myself. Then I sleep for about eight hours (not straight through, but I can go back to sleep in most cases), which brings me to 6AM. This is early, but not outrageously so. I then get up, have breakfast with lots of coffee, and walk around outside for about an hour to reset my body clock with exposure to daylight.

I'm usually fine on the first day, if a little more likely to go to bed early, but the real jet lag, if any, typically hits me on the second day in the form of afternoon sleepiness. This is one of the many reasons I long ago stopped staying in hostels and ryokan: It's really handy to be able to slip back to the hotel for a nap of no more than two hours.

joejones

I would do option 3 if I could arrange for early check-in at the hotel in Tokyo to freshen up. You can sometimes get a 6 AM check-in if you agree to pay for the night before although some hotels might not allow this. Of course, the main point of the early check-in is to shower and change clothes; you don't want to sleep any more than a very quick nap right away as it will wreck your sleep cycle.

I did the ANA LAX-HND run a couple of times last year (basically the same schedule) in PY. Had dinner and a few drinks in the lounge, showered and changed into comfortable clothes, then boarded the plane and conked out shortly after takeoff, dozing through most of the flight. After getting home first thing in the morning, I played with my kids until lunchtime, then took an afternoon nap for a couple of hours, and was right back on Japan time after that.

As far as the departure time is concerned, I took a midnight flight to Hawaii from HND with my 2 y/o daughter last year and she had no problem staying up until midnight out of sheer excitement (but promptly fell into a deep sleep once she was strapped in on board), so it may not be as much of a problem as you think.

One trick that I find to be helpful is to switch to destination time as soon as you can (preferably on the day of departure) and do your best to eat and sleep on the destination time schedule. Dinnertime in San Francisco is close to lunchtime in Japan, so consider having a lunch-like meal at dinnertime on your day of departure, followed by a dinner-like meal late at night (either right before or right after departure) and some breakfast before landing if you are hungry. Try to sleep though overnight hours in your destination time, and limit sleeping outside that window to short naps in between meals, movies, etc. This is easier to do if you're flying in a business class product where dining is on demand.

charlesfromage

Thanks everything. I really appreciate the opinions!

roberto99

I take the daytime flights from USA-NRT and HKG.

To beat jetlag, I try and stay awake on the entire westbound flight. Otherwise I don't sleep well in the hotel.

When I stay awake on the westbound flights I sleep well in the hotel and experience little/no jetlag

Going eastbound from Asia-USA I sleep through much of the flight and do well with little jetlag in the USA.

glennaa11

whenever I go to Asia I try to arrive late evening so I can go to the hotel and go straight to bed. That helps me reset much faster. But I find that sleeping on planes is nearly impossible for me even in C or F.

slawecki

i presume that is about a 9-10 hr flight. get the plane with the best beds. i prefer boeing, and dislike airbus seats. don't worry about jet lag. just go. the beds in the ana 777 and the boeing ua 787 are both fine.