I wish I could tell you who these people were, but basically there were five speeches and I could only understand one by Mr. Loose. It was interesting that two of them did not even use a card and memorized the whole speech by heart. The US counselor basically reiterated the importance of this link to the Silicon Valley and the mission of TOMO DACHI, which will be feature in a number of ANA jets, which serve the US markets. JA814A also had this logo. JA813A and JA814A are both based in Narita and served the SEA and SJC market only. It is basically an initiative after the earthquake in East Japan to celebrate the friendship of the USA and to increase trade after the disaster. It is like a private and public partnership between American and Japanese governments and corporations to help the recovery process.
Speeches
After all these speeches, here was the moment. Instead of ribbon cutting, we had the sake barrel breaking ceremony.
The guests basically all wore a special ANA Japanese style jacket and then given a ceremonial drum to break open a fresh sake barrel.
Three… Two… One…
ANA staffs pouring the sake and passing them around
The Special Sake Cup celebrating the inaugural flight
One more shot of JA813A in the late afternoon sunlight
Gate 51 was getting ready for boarding
One more farewell ceremony and similar dances again
Boarding finally was called at 5:12pm. The priority was strictly reinforced with special assistance passengers, followed by ANA diamond elites and special press today. Then business class passengers, and then economy passengers! No chance for jumping queue and this should be the model for all airlines boarding, and that’s why boarding was always completed within short period of time.
The cabin is filled with these temporary signs celebrating the new inaugural flights to San Jose!
The cabin was welcoming in the blue mood lighting, which meant bad pictures without flash. It looks nice though. I will try more cabin pictures on my return flight in February, but with the amount of official literature, it is not difficult to find cabin pictures.
First business class cabin
Second business class cabin