I did this in November - JAL outbound from UK on the 777-300 and BA back on the 787-800. The only complaint about the JAL flight was the high cabin temp combined with wearing an FFP2 face mask for the duration of the flight made it uncomfortable.
The BA flight on the way back took nearly 15hrs and was by far the worst long haul flight I've taken. Found it really hard to get any sort of sleep.
I'm looking for GLA-TYO in September to go to the F1 race and am looking at nearly £1200 being the cheapest. Emirates via Dubai doesn't seem as bad now with the extended BA and JAL flight times.
Travelling with a then infant I came to truly embrace indirect travel between London and Tokyo. Jet lag had become a massive problem and longer journeys with breaks in unknown cities seemed to eradicate our jet lag.
Different times now, child is a teenager, and I’m currently very risk adverse. Time our daughter can spend with her granddad in Japan is beyond precious to us. Direct flights mean less risks, I’m not entirely confident that Japan couldn’t just suddenly ban inbound travel from an as yet random country in a few months time.
Airism clothing (lightest possible) and a couple of Spanish fans for the JAL flights. As well as clean feet in our own thin travel slippers. The truth is, if we can’t handle the flights’ cabin temperatures we are going to be in a LOT of trouble this August in Tokyo.
Enjoy the F1. I got pretty involved in my previous-to-being-MrsLapLap life and have very fond memories.