Originally Posted by brp
Not! SJC-NRT was very nice and (relatively) short. Adding the 4.5 hours to ORD, and about another 3 hours on the ORD-NRT will be far, far from sweet.
But it's not your only option (nor your best one unless you want more miles).
You can get down to LAX any way you want (SJC-LAX, SFO-LAX, etc) and connect to LAX-NRT. It departs and returns both in mid-afternoon, so there's no problems with connections from elsewhere on the west coast (like there can be to the ORD-DEL flight).
Of course, it won't be as short as SJC-NRT direct, but it still should be a lot be a lot better than going through ORD for NRT.