My first flight was in 1989 when I was 8 years old, on a JAL flight LAX-NRT to visit my grandparents.

It was an interesting because back in those days, it was rare for a unaccompanied minor to be on a Japanese plane. All of the stewardesses (the days when they took the name as a pride) were very kind, in which they gave me a die-cast metal toy of the Boeing 747 that I was on, a destination map of the Silk-Road routes that JAL flew, and an "honorary pilot's hat." At landing in NRT, they even allowed me into the cockpit in which the pilot, the co-pilot, and the flight controller all greeted me with a warm welcome. One of the stewardesses brought a camera and took a picture of me in the pilot's seat, in which she later sent it to my grandparent's address in Japan.

It was a great time to be a child.