minimizing jet lag

[mtpiper]

Did I not search right, or is there really not much discussion in this forum on minimizing the effects of jet lag when traveling to Japan?

What methods do you all use? This will be our first trip from the western US to Japan. We arrive Tokyo at 5pm after 21 hours total travel time (-15 hour time difference from Montana). I have a friend that has traveled to China a couple of times and swears by the method of staying awake for the flight over, and then going to bed at the normal local time (that would mean we're up for about 26 hours!). Then there are the people that say to fast for 12-16 hours and then eat breakfast at the "local" time to make your body clock reset. I'd like to avoid any chemistry experiments if at all possible.

Thanks for any advice!
Tony

[Psy]

I can't speak for others, but flying out of Spokane, I had very little sleep the night before leaving and couldn't (despite considerable efforts) get myself to sleep on the entire flight over. It was extremely taxing upon arrival to coordinate, and had I not had assistance in finding my destination it would have been a nightmare-- so be sure to get plenty of rest before you take off. However, I did manage to stay awake until 10 or 11pm, at which point I crashed and crashed hard. To this day I still don't remember taking the stairs to where my room was located...

... the good news? I felt fine the next morning. The sequence was similar for the trip back, but since I had plenty of rest beforehand, I was tired but not completely exhausted. In short, here are my recommendations:

• Get plenty of sleep the night before.
• Stand up and walk around every 45-60 minutes on the plane.
• Drink plenty of liquids-- on my flight green tea was often served.
• The flight is long and boring. The roar of the engines will drown out all but the best (or noise canceling) headphones, so don't rely on a music player. Books, electronic gadgets, and conversation are probably your best bets to kill the time.
• Pray your luggage makes it.
• Pray you aren't seated near chain smokers.

Lastly, I find the "endless day" going West a lot easier than the "rapid night" going East.

Have a great trip!

[Belton]

Pray you aren't seated near chain smokers.

They allow smoking on American planes still? !?
or are you just talking about the residual stale tobacco smell from their clothes?

I haven't been on a plane allowing smoking in a long time. even JAL from Paris was non smoking.

I try to go onto Japan time as soon as possible, sleep and eat at the times I will in Japan.
Day 1 I'm pretty tired by the evening and need an early night (just not too early or you wake up at 4am or something) but by Day 2 I'm usually ok. I probably wake up much earlier than usual throughout my entire stay though. No harm though as getting to the tourist attractions early before everyone else is a bonus.
I don't plan to do much on day 1 usually. One of the better things I've done to recover from a flight is visit Nagoya airports onsen.

Sleeping on the plane is difficult in economy. eye-mask and wax earplugs help keep out the external environment. If you're lucky you can get a seat with decent legroom. Some airlines now charge you to pre-book these seats. but checking in early and asking nicely has often worked for me.
A window seat gives you the bulkhead to rest your head against but blocks you in when you want to stand up and walk around. Window seat by the exit can mean less leg room due to the inflatable ramp storage, I suppose that may depend on make of plane.
Unfortunately now they've put in entertainment systems the arm rests between seats can no longer be raised to make a little more room if you're a couple or the seat adjacent is empty.

Actually the more I think about it the more the flight is something to be endured.

Noise cancelling in-ear closed earphones do a good job of making the movies etc. audible. don't forget an airline socket adapter. Something like the Sony MDR-NC22. A closed design is just as important in keeping unwanted sound out as noise cancelation.
(maybe more so, I've only really found noise cancellation effective on the constant drone in an airplane rather than the intermittent clatter of the Tube, where earphones that fit snugly in the ear are best) In-ear is smaller to carry and maybe more comfortable than a closed headset which tend to clamp quite tightly onto your head if they're any good. Open headsets let in way too much external noise and can leak sound to annoy your neighbour.

bon voyage, ごきげんよう！

[mtpiper]

They allow smoking on American planes still? !?

No, it's all non-smoking on Northwest.
Thanks for the advice!
We'll be on an A330 from Seattle, window and isle seat for my wife and I, so only one friendly lap to crawl over to get out!
We're toward the back of the plane, so no power at our seat (according to seatguru.com) and NWA charges $50 to get an isle seat up front with power...and only 24 hours in advance of the flight, so I won't bother.

Oh, for those that followed the thread on us taking the train from NRT to the hotel...( http://www.japanesepod101.com/forum/vie ... php?t=2251 ) our friend emailed me and said don't worry about it, they will pick us up at the airport!! Is it appropriate to offer some kind of gift or compensation for them coming all the way out to get us? They will be taking us all the way in to the Tokyo Dome Hotel. That can't be cheap at $7/gal for gas or whatever they are paying now.

Tony

[Belton]

... our friend emailed me and said don't worry about it, they will pick us up at the airport!! Is it appropriate to offer some kind of gift or compensation for them coming all the way out to get us?

tough call. I'd use whatever custom you'd have in Montana. But as your friend offered he knows what he's let himself in for. You've got to stay the right side of friendship.

A gift wouldn't be entirely inappropriate perhaps, you'd normally bring something from your home country anyway, or take your friends out to dinner. Cold hard cash (crisp new bills actually) is acceptable as a gift in way more situations than in the West, but I doubt this is one of them.

My experience in Japan is that gifts and favours are a long social obligation going back and forth over time. For instance on my last trip I bought dinner for my girlfriend and her best friend. The next day I received a gift from the friend. And thank-you emails fly back and forth on keitai as well. Much more complicated than I'm used to.

I've found it much harder to pick up the tab in Japan for a meal or drinks, sometimes I just don't try. warikan, splitting the bill straight down the middle seems more usual.

[Psy]

Pray you aren't seated near chain smokers.

They allow smoking on American planes still? !?
or are you just talking about the residual stale tobacco smell from their clothes?

The residual stuff. Plenty nasty though-- here's talking from experience.

[Taurus]

I think the key to beating jetlag is to start to acclimatise as soon as you can. So as soon as you're on the plane, set your clock to Japanese time and try to adjust your sleeping/eating patterns accordingly (which can sometimes be quite difficult, because airlines still seem to persist in giving out meals/dimming the lights according to the local time at the point of departure).

[nyappyrebecca]

Would it be worth it to just sleep half of the time or would that make it worse?

Also, what would you do to entertain yourself?

[Belton]

I find it fairly hard to sleep on the plane. but it's worth a try.
Essentially the idea is to get your body/mind used to working with a new time cycle as soon as possible. And minimise the effect of a less than comfortable, maybe stressful and boring journey.

I watch movies for entertainment. Usually 3 or 4. If I'm lucky there are usually Japanese films I haven't seen or that would never see a release outside Japan.

[nyappyrebecca]

Window seat by the exit can mean less leg room due to the inflatable ramp storage, I suppose that may depend on make of plane.

Gah! I have a window seat. At least I think I do. D; I am small, though. I'm 5'2 or 5'3. I wonder if that'd depend on how small a person is?

[Psy]

I flew on an Airbus 330-- great plane. On the way there I had a window seat, on the way back an aisle-- I actually liked the window better.

Your mileage may vary.

[Belton]

The exit window seat is the only one where you might have less leg room than you otherwise thought.
Usually the exit seats aren't pre-allocated. although as I say some airlines sell them off.

The normal window seat has the same leg room as the aisle seat.

5' 2" should be fine in any seat. (183cm and getting wider than I want... not so much 笑）

Seats seem to be in groups of 3. The only seat I really wouldn't want is the middle one. If you're lucky the plane isn't too full and you can change seat if you want or get an empty seat next to you.

The other thing I started to do for comfort is put my shoes in the overhead storage and like the Japanese wear slippers (which I've started taking to Japan as my feet are bigger than supplied slippers) or just clean socks.

[untmdsprt]

On my flight over, I never could go to sleep, so I did everything possible to keep from being bored. I was thankful that I had someone meet me at the airport because having two suitcases and being drained from that flight wore me out!

I believe I stayed up until about 10pm that night I got there so I could go to bed at a normal hour. I felt fine the next day, and took a couple of days to get into a routine.

[mtpiper]

Well, we're back from 12 days in Tokyo and I'm here to tell you I didn't suffer any jet lag!!!
Here's what we did (your mileage may vary)...
Our situation was as follows: We took a 7am flight from Montana to Seattle, then had about a 6 hour layover (no good connections from Montana), then Northwest Airlines to Narita (9.5 hours).
The evening before we left, we slept and ate as normal....had dinner a little late that evening. We then didn't eat anything the next day and only drank water until 3pm Seattle time (7am Tokyo time) just before the flight left (they were late!). We ate breakfast type food (a couple scones, some coffee cake, orange juice and some more water). We ate normally on the flight after that, but only took a few 15 minute naps. Luckily, we were on an Airbus A330 that has the entertainment units in each seat, so that kept us occupied.
By the time we got to Narita, we were getting pretty tired. But since the flight was late, we breezed through immigration and customs (maybe 8-10 minutes max) and were met by our friends (that was so nice of them to pick us up...I know it can't be cheap!). We went to the hotel, then out to dinner with all their family. By this time I was getting pretty ringy, but I still could have a conversation. Our total travel time was about 21 hours, and we were up for 26 hours.
We finally got to bed about 10:30 that night and totally crashed. We woke up about 4am the next morning and were out of bed a little after 5. We had a normal breakfast, got out and about for the day, then to our friends house for dinner that evening. We were pretty tired again by 10pm, but it was wasn't that bad. Went to bed that night, slept really well, then the next morning, it was like we had been there forever! No jet lag!!

So, the next time we go to Japan, we'll be using the fasting method!!
Tony

[visual_gaze]

When i went to Japan, i didnt sleep at all on the way there. the night before i didnt get any sleep what so ever as i was still packing and the excitement just wouldnt let me. we left for LAX around 5AM and we got there around 7AM. we then took a 1 hour flight from LA to San Fransisco, waited for an hour or so and then from SF to Osaka. we took a bus ride to our Hotel which lasted around 1 hour and we were in our hotel around 4-5 PM japan time. What surprised me was that i didnt get jetlagged. i was very very VERY tired on our first night in Osaka but even then me and my friend fell asleep around 4AM. we woke up around 7AM since we had to catch our bus to Okayama but in total i basicaly didnt sleep for around 2 1/2 days. When we reached Okayama we still went to meet our host families and had a meeting and we went to sleep maybe around 11 that night but me and my friend fell right into Japans time.

On our way back that was a complete different story. I slept the whole way back on the plane and in the car ride home. It took me about 3 days to fall back into my home time and i was tired 24/7 for about a week. I guess it just depends on the person and on what you do during all those hours of travel to get acustomed. all i know is the whole experience was worth all those hours of cranky-ness and exhaustion when i got back home