Kon'nichiwa

One thing I've learned as a traveler is to be flexible. I wasn't always so flexible. Our first trip to Japan 10 years ago caused me a lot of stress when our return trip was canceled due to weather. I handle those kind of situations much better now. This trip our flight to SFO got delayed to the point we were at risk of missing a connection and possibly missing our flight to Japan. However we talked with an agent and were able to change to a San Francisco direct flight. The change took a long time to make but we got confirmed on the new flight just in time.

Cramped seat to San Francisco 

We had to accept some less roomy seats than we originally had but we were happy to be on our way without delay. We arrived in San Francisco about 4 hours earlier than we otherwise would have. We were surprised however to learn that our checked bag was checked through all the way to Japan even though we had an overnight in San Francisco. Fortunately there wasn't anything we needed in it. We had a nice room at the Embassy Suites and the next morning there was a breakfast buffet that included pancakes and cooked to order eggs. We planned to take the 8:50 shuttle back to the airport and arrived to the lobby in plenty of time. The shuttle was standing outside but the desk clerk said to wait inside until the driver came in to get us. While we were waiting the shuttle pulled away. The desk clerk apologized and said to wait outside and she would call the shuttle back. After a few minutes she told us the shuttle could not come back but we could walk to the hotel next door where it would wait for us. So we walked to the next hotel and got on the shuttle, which then returned to our original hotel to PICK US UP!

Roomy seat to Japan

We did make it to the airport with enough time to enjoy some coffee in the United club before heading to the gate. The flight to Osaka was on one of the new 787 Dreamliners. We had comfortable seats with lots of legroom. Elliott seems to be traveling well. He's kept himself entertained with the iPad we lent him and hasn't complained about the long trip at all. We are about an hour from landing as I write this. I'll try to get it posted tonight and write an update after our first day of touring.