Aika Kanda’s Haneda-Naha Status Journey – Part 1

An important training day.

On a certain day in October, at 5:30 AM, just before dawn, I was sitting on a sofa in the JAL First Class Lounge at Haneda Airport’s domestic terminal. To cool the burning flames of my heart, I downed a beer. In front of me, on the still-dark runway, was a JAL aircraft that shone brighter than the rest. Today was an important training day that would determine my social standing for the coming year.

The social status I want to protect at all costs is my JAL membership status. When flying with JAL, I accumulate points, and based on these, I receive a corresponding status rank the following year. For 11 years, I have maintained the highest rank.

The path to maintaining this status is never easy. In fact, even now, I’m on the edge of whether I can keep it for next year. To reach the target points, I have to fly a lot before the end of the year. Therefore, today, I decided to take two round trips from Haneda Airport to Naha Airport in Okinawa, even though I had no business there. This type of activity is referred to as training in the aviation enthusiast community.

I was fully prepared. I broke in a new pair of sneakers I had just purchased. The total flight time for all four flights was 9 hours and 40 minutes. Since I wouldn’t be walking much, I decided to break in the sneakers while training. And I also wrote this column. As I sipped my beer, I felt a sense of pride in my perfect use of time.

My biggest challenge was the in-flight meals. To accumulate more points, I chose First Class for all flights. Delicious meals were served on each flight, which was a blessing, but sitting still and eating four times in one day would definitely make me gain weight. (It’s a waste, but I’ll resist as much as I can!) I promised myself. And then, it was time to embark.

The first flight to Naha was the 6:30 AM departure. The passengers around me were dressed in resort-style dresses or shorts and T-shirts, filled with excitement. But I was a training monk. To keep my spirit unwavering, I decided to ignore them and maintain my distance.

As soon as I sat down, the flight attendant asked me about the in-flight meal. The meal on this flight was Japanese cuisine. I’m not particularly fond of Japanese food, so I declined without hesitation and felt relieved.

Then, I suddenly noticed something on my neighbor’s screen. (This person is also a training monk!) I realized. JAL’s personal monitors allow passengers to view real-time footage from two exterior cameras located near the tail and front wheels of the aircraft. Based on my human observation data, I could guess that many training monks, who are aviation enthusiasts, like to watch this footage during the flight. By this point, my own personal monitor was already set to display the footage from the tail camera. But deep down, I wanted to see both! So, when my neighbor was watching one of the exterior camera feeds, I thought to myself, (Lucky!). I would set my screen to show the other feed, so I could sneakily watch both at once.