Day: 9 April 2020

【Traveling】Flying to Japan

Traveling in Japan

Hi, it’s me again, JPNavi! Today it’s about trips to Japan!

Great, so if I want to go to Japan for cherry blossom, then I get tips for my trip here?

Exactly!

Or if I want to go to Fuji in the summer..😉 Nowadays you are immediately on the other side of the world by plane.

That’s right, but it’s still not a stone’s throw to Japan, so I’ve put together some general information about flying to Japan and some concrete travel options. The main focus here is on flight time, flight routes and costs.

So: How long do you fly to Japan? What are the flight routes to Japan? Which airlines fly to Japan? How much does a flight to Japan cost?

A short presentation of the international airports would also be very practical – depending on where you want to go, you can choose the right airport.

Also the international airports with address and nearby city are a chapter! So, pick the right one and let the journey begin!

Distance and fligth time.

To get a rough idea: how far is it actually from Germany to Japan?

From Munich to Tokyo it is almost 9400km as the crow flies. That is a good 200km closer than from Munich to Los Angeles or Rio de Janeiro.

Roughly speaking, you can expect a direct flight to take 11h30min. This varies, however, with the direction, the jet stream and thus also with the season in which you fly.

Connecting flights take longer: depending on the place of transfer, there are “fast” connections from about 15 hours to over 30 hours with the corresponding waiting times at the transit airport. Of course, it is often a question of cost, but connections that take longer than 25 hours become tiring. And time is better used in Japan than at the airport when changing planes, so I would recommend to adjust the flight dates a little bit instead of having to put up with eternal transfer times. By shifting the flight dates by a day or two, cheaper options are often available.

Fligth routes and airlines.

Since Japan is also located in the northern hemisphere, most airlines fly via northern Russia – with the exception of transfers in the area of the Arab Emirates.

There are direct flights from:

  • Munich (Lufthansa, ANA)

  • Frankfurt (Lufthansa, ANA)

  • Düsseldorf (Lufthansa, ANA)


Airlines with a transfer at a European airport fly via:

  • Dubai (Emirates)

  • Doha (Qatar Airways)

  • Abu Dhabi (Etihad Airways)

  • Beijing / Shanghai (Air China)

  • Moscow (Aeroflot)

  • Frankfurt (Lufthansa, ANA)

  • Rome (Alitalia)

  • Vienna (Austrian)

  • Copenhagen (SAS)

  • Zurich (Swiss)

  • Istanbul (Turkish Airlines)


Alternatively, there are routes with changeover in the Arab Emirates, China or Russia.

  • Dubai (Emirates)

  • Doha (Qatar Airways)

  • Abu Dhabi (Etihad Airways)

  • Beijing / Shanghai (Air China)

  • Moscow (Aeroflot)


In general, I would recommend that you sign up for the airline’s mileage program – it is free and you earn miles on your first flight. Who knows, maybe you will use the Alliance again soon and accumulate enough miles to redeem.

The major alliances are Miles & More, One World and Sky Team. Some airlines, such as Emirates, have their own mileage programme.
Miles & More includes Lufthansa, ANA, Austrian Airlines, Air China, LOT Polish, SAS, Swiss, and Turkish Airlines.
Members of Sky Team are Air France, Alitalia and KLM. One World includes British Airways, Finnair, JAL and Qatar Airways.
Whoever of course uses airlines within an alliance can also achieve a higher status if they fly enough flights per year. Miles accumulate in any case, and depending on the airline, these can then be exchanged for vouchers or reward items, for example.

Prices for the fligth.

Flights are priced in a wide range, of course depending on the airline and travel time. In the best case you can fly to Tokyo for less than 500€, if it gets expensive, you pay over 1000€. As “normal” I would estimate about 800€, if you are a bit flexible in the travel dates and in the choice of the airline.

Here you should also pay attention to the luggage regulations. Depending on the airline a different amount of check-in luggage is included. So depending on how much you want to buy in Japan, this should also be a criterion when booking 😉
Lufthansa, ANA and Polish Airways, for example, have the special arrangement of two 23kg luggage pieces on flights to Tokyo. The baggage rules are also constantly changing, so be sure to check the airline’s website before booking.

For some travel constellations, an open jaw flight can be useful, but these are usually a bit more expensive.

International Airports in Japan.

In the following I would like to introduce you to the most frequently used international airports in Japan. Airplanes from all over the world land here, an arrival at the national airports is only possible by changing at an international airport. I will introduce some national airports in a further article at some point.

Tokyo – Haneda
HND (MUC – HND: 9361km)
Ota, Tokyo, Kanto, Japan 大田区, 東京都, 関東地方, 日本


Tokyo – Narita
NRT (MUC – NRT: 9368km)
Narita, Chiba Prefecture, Kanto, Japan 成田市, 千葉県, 関東地方, 日本


Osaka – Kansai International Airport
KIX (MUC – KIX: 9240km)
Tajiri, Sennan County, Osaka Prefecture, Kinki Region, Japan 田尻町, 泉南郡, 大阪府, 近畿地方, 日本


Nagoya – Chubu Centrair International Airport
NGO (FRA – NGO: 9269km)
Naka Ward, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Chubu Region, Japan 中区, 名古屋市, 愛知県, 中部地方, 日本


Fukuoka – Fukuoka Airport
FUK (FRA – FUK: 9102km)
Hakata Ward, Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan 博多区, 福岡市, 福岡県, 九州地方, 日本


Sapporo – New-Chitose Airport
CTS (MUC – CTS: 8762km)
Chitose, Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Hokkaidō Region, Japan 千歳市, 石狩振興局, 北海道, 北海道地方, 日本

To be considered.

On the outbound flight to Japan you usually arrive the next day because of the time shift. You should take this into account in your planning. Even on a direct flight with a duration of about 11.5 hours, you will only land after 18.5 or 19.5 hours – depending on whether it is summer or winter. You can find more about time change and jet lag here.

On the way back, on a direct flight, you usually land on the same day, which feels like a short time after you take off. Here you get the 7 or 8 hours back again, so it is only 4.5 or 3.5 hours later than the local departure time if you have a direct flight.

Summary.

The distance to Japan is about 9400km, for which you need about 11.5 hours with a direct flight.

There are a number of airlines and international airports that I have introduced. Here you should pay attention to the price as well as the flight duration and thus the transit time.

Concerning the costs you have to calculate with about 800€ on average; if you are flexible it will be cheaper. In the high season it can also be over 1000€.

【Basics】Time, Daylight saving time and Time shift – Getting to Know Japan.

Getting to know Japan

Hello everyone! In Germany last week the clocks were changed back to daylight-saving time, but how is it actually in Japan? When do they change the time there? And in which time zone is Japan?

Hello! While we are on the subject: How big is the difference to the time in Germany? And what I would also be interested in is the length of the day, and how I can best overcome the jet lag!

Hi, it’s me, JPNavi! That’s a lot of questions. In this article I will summarize everything concerning the time and daytime in Japan! Have fun reading.

Time zone.

In Japan, the Japan Standard Time (JST) applies; and that applies to Japan as a whole. Japan is located east of Europe and is therefore ahead of us in time. In terms of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the official world time, Japan is in the GMT+9 time zone.

Time shift.

All well and good, but “GMT+9” is not the answer you would expect if you wanted to know what time it is. The easiest way is to relate to Germany. But here you have to start differentiating between summer and winter time.

We change the clock (still) twice a year, in Japan there is no summertime, so the whole year it is the same time. This also means that the time difference between Japan and Germany is different in summer than in winter. In summer Japan is 7 hours ahead of us, in winter it is 8 hours.

History of the time shift.

Currently there is no daylight-saving time in Japan. But was there ever a time change in Japan?

Actually, the last time the clock was changed was in 1951. To be precise, the clocks were set back one hour (from 2:00 am to 1:00 am) on September 8, 1951. So, this is where the last daylight-saving time in Japan ended. The summertime ending here began on May 6, 1951, when the clocks were advanced from 2:00 am to 3:00 am. You can find more details for example on this page.

Does this mean that there was a continuous time change in Japan until 1951? No, there was no change for a long period of time, it started with the introduction of daylight-saving time on May 2, 1948, so it was only four years with time change, then it was abolished.

Daylight and day length.

The time change is also called “daylight-saving-time” – and not for no reason. If there is no daylight-saving-time in Japan, what about daylight in Japan? Anyone who has ever been to Japan knows that it gets dark relatively quickly in the evening – regardless of the season.

But the sun rises very early in the morning. June 21 is the longest day of the year this year, with a day length of a good 14.5 hours in Tokyo. But the sun rises at 4:25 a.m. and sets at 7:00 pm – so no grilling until 9 pm in the sunshine, because the time of twilight is also relatively short. Just for comparison: in Munich the sun rises at 5:13 am and sets again at 9:17 pm – so we also have 1.5 hours more sun than in Tokyo. 

But in winter it is the other way round. The shortest day this year is on December 21st with a day length of almost 9.75 hours in Tokyo. Sunrise is at three-quarters seven and the sunset at 4:31 pm. The sunset in Munich is only 9 minutes earlier, but the sun doesn’t rise until 8:01am – so we have only eight and a half hours of day length. If you are interested in day lengths or sunrises and sunsets, I recommend this page.

Tips for the jet lag.

Time shifting can be exhausting! So that you are not tormented by jet lag for the first few days after your flight, here are a few tips.

Even if it is more difficult than it sounds: the most important thing is to live directly according to the new time zone when you arrive there. So the best thing to do is to set your watch to the target time as soon as you board the plane and try to change your sleeping rhythm while you are still in the plane. If you can’t sleep in the plane, you will now think: “thank you for the pointless tip”. But for those of you who can’t sleep on the plane, it’s even more important to bite through the first day!

Those who have got through the first day in the time on site, have survived the worst. This can be very exhausting (also from our own experience), but those who lie down “for a short rest” at noon will struggle with the consequences the following days. The best thing to do is to keep busy for the first day, then the day will be over twice as fast and you will notice the tiredness only half as bad. And how to keep yourself busy is described in the articles on Traveling Japan. The possibilities are endless – just go for a walk, visit the first sights, explore department stores and supermarkets, go out for a meal, and so on..

Summary.

Japan does not change the clocks, so the same time applies all year round. Compared to Germany, in Japan it is 8 hours later in winter, in summer it is only 7 hours.
The sun generally rises very early in Japan and then sets again quickly, so if you want to experience as much sunshine as possible, you have to get up early!