Northwest Airlines Memorabilia 1989

In August of 1989, I went to live in Japan and work for the Japanese government. At the time, the Japanese Consulate was on Garry Street in Winnipeg and the Consul House was a Japanese styled house on Wellington Crescent near Kingsway.

I have detailed some of that experience elsewhere in the blog.

There were about 30 of us from Manitoba and Saskatchewan who made the trip to Japan to begin one year contracts with the Jet Program. One week orientation in Tokyo and then by planes, trains and automobiles (and a few ferries for some) to their homes where they would teach.

The flight route for the Manitoba and Saskatchewan JET participants was Winnipeg to Minneapolis for a little more than a one hour fight in business class about a 727 which was fairly noisy compared to many aircraft today. 

There was to be a layover planned for around three hours in the Twin Cities while our luggage (which was three full suitcases and carryon for everyone) was transferred to our Minneapolis-Seattle-Tokyo leg aboard one of the Northwest's new 747s. Travel was to be business-class all the way.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul International is a lovely airport. It was from there first international flight within North America took place with a trip to Winnipeg in 1928. The route has never stopped since although Northwest Airlines is lost to the mists of times as is Delta Airlines now.

As business-class travellers, passengers had the private first and business-class lounge to layover at as their connecting flight was receiving baggage transfers and then passengers. The WorldClubs lounge was pretty posh and a revelation that they served alcohol at 8 AM in the morning.

Once in the WorldClubs lounge, we barely had a chance to even look around when a Northwest attendant came by and said that business class on chosen 747 flight had been double booked and that there was space on another 747 leaving within the hour in first class!

I don't think my arm shot up faster to volunteer for those seven spots. Better yet, the three hour layover was no longer in the offing for our original 747 flights. We were boarding now! Luckily, I was aboard with two new dear friends Shelly and Nicole along with four other from the Manitoba/Saskatchewan group.

I've never been first to board a plane till that time and once we were on board, it took 75 minutes to pack everyone else and their luggage in. For those of us in First Class though, the drinks and snacks began the moment we sat down.

It was a four hour flight to Seattle where we would deplane, have a two hour layover and take on more JET participants. During that Minneapolis to Seattle flight, I had a brunch of quiche to die for. And food and drink never stopped. In the landing at Seattle we noticed on the ground the Concorde which has been in Washington for some sort of airshow on July 31, the day before. It was spectacular.

In Seattle, we deplaned but left everything in the seats we were assigned as we would be back. We just had time to go to the Duty Free store to pick up some additional omiyage (gifts) for our schools of employment. Once that was picked up, we got called back again for First Class Boarding call. 

There were 14 seats in the nose of the 747-400. The curtain was pulled but we could hear additional rows of first class to row 14 followed by business and economy classes being filled behind us. There were also 22 first class seats above us in the second deck behind the cockpit. For the next hour as we enjoyed snacks and drinks. Soon we were taking off and having one long last look the Concorde on the ground and for me, my last look at North American soil for the next 18 months.

It wasn't far into our flight that the main course of in flight meal was ordered. I had the Cornish Game Hen. However, there was a lot of sharing and I ate from fellow JET program people  like Shelly and Nicole who ordered Jumbo Shrimp and Makunouchi. This was elite level chef created meals and we ate for three hours when economy was done in thirty minutes.

Sad to say but I couldn't sleep. Even with the space, I was too excited and as spacious as it was, and with more legroom and recline in the seats, best I could do was watch movies and listen to the variety of stuff on the 18 channel stations. There were no seatback TVs back then. A big projector took up the nose of the aircraft.

Around five or six hours in, I went for the first of a few walks through the plane. It widened immediately out of the nose of the plane but got considerably more crowded two aisles and stretching way back where 500 people were seated. It was quite the aircraft.

Upon return to my window seat in Row 4, I saw another Delta 747 below ands away some distance but same course. I could only assume it might have been the other originating flight from Minneapolis with the rest of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan JETS aboard. It was blue skies and very few clouds and the expansive Pacific Ocean below went on forever. The 920 kilometer speed meant we stayed just ahead of the sun. We eventually crossed the dateline and it became Monday.

At 10 hours we began out descent. From my window there has been some evidence of coastline as we approached Japan. It was still bright out but as we got lower there was evidence of streakiness and cloud. Rain. Still far off. The green of Japan was very evident and shipping activity below was more evident.

Attendants started clearing stuff away as we crossed over land and over Chiba prefecture. It was remarkable green and well ordered. Rice fields, cities and towns. Lower over Chiba till we were on final approach to Narita International Airport and their very long runway.

We had arrived August 1, 1989 Tuesday around 6 PM. As we taxied in, the sun was starting to dip and the clouds began to close in and light mists have way to spitting rain.