When did plunging the entire interior of a passenger plane into darkness for the whole of the flight become standard practice? Why don’t people want to look out the window anymore? Why did the woman behind me tut loudly every time I pushed my window blind up?
The flight from Tokyo to London spans 14 hours. It takes off at 9 a.m. and lands at 3 p.m. the same day. Flying east, at this time of year, is one of the few long-haul flights on which you experience perpetual daylight. This flight path from Japan to England is unique; it skirts the North Pacific, along the Aleutian Islands, across Alaska, and into Arctic Canada. By this point, you’re only halfway home, heading over the roof of the planet, and it’s then a diagonal traverse across Greenland and over Iceland. The last leg descends the entire length of Scotland and England, from Lewis to Heathrow – daylight and clear skies for 7000 kilometres.
7000 kilometres and 14 hours of some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world – the tiny fishing port of Dutch Harbour on the Aleutian Islands, Tanana, on the bank of the vast Yukon River, and Tuktoyaktuk, the last Canadian outpost on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. And then the indescribable beauty of Greenland; it’s not often I’m nearly brought to tears by a view, but hey, this had me close. I turned to see who else was as excited as I was. Nobody. All the blinds were down, faces lit only by the latest Hollywood blockbuster. I wanted to stand up and shout, “Look out the window! That’s Greenland! We flew over the Yukon before and you weren’t even looking, you miserable peasants!”, but that’s how you end up all over TikTok, right?
Anyway, the photo above is of Greenland. The images below are just more random visual meanderings from Japan.
Phil Kneen 
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