Getting tongue in Japan Airlines (JAL) 787-8 Shell Flat Neo Business Class back in 2018
As I sit here trying to think of a clever intro to this Japan Airlines 787-8 business class review, all I can think about is the fact that I absolutely cannot wait to tell you that there was some slimy tongue eating happening during this flight.
I need to be patient though. Let me just start by saying that this is a full review of an experience that I had on a flight between Tokyo (Narita) and San Diego back in January 2018. The aircraft featured the old “Shell Flat Neo” business class product, which no longer exists. And that’s a good thing! I’ve just never been a fan of high density 2-2-2 business class configurations.
It was fun though. Fairly comfortable. Just a wee bit slimy.
| Flight Number: | JL0066 |
| Route: | Tokyo, Japan (NRT) – San Diego, CA (SAN) |
| Date: | Monday, January 29, 2018 |
| Aircraft: | Boeing 787-8 |
| Registration: | JA834J |
| Flight Duration | 8 hours 58 minutes |
| Seat: | 3A (business class) |
The JAL preflight ground experience at NRT
Do you ever look back on big moments in your life, specifically at the minutes just before something significant happens? I tend to do that a lot, and it’s always amusing to think how naïve and unprepared I was at those moments just before that big event.
Such was the case as I stepped out of the JAL Sakura Lounge and walked down to the gate to catch this flight home to San Diego. All I could think about was being spoiled rotten all the way home by yet another world class Japan Airlines cabin crew. Little did I know that I was about to eat tongue for the first time. Yikes.
The gate area for today’s flight eventually filled up and it seemed a lot more crowded than the outbound segment I had flown a few days prior. This was really nice to see. Especially considering that this might mean that there really is demand for a daily flight between NRT and SAN after all.
I’m not really sure what the deal was with that flight from San Diego to Narita a few days prior, but it was so empty that it made me worry a bit that the demand for a flight between these two cities just wasn’t there.
The boarding process
Boarding began exactly on time. Even though I was seated up in business class today, I somehow had to fight my way into the queue.
It was a packed house in the gate area, and I ended up being pushed to the third group to board behind all of the (many) JAL and OneWorld platinum elite gold encrusted superstar passengers. There were a lot of them on today’s flight, and I was definitely feeling status envy as I waited patiently for my turn to board.
Japan Airlines 787-8 Shell Flat Neo business class overview
JAL 787-8 Shell Flat Neo business class is (was) a 2-2-2 layout. It’s typical of the layout you would see in regional business class in and around Asia (China Airlines A330-300 business class is a good example). It’s not the most comfortable layout for long haul flights, but it was fairly common back in 2018.
A relaxed boarding process this was not. Things were happening very quickly once I was on the plane and into my seat, and it looked as if the flight attendants were working hard to get everybody accommodated.
It was announced that this was a completely full flight, and they were asking for everybody to quickly find their seats so that we could get out of here on time and on schedule.
The fact that they were boarding the entire plane through the forward boarding door didn’t help to calm the mood any as I sat there waiting. Every passenger on the plane got the opportunity to walk through business class on the way back to their seat. Sometimes I think the airlines do this on purpose to give everyone a sense of what the business class experience is like. Guerrilla marketing at its finest!
Business class amenity kit
Amenity kits and noise canceling headphones were on every seat upon boarding, and the flight attendants came by with cold towels and United States entry forms as we sat there waiting to push off gate.
Our departure from NRT
We pushed off the gate four minutes late at 5:09 PM. I was expecting far worse considering how full this flight was (and how chaotic things were leading up to this point). So far so good.
The sun was nearly gone once we finally got underway, which is precisely the time of day when my old iPhone 6S refused to take nice pictures anymore. Therefore, I’m offering you my sincerest apologies for the poopy sequence of departure shots you are about to see. Low light was the nemesis of old phones for sure.
It took 26 minutes to taxi out to the runway, and we were in the air 20 minutes late at 5:35 PM.
The dinner service
Menus and drink orders came roughly 30 minutes after departure, and it was at that moment browsing through the menu that I saw something scary enough to paralyze me in fear.
Keep in mind that I am generally a very courageous eater, and I’ll usually try anything once. But there was beef tongue on the menu as part of the Japanese meal option, and I’m not going to lie that it scared me enough to seriously consider the western option instead. I’ve eaten just about every part of the cow I think, except for tongue and a few other unmentionable bits.
Although I did eat what looked like testicle meat in Icelandair 767-300 economy once. Does that count?
“Do I or don’t I?” That’s the question I was asking to myself over and over again as I stared blankly ahead at the video screen directly in front of me, and I still hadn’t even made up my mind yet as the flight attendant reached our row and asked me to declare a choice.
“The Japanese meal – Kudasai!” escaped my lips even before I was able to mentally approve it, so there was nothing left for me to do at that point but to cowboy up and give it a try. Not without ordering a giant glass of wine as well though…
I started watching ‘Dunkirk’ as I was waiting for dinner to be served, but it was far too serious of a movie to focus on when all I could really think about was slimy pimpled cow tongue instead.
I needed to watch something stupid and silly if there were any hopes of distracting my mind from what it was that I was about to consume. ‘Going in Style’ fit the bill nicely.
I had never been as nervous to eat anything in my entire life. My fork danced around that tongue (his/hers/it’s – not mine) until it was nearly the only thing left on my tray. I think my hands were shaking a bit as I went in for the first bite. To be quite honest it looked just like a regular slab of beef with some sort of heavy sauce all over it, but it didn’t stop me from gagging a bit on that first mouthful.
But you know what? It wasn’t all that bad. Better yet, if I didn’t know that it was tongue, I would’ve easily devoured it in seconds and asked for another serving.
After the meal, my brain was still a little bit messed up from all that mental anguish of the tongue, and I inadvertently said “yes” when the flight attendant asked me if I would like a cup of coffee with dessert. Loyal leaders of my airline reviews will know that I am not a coffee guy at all. I do love the smell of it, but it’s far too bitter for me.
I’m also too much of a nice guy at times, and I felt bad for turning it away after she brought it to me, so I had to cowboy up yet again and drink it all. Hmmm…one might think that having to cowboy up two times during the same flight would mean that things aren’t going so well, but believe me, I was having lots of fun so far!
After dinner cabin service
A round of hot towels ended the cabin service for the evening, and at that point I decided to call it a night and try to get some sleep. These Shell Flat Neo Seat aren’t completely lie-flat, but they’re close and perfectly comfortable for a few hours of deep sleep. And deep sleep it was – so deep that I had some pretty crazy dreams during the night, brought on no doubt by that beef tongue swimming around in my veins.
The second meal service (breakfast)
It was a pretty bumpy ride across the Pacific this evening, but I managed to sleep well and I woke up only when the flight attendants turned on the main cabin lights with two hours of flying time remaining. Breakfast orders were taken shortly after that, and within 15 minutes I had a delicious hot meal sitting in front of me once again.
The descent and arrival into San Diego
These eastbound transpacific flights out of Japan are far too short for my liking, because I always feel like I never get enough sleep and that I would be perfectly content for flying five hours more.
But nope. We were beginning our descent into San Diego just as the flight attendants were clearing our breakfast trays, and another great flight was just about over. I’ll let the pics tell the story of our arrival into San Diego this morning:
We touched down on runway 27 4 minutes ahead of schedule at 9:34 AM. And of course it was beautiful and sunny. It’s always like this in San Diego. Most of the time at least.
My wish of a longer flight was granted as we were sitting at the gate waiting for the main boarding door to be opened. Right outside my window I could see that the SAN ground staff was having a heckuva time fighting with a non-cooperative jet bridge that just didn’t want to be connected to our 787.
It took about 10 minutes before they were able to get the jet bridge into a proper position to offload all passengers, and for a few minutes there was talk amongst the flight attendants that we would have to deplane using stairs. Now that would’ve been cool!
It also would have been a bit embarrassing considering that Terminal 2 East isn’t all that nice looking actually. I love San Diego dearly and I didn’t want any first-time visitors on this airplane to get the wrong idea about our friendly little airport.
Once off the airplane and into Terminal 2 East, it was a quick dash downstairs to passport control. I had only been through here one other time (coming off a British Airways 777 from LHR in 2013), and unfortunately I would never pass through here again. All international arrivals started coming into Terminal 2 starting in June of that year.
So there you have it. My first ever experience eating beef tongue flying Japan Airlines business class from Tokyo to San Diego was an unforgettable one. It’s worth noting that JAL still serves San Diego, but their business class product has been upgraded to their much nicer (and more private) Sky Suite product.
I’d also like to go on record saying that of all the airlines I’ve flown in and out of San Diego over the years, this was by far the best experience I’ve ever had. Arigatou gozaimasu JAL!
