As the number continued to tick down, I realized that it was time to do a little more planning in regards to the Olympic experience, so after I made all my newspaper deadlines, I spent some time online researching the cheapest flights to get to Tokyo in July.
There are a lot of ways to get to Japan, but none of the flights were terribly inexpensive. Being as this is a self-funded trip (along with donations from some great people), my most important search function for the flight was to find the cheapest way to get there.
In this regard, there were a few flights that were right around the same price. The one that intrigued me the most was a flight on Hawaiian Airlines that went from Boston to Honolulu then on to Tokyo. Having never been to Hawaii, I thought this would be a great pit stop along the way. However, the layover was almost an entire day and I wasn't sure I wanted to miss out on the possibility of attending the opening ceremonies on Friday, July 24.
So, I looked away from the Hawaiian Airlines flight and found one that was just a bit cheaper on Korean Air. Ironically enough, I didn't use Korean Air to get to the Olympics in February 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea. This flight would go directly from Boston to Seoul, which is where I flew into (via Toronto) for the 2018 Olympics. From Seoul, the flight would go on to Tokyo.
In the end, that is the flight that I booked.
I will be leaving Boston's Logan Airport on Wednesday, July 22, at 1:15 p.m. and will be landing in Seoul at 4:25 p.m. the next day after a 14-hour flight. Since Seoul is 14 hours ahead of our eastern time zone, that technically means I will be landing in the middle of the night according to my body clock. From there, after a one-hour, 15-minute layover, I will be in the air for two hours and 20 minutes on the way to Tokyo, where I will land at 8 p.m. Tokyo is in the same time zone as Korea, so this trip will have me 14 hours ahead of folks at home, just like in PyeongChang.
At the last two Olympics I've covered, I have not been able to attend the opening or the closing ceremonies due to my flight times. I saw the Sochi opening ceremonies from an airport in Moscow and I saw the PyeongChang opening ceremonies on a television as I was checking into my media housing. And both times, I left before the closing ceremonies.
Of course, because they are high-demand events, it's not always possible to get into the opening and closing ceremonies, but I am going to give it a shot and apply for one or both.
As for the return flight, I will actually be leaving from a different airport in Tokyo and will be flying back via Delta Airlines. The closing ceremonies are Sunday, Aug. 9, and my flight out of Tokyo leaves on Monday afternoon, Aug. 10, at 4:45 p.m. I will be taking a nine-hour flight to Seattle and after a layover of more than an hour, I will leave for Boston and will touch down at 7:55 p.m. Like the trip back from Korea, I'm arriving home three hours after I left due to the time difference.
So, with the deposit on the housing and the flight, a good chunk of the bill for Tokyo has been paid. The other half of the housing bill is due in April.
I also spent some time on Tuesday working on the required paperwork needed for Tokyo. I submitted my passport information, a photo for my Olympic ID card and all the other information the United States Olympic Committee needed.
My plan, like in the last two Olympics that I have attended, is to update this blog every day while I am there. I plan on putting pictures that I take with my phone on Instagram and Twitter (SalmonSportsGuy) and on my personal Facebook page. Additionally, the photos from my camera will likely go on my personal Facebook page and the Facebook page for Salmon Press Sports – Wolfeboro.
Additionally, I am looking for any information on any local connections we might have for the Summer Olympics. I know all the teams have not been selected yet, but if you know of some local connections, send me an e-mail at josh@salmonpress.news. And if there's anything I can do for you regarding the Olympics, also let me know and I will do my best.
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