This week I had a short trip to Los Angeles. I left Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon and I'm currently on the Saturday 1AM return flight. With the time changes I arrived in LA on Tuesday 11AM and I'll arrive back in Tokyo at 5AM on Sunday. My system will be completely messed up for the next week. I already had pretty terrible jet lag while in LA so expect similar back in Tokyo.

Despite my jet lag, I had a pretty busy week and got a lot done. I was able to catch up with some old friends I haven't seen in a while and make some new ones. The highlight of the trip for me was meeting and talking with Mark Cuban. I'm a huge fan of SharkTank so it really was great to get to speak to him.

I left from Narita and I'm returning to Haneda airport so I needed to take the bus to the airport vs driving. I actually really like the nice long drive to Nartia. It's a good chance to get lost in my thoughts or listen to music uninterrupted.

Today's configuration: Leica M9-P with a Summilux 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4.

I fly ANA whenever possible lately. Their service is just so fantastic compared to United. Their planes are cleaner. Their staff don't treat the passengers like they are an annoyance they have to endure throughout the flight. Their inflight services are better. Food is better. Drinks are better. Basically better at everything.

United's new CEO keeps saying he wants feedback and wants to makes changes. I'll give him the same feedback I write on every United post flight survey they send me and I have flown 1.8M miles on United so I have a fairly educated opinion on the topic. United should fly all of their executives undercover and unannounced in coach, or business class, to Japan or Singapore. Once they arrive turn them around and fly them back the same class on ANA or Singapore Airlines. I imagine by the time they land the problems they face around their brand will be very easy to understand.

I never understand why international flights always seem to land so far away from customs. It almost seems like they are trying to put it as far away as possible. Perhaps a way to wake you up after the flight?

In LAX they have this new automated customs processes system where you can go to a self service counter scan your passport, get your photo and fingerprints taken. It's amazing there are about 80 machines so you get through this checkpoint in lightening fast times. Then they funnel these 80 people through a line where there are 2 customs agents to check that everything went OK. The first part of the process took 10 minutes while the second part more than 1 hour. I think they haven't thought through this process completely.