Google Maps Suggestions for Getting to Japan Without Needing Airline Tickets

If you have been reading the news online, I’m sure you know about wewontfly.com and the ongoing debate about the safety of the new TSA scanners, and the dignity and privacy issues brought up by the new and more invasive “pat down” procedures.

The simple answer for many is not to fly. Road trips are fun, trains are quite comfortable, buses offer free wi-fi… there are plenty of options for many travelers.

What can you do, however if you want to pursue that dream of seeing Japan, but don’t have airline tickets, can’t find cheap airfare, or just want to avoid both human and electronic scanners?

Google is always a great way to get information.

Google maps have helped me get where I wanted to go more than a few times, so I decided to give it a try…

I decided to plug in a typical trip – JFK Airport in New York City to Haneda Airport in Tokyo. I had to fight through some adversity because Google seemed convince that I wanted to walk to someplace much closer than 4,000 miles away.

When Google finally paid off with some directions, I also got some good advice… here is a screenshot containing the important part of Google’s walking directions to Japan…

In a nutshell, the directions had me walking from NYC to California, then hopping into a Kayak!! to travel 3,879 miles across the Pacific Ocean!

Gotta love Google’s sense of humor about this… of course, buying a kayak would certainly be cheaper than flying, especially if you reused it for the return trip. This is Cheap Travel Japan at its finest if I do say so myself.

Any other nice alternative routes to Japan?