Flying to Kyoto Japan Over Alaska and Kamchatka - June 10 and 11

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" - Lao Tzu from the Tao Te Ching

And that step would be to Boeing Field in South Seattle where we boarded our jet. The date was June 10 with a scheduled departure of 9:30 AM. We landed in Osaka Japan on June 11 at 2:30 PM but the flight was not 29 hours long - we crossed the International Date Line and jumped ahead a day.

As this is a Private Jet journey, the security check was a little different from the regular and mundane. Our bus drove through the gate onto the tarmac. I took this photo from the side of the bus. Here three tables awaited us and we were "wanded" considerably and then our hand carry was inspected on folding tables.

Inside the new jet. This is a different company running  the jet operation but so far it seems pretty good.

Banking west and north out of Boeing Field we got a good view of Puget Sound and metro Seattle with the Mt. Baker volcano in the distance.

The city of Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island

Last view of North America and the delta of the Susitna River, just north of Anchorage (where we made a technical stop). Our line to Japan was well north of the Aleutian Islands so we went right over the Bering Sea.

A few hours later, land appeared. It was the Kamchatka Peninsula and its marvelous volcanoes!

As we approached the east coast, river sediment was dumping into the Pacific Ocean. I have sailed these waters back in 1998 and the topography seemed quite familiar to me.

Patterns of drainage highlighted by the snow covered landscape

High clouds occasionally obscured the view but then a large stratovolcano appeared. This is most likely the Kronotsky volcano.

To the west of Kronotsky a giant caldera had been filled with a resurgent pair of volcanoes. This is called Krasheninnkova caldera.

Here is a cartoon showing what is going on at Krasheninnkova

Here is the pair together taken with my wide angle lens

You can also se them both on this topographic map of Kamchatka, just southeast of the lake

This is the main valley headed north from Petropavlovsk, the largest city on the peninsula. You can see one of the few roads on the peninsula headed north.

Finally, the harbor of Hokodate on the southern tip of Hokaido Island Japan. Next stop, Kyoto!