The Plan

Little Rock --> Houston (HOTEL) | Houston --> Tokyo | Shinkansen --> Osaka

The Breakdown

Flight 1: United
Flight 2: Zip Air

• LR AIRPORT: 1.5/5; delayed departure due to weather and short handed staff
• UNITED FLIGHT TO HOUSTON: 4/5; a bit bumpy on the way up and down but first class and nice flight attendant
• STAY IN HOUSTON AND HOUSTON AIRPORT: 4/5; it was nice hotel and easy to get the shuttle in the morning. TSA pre-check rules and is highly recommended.
• FLIGHT TO JAPAN: 1.5/5; smooth flight with hardly any turbulence, nice aircraft and staff but we were delayed almost 2 hours due to weather and runway change, sat on the tarmac for what felt like forever. ZipAir is fine but since tickets are way cheaper LOTS more families with little kids. I think over 80% of the time there was a baby screaming/crying/laughing which made sleep impossible, even with noise-cancelling headphones.
• JAPAN NARITA AIRPORT: 5/5; despite arriving 1.5 hours late we: got thru customs, got our e-sims, got currency exchanged, shipped our bags to Osaka and still made our first train with 25 mins to spare
• TRAINS: 5/5; we had take a train from the airport to Tokyo then a bullet train to Osaka. Quiet, clean, on time.
• MY KIDS: 4/5; they goofed around and complained a bit but were generally pretty compliant and slept enough on the long flight they weren't totally rekt in the Tokyo airport.

Overall Assessment

3.5/5; the flights themselves were fine and I was happy with the overall route especially for the price. Can't control the weather and the delays only ended up being a mild annoyance since we arrived at our final destination to the minute. 10 hours of screeching babies and toddlers turned the long flight into a sleep deprived hellscape that I was overjoyed to escape.