[Kirkwood]

Hawaii and Alaska are nowhere close to the flightpath from LAX to Narita. Commercial aircraft fly along what are called great circles - the shortest path between 2 points on the earth.
https://www.greatcirclemapper.net/en/great-circle-mapper/route/RJAA-KLAX/aircraft/67.html

[cynwoody]

At the point at which the plane turned around, Alaska is way closer than LAX.