Jet Lag Remedies...who has one?

Tell me about your jet lag remedies!

I'll be going from Chicago to Narita, leaving here at 10:50am arriving in Japan at 1:45pm. Almost a 13 hour flight, meaning I arrive in Japan when it is midnight here! I have a good 4 more hours to travel to get to my grandparent's house once I get there too...uh oh.

I plan on either staying awake the whole night and trying to get as much sleep as I can on the plane, or wake up very early (3 or 4am) and hope for the best.

So tell me your best remedies for jet lag once you are in the country! I want these next 2 weeks to be as productive as possible :)

My trip is from JFK so also quite long it leaves around 11:30 am and arrives at 2:30 pm the next day. As soon as I get on the plane I set my watch for JST. I use NoJetLag homeopathic pills on the plane - you can get them in a health food store. I don't try to sleep or not to sleep on the plane. On my first three or four nights in Japan I take a sleeping pill at bedtime and that usually straightens me out.
Good luck!

I just try not to think about what time it is "back home"... :) On the plane, I eat when meal is served, sleep when they turn out the lights, that's all I do - don't really think about the time. And when you get to Japan, try to stay with the local time. So the first night you get to Japan, try to stay awake at least until 9 or 10 PM.

Go to there hotspring or bathing place and deep into the hotwater to revitalize your energy. That might help a bit in a natural way. i make sure i do that everyday when i do my japan trip with night train almost every night.

Set your watch to Tokyo time as soon as you sit down on the plane. After arriving don't think about what time it is "back home". That will just keep your internal clock screwed up. Also, stay up until your normal sleeping time. So if in Chicago you normally go to sleep at 11pm, try to stay up until then (Tokyo time).
This works for me every time; the next morning when I get up I'm on Tokyo (or wherever) time and I feel well rested.

At one stage, I traveled 8 times in two years from Australia to Europe and back. The total travel time was around 28 hours!!! (so 13 hours is kinda short, if you know what I mean!!) It was an 11 hour time zone differnce. I've also done Japan to Europe around 4 times.

Having done that, I have a routine that I use for jetlag. If possible, I try to arrive in the destination early morning, then stay up ALL day until 11pm-midnight, then go to be. If I'm tired, I go for a walk. This then makes me tired enough to sleep from midnight to around 7-8am, then I'm in the new timezone, with no waking up during the middle of the night!!! Then I have just a little tiredness for a couple of days afterward.

Setting my watch to Japan time is something I've never done before...especially since my cell phone is my clock lol. I'll think of something and at least set my Nintendo DS to Japan time or something...anyway, it sounds like that will work well.

I am also planning to stay awake as late as I can. When I've went to Japan before, I would barely make it past dinner and my brother and I would always fall asleep at the dinner table (just lean back and fall asleep)! Hopefully, I can make it to at least 9 or 10pm so I won't wake up in the middle of the night.

I'm getting mixed opinions about sleeping on the plane...I think I am going to try to sleep, hopefully, at least 1.5 hours at a time so I go through one sleep cycle.