JAL to provide freshly cooked "Japan's No. 1" rice from Minami-Uonuma on international flights

Japan Airlines (JAL) has just announced yet another inflight catering improvement. This time they are going to upgrade the rice they serve in international premium cabins. The new rice used onboard are Minami-Uonuma Koshihikari rice from Niigata prefecture, Japan. This is widely dubbed as the "No. 1 Rice in Japan". JAL will be the first airline to serve this rare and delicious rice onboard.
JAL has been providing freshly cooked Uonuma Koshihikari rice from Niigata prefecture, Japan since 2005. These rice are freshly prepared onboard and the cabin attendants adjusts the amount of water used on every flight to produce a perfect bowl of rice under different cabin conditions. 


But to further improve the inflight service, JAL has sent its staff to visit the rice farmers at Minami-Uonuma. They even tried to experience the farmer life and their culture including harvesting the crops. Thanks to all these hard work, JAL is able to provide this delicious rice from mid-February 2012. And they plan to keep this on the First and Business class menus for at least a year.


Below are the flights which this Japan's No. 1 rice will be available:


On Both inbound and outbound flights
Tokyo Narita - New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Vancouver, Honolulu, Jakarta, Delhi, and Sydney
Tokyo Haneda - San Francisco, Paris, and Honolulu
Nagoya Chubu - Honolulu
Osaka Kansai - Honolulu


On ex-Japan flights only
Tokyo Narita - Singapore*, Bangkok*, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City
Tokyo Haneda - Singapore and Bangkok
Osaka Kansai - Bangkok


* JL712 (SIN-NRT) and JL708 (BKK-NRT) will also provide this rice service from the outport.


Note that in the Japanese press release, Narita - San Francisco is listed as one of the available routes. (Edit: JAL has removed that from the press release and issued a revised press release. Original version can still be found here) I believe this is just a typo as I don't think JAL is restoring the NRT service to SFO any time soon :P And I expect the Boston flight will be added to the list once JAL launches this route. 


Source: JAL Press Release (Japanese, English)