What exactly is the process of traveling by plane from US (where I am) to Japan for a few weeks?

Speaking of plane tickets. As a man who flies to Korea to visit family every other year or so.

1. Always brows tickets in incognito. Airlines may change rates based on whether you're a return visitor to their site and not having cookies can help.

2. Start with Google flights. This will give you an idea of when (what days and times) tickets are cheapest. Though generally Tuesday or Thursday are the answer.

3. Once you have your time frame use kayak or some other ticket agregator. This will let you find the airline and flight that you want.

4. Take that flight number and time and go directly to the airlines website. Aggregate sites like kayak rates are generally slightly higher that the airline because they gotta make dollars somehow.

5. Though not always I've found that some foreign Airlines charge native fliers less. E.g. if you're flying Korea air change .Com in your web address to .kr. This makes the site in Korean but Google translate page can help here

It's a bit of a process but I generally pay less than 1,000 round trip for flight to Korea and I live in a state with no international airport so I always have layovers.

Speaking of layovers. Use them. See a cheap ticket but it has a 24 hour layover in Paris? Fuck it, that's a day in Paris :). Just be aware that you need roughly 3 hours in customs depending on your destination. So a 5 hour layover is gonna be a boring 5 hours. Long enough to wait, not long enough to do anything.

Bonus tip!! If you have good credit. Look for a credit card that offers a huge bonus or mile's up front then immediately cash those in for a cheaper flight. Side note though on the ones that give you 5% cash back or whatever. You always have to book through them and it's almost always, in my experience, like 5% more expensive. Fuck you Chase.