[carbocation]

The great circle route from NYC to Tokyo flies over virtually no part of the continental United States, aside from New York. (Canada, on the other hand, would be below the plane for much of the trip, but is sparsely populated enough if the north that I suspect you could route around major population centers easily.)

[raverbashing]

Exactly, you have to worry mostly about the coldest parts of Canada and maybe Russia

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=NRT-JFK

[harshpotatoes]

Ok, thats a good point. I'm not farmiliar enough with the globe to remember the great circle routes.