Where Are We???

One of the neatest parts of the trip was following our path on the screen in the cabin. We took a route from San Francisco to Alaska and then southwest to Japan. Any ideas about why the pilot would take that route? We also left San Francisco at 12:00 noon on Monday, October 10th, spent about 10 - 10 1/2 hours on the plane and landed at about 3:00 PM TUESDAY, October 11th - What's up with that??????????