Japan or Bust

2:56 PM 3/15/2006

This is an offline post, so the date above is different from the blog post date. This will be typical of posts during this trip, since I may not be able to be online frequently enough to post regularly.

The trip started inauspiciously with a malfunction on the tiny jet that would take me to Chicago where I would tranfer to my Tokyo flight. After sitting a while the pilot announced that there was a problem in that an indicator light had "exploded" and they had to clean up the broken glass in the cockpit. That's right, he said "exploded." Don't they train pilots to avoid words like that when talking to passenger? Jeez.

Well, it was clearly more that an indicator light, since we sat for an hour. I was getting deeply concerned about making my connection until I realized I had a bonus hour given the different time zone. Even so, they were boarding the Tokyo flight by the time I got to the gate, so it was pretty close.

Right now, I'm sitting next to a sleeping Japanese man. He looks like the camp commandant in Bridge Over the River Kwai.

We won't be chatting much.

Here's something cool and new. In business class, they give you Bose headphones for the audio/video options. Nice. I've plugged it into my Ipod, so I have my entire music collection with me and am able to listen to it with crystal clear sound. It even drowns out the screaming baby in the next row. I'm listening to Elton John's Tiny Dancer. Sweet.

I wonder what the poor people are doing right now?