January 6, 2015

On the road, travelling pretty lightly loaded.

I usually try to bring plenty of stuff.  Why not be comfortable on the road?  Here is a more typical load from a notable past adventure. Note in the comparison the absence of many truly essential items such as wife, golf clubs, etc.

5AM departure from Bemidji, long layover in Minneapolis and then a 13 hour flight into Tokyo. Delayed into Taipei making it about 32 hours door to door.  But that did include a stop on the way home from the airport for some wuntun and a beer.

The only notable story from the night is about the guitar.  I am travelling with one and it works out interestingly well.  From Bemidji they let me strap it into the open seat beside me.  Out of Minneapolis they let me board early to find an open overhead bin, but it was an old plane and it did not fit, so they stored it for me in the crew’s luggage closet.

In Narita everything works like a swiss (Japanese?) watch.  I gawked around upon arrival, cleaned up a bit and figured out that I needed to take a bus from one terminal to another.  Which ran at posted intervals exactly on time.

Exiting the bus at the other Terminal I was surprised to find a representative of China Air holding a sign with my name on it. She took me to their counter to check that my connection would work smoothly and well and see that I got to the gate easily and without any concern. Issued me a new boarding pass with “a nicer seat”.

At the gate they took my guitar onto the plane and made sure the flight crew was OK with me bringing it into the cabin. Then they brought it all the way back out and asked me to preboard and told me it would fit into an overhead bin. They had checked. I love Asia.

Had a welcome shave and a washup in a sparkling clean rest room. Post this comment which is probably on the edge, but I was asked to tell what it’s like.  One of the simple joys of passing through Narita is the use of a Japanese toilet, which in addition to the functions we are familiar with will also give you an upside down shower.

Could not load this in the bandwidth available on the road. I was experimenting.

So .. it is now morning and I am at Andrew’s place on Wild Dog Mountain.  It is early morning (jet lag) and the mist from the river has obscured the city from view.

Anyway, life is good.  My little coffee maker is out of storage.  Andrew will be up in a few hours and we are going out for the best lunch  I know anywhere.  As Sandie and Lenore might agree.

January 5, 2015

The full moon has flown west toward Asia. And now I am following.

This will be a journey through space AND time. When I arrive I will not only have travelled about 7000 miles west (about 28 percent of the way around the earth), but I will also be 14 hours in Bemidji’s future.

Flying to Europe it is easy to understand TIME ZONES. The further East you go the later it gets and it is very quickly tomorrow.

But flying to Asia is different. The west coast of America is earlier than the rest of us. Hawaii is even earlier. So it would seem that going further west one would encounter yesterday. But instead, landing in Shanghai, Tokyo or Taipei, it is also tomorrow.

Coming back from Asia you often arrive on the west coast before you departed.

This is because out in the middle of the empty Pacific ocean is the mysterious International date line, where time changes by 24 hours. If this line were to pass through an island, on the east of the island it might be noon Tuesday and if so on the west of the island it would be noon Wednesday.

And so Guam is the place where the sun first rises over the USA. And all of us are later in the day.