Update Series, #2

Hello All!

I'm not exactly sure when I'll be able to send this one, but I'm on day 2, (or day 3 depending on how you consider the international date line) of the adventure. I'm on a 747 enroute to Guam from Tokyo.

The trip from Detroit (DTW) to Tokyo (NRT) was long but pleasant. I wanted to sleep much of the time, but got hooked by a couple of movies and my book. And just when the exciting part of XXX started, we entered the landing phase of flight.

I ran into a friend in DTW who is a 747 captain and was flying the next flight out of DTW to NRT. We made plans to meet for dinner in Japan. He was scheduled to arrive an hour after I did. He and I were in Airbus 320 school together in 1990. Planning was perfect and we went out for some gyoza at one of the local restaurants frequented by NWA crew. I must say, layovers in NRT are slightly different than in Minot, ND on the DC9. Especially in winter with wind chills in Minot of -35 or more.

Thinking that if I stayed up really late, until I was really tired, I would sleep the night away, irrespective of body time and time zones. I promptly fell asleep at 9pm, and slept soundly until 1030pm. Then it was up and down until 3am with just a quick nap in by 5am. Then I gave up, checked email, went down for breakfast, paid my room bill, checked email again, drank a pot of coffee and got on the bus back to the airport.

I really like Japan. I like the fine trimmed lawns and shrubbery. I like the small farms stuffed between everything. I like the food. I like not being able to read the signs and billboards. It's funny when you see a huge billboard, all in Japanese, except for one or two descriptive English words. When I lived in Japan, I was told it was just marketing. That the English words just looked good when used sparingly.

And I really like the people. I like the polite society that the Japanese try to maintain. I like the civility of manners between people. Some folks say the Japanese are reserved, or cold to foreigners and strangers. I have never found that to be true. Maybe it's just me.

When I first visited Japan in 1983, the exchange rate was 280 yen to the dollar. Great deals for U.S. citizens. When I lived in Japan starting in 1987, financial shock: 150 yen to the dollar and it went as low as 118 when I left in 1988. I think the exchange rate hovers around 108 now but I really don't know as I had leftovers from last years trip. In any case, I had enough yen to cover dinner, breakfast and coffee. The whole pot.

I only spent limited time in the environs of Narita, and my observations are from two bus trips to/from the airport,

THIS WAS AS FAR AS I GOT ON THE AIRPLANE TO GUAM. MY BATTTERY DIED. NOW I'M IN PALAU.

but I noticed that although security is still tight around the airport, Japanese military in complete padded riot gear are absent. There are still guard towers at most corners, double layered security fences, and many checkpoints. But the uniformed personnel treat each car as if they are inspecting for their nation's safety, as well as if each car contained their commanding officer: much respect and attention to detail at the same time.

I also noticed that the school kids who all used to wear very traditional uniforms to school, were all dressed differently, except for their hats. All the same style and color. IF this is a change in all of Japan, then no wonder the world is as it is.

And the airport mall had Happy Cats which will make someone close to me Happy.

My seatmate was a fellow Northwest Airlines Employee. John Malaca is a Compliance Auditor (safety inspector/quality assurance) and travels around our Asian Pacific stations ensuring we have top notch safety programs and procedural adherence. After chatting with him at length, I was quite impressed with NWA's approach to safety. John is a retired Air Force mechanic and lives in Guam with his family. He's been with NWA for 2 years.

SHAMELESS MARKETING ALERT!

Now is a great time to buy tickets on NWA to all those places you've always wanted to visit. Fares are low, the service is great and you deserve that trip. Go to Guam and scuba dive. Take an out island adventure to Tinian or Saipan. Go on over to Thailand. Pony up and fly in World Business Class. You'll love the service. Look at it this way. The economy is going to turn around, we're going to kick Saddam's butt in short order, and all those who have declared YOU a combatant, will be 'addressed'. After that, ticket prices will go up and you'll tell yourselves, "Hey, remember when Flip said it was time to buy some tickets?"

END OF SHAMELESS MARKETING.

I also found out that John's wife is Palauan. Small world. We got along famously and he and his wife Joanne adopted me for the rest of the afternoon in Guam. We went to an Italian restaurant for a carbo load session as Joanne is running a half marathon tomorrow. They toured me around the island and taught me about some of the current political issues on the island. Especially important is the recovery from the typhoon that came through. You can still see the effects everywhere. Power and water are still intermittent on some parts of the island. But, it is still a beautiful spot. They told me that Guam would be a great place to bring Rebecca to learn to scuba dive.

They dropped me off at the airport. I processed through immigration and waited at the gate for 20 minutes until everyone else appeared from their flight from Hawaii. If I looked as they did when I got off in NRT, gosh was I tired. We all hugged and said howdy and I noticed that one person was missing. DOB, Val, Jennifer and Pat were all standing upright, but Clem, the videographer was nowhere to be seen. Seems as if he took a detour to Santa Cruz, CA. He'll chase us here tomorrow.

Short flight to Koror, Palau (ROR). Nice immigration and customs clearing process. My bags were last to come off. But they made it. Otherwise it was down to 2 pairs of under shorts and dress slacks for cruising the jungles.

Joe and Josie from Neco Marine met us with our van, hearty handshakes and leis for all. Joe is our stellar guide and boat captain from last year. Josie runs the dive store at Neco Marine.

This year we have an eight passenger van instead of the mudboggin 11 passenger van. And from a different rental agency. When the first agency found out we were taking the van back to Babelthuap, they said "see ya". We were glad as we did not want to find out that they hadn't repaired the damages we did last year.

First stop out of the airport, down to the truck stop for a milkshake, and burger. And for Bill Belcher, we got a check in the block: we used "smacked ass" in a sentence. And it was grammatically correct too. We're still not sure about the proper spelling.

Checked into our apartments. We have three of them. The Ready Room, where the coffee pot will be when we buy one, is a three bedroom. The annex is a 2 bedroom and el jefe is in the penthouse.

It's almost midnight local time. I've been up since 0500 local time. But it's almost 10am Chelsea, MI and body clock time. I'm a touch confused right now. But I'm really glad to be here and the 'target list' has grown and some interesting sites will be explored. But that comes in future updates.

Okay, back at ya. I still don't know when this will get sent. We don't have phones in the room. But, we'll cypher on it and figure it out.

Blue SKies, Flip