Saturday, at 1:05 in the afternoon, I successfully missed the first leg of of what was to be a three leg international flight to Seoul.
Saturday, at about 1:20, I was reseated and scheduled for a couple different flights, which would in the end get me to the same place at the same time as originally planned. The only real difference was that I would have to fly coach for the Detroit-Narita leg. First world crisis.
The flight turned out not to be too bad. I had an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me. I discovered that things I miss most from business class are power at the seats and free drinks. As a consequence, I didn’t watch any of the movies I had stashed away for the trip and didn’t sleep very much.
Fred and I had two days of meeting in Korea, the details of which must remain confidential. This was my first trip to Korea and I was happy to have a chance to try authentic spicy chicken. The only real difference I noticed from its US counterpart was that the cuts of chicken were not as good as Asians generally don’t bother removing skin and gristle. I failed to have bib-bim-bab, so I’ll have to come back.
After Korea, which was amazingly useful, we headed out to Taipei for a few more days of meetings. The most notworthy think from this stay was the gianormous suite of a room that Fred had. Apparently, being super double diamond platinum has its perks.
Third stop, Tokyo, for, you guessed it: more meetings! We didn’t do a whole lot of venturing out otherwise. And, that brings us to the present, relaxing in the Delta sky lounge at the Narita airport until the flight home.
That’s the timeline… now some observations:
1. Fred has done more traveling that I will likely do in my lifetime. Consequently, traveling with him tends to be very organized and lacking in unpleasant surprises.
2. People flying first class have a much higher than average probability of being self absorbed and oblivious to the world around them.
3. It has occured to me that I am probably often the youngest person seated in international business class. I think this is an indicator of how well Amway takes care of its employees.
4. The Japanese are very clean, organized and formal. And some of them are very short. In Japanese, “Hi” means something like “I acknowledge what you have just said.” It gets used a lot. Every time I hear a string of “hi… hi… hi… ” I want to complete it “hi… hi… Macho macho man.” and break into song.
Pictures will have to come later… sorry Patrick.
