Tokyo Commuter

The places I've visited

I used the www.world66.com site to create a map of countries visited. Give it a try. Below are all the states that either Julie and I can remember visiting:

Travel Turning Chinese

The face of the global travel industry is changing. It looks more Chinese.

The travel industry in many places is focused on Japanese office girls, who travel in groups of two to four. In places such as Guam, each business reaches out to Japanese tourists, who are the lifeblood of the industry.

But now Chinese have disposable income and are sending out their tourists. This will change not only the marketing end of tourism, but also all our customs. Not only will Mandarin-speaking tour guides also be in higher demand, for example, but non-Chinese tourists will have to adjust.

Example: I was sitting in a reclining beach chair on the beach recently, and a middle-aged Chinese man sat on the chair next to me. He lit up a cigarette and began blowing smoke my way. In the Middle Kingdom this must be acceptable, so I now need to learn to enjoy it. I might learn to say "Dude, do you mind putting out your cigarette?" in Mandarin. I might master the tonal inflections and be able to say it flawlessly. But am I willing to say it to 1.2 billion people? I should instead adjust, or stop traveling.

So I have decided to embrace the future:

- men in track pants and plastic sandals shuffling through the hotel corridors

- multi-generational families traveling together

- ramen restaurants inside the resorts

- learning Kung Fu in order to defend my spot when waiting in line

But I won't speak Chinese to souvenir shop clerks in Europe. I have my limits.

Driving me crazy

I drove on the right side of the road for 5 days while overseas. Tonight, back in Japan, I had to drive on the left side. Oh, except for the time I decided to change to rules and pull out of a parking lot onto the right side and drove into on-coming traffic.

I am hoping that such antics will alert people in Japan to the fact that they are all driving on the wrong side. If they would just follow my lead, they could learn to drive on the right side. Then I won't have to adjust. Let them all adjust to me. This will be much more convenient for me, but may continue to tramautize my family for a while during the inevitable adjustment period. So buckle up, kids. Leadership requires going against the grain sometimes.

Revelling in Revealing Beaches

I am on the beach in Guam. Everyone is wearing a swimsuit, so now I know more about everyone than I would have otherwise. Sometimes it is "too much information."

My question for today is "why did the Great Creator create so much variety in body composition among his children?"

Narita Airport

The key to success in life is choosing the right line to stand in.

Currently I am at Narita airport. I had to choose which check-in line would be the fastest. My faulty-logic brain chose the shortest one. After 20 minutes of not moving, a woman came back and apologized for the wait. She bent her head toward the woman operating the desk we were waiting for and explained, “she’s a trainee.” No other apology was necessary.

I realized that I always choose the wrong line. When I am faced with a choice of lines, complex algorithms in my brain calculate which line would be best. But I am always wrong. I choose the line with a person who is trying to smuggle a bird cage full of endangered-species birds. Or I choose the one with the person who plans to request the paperwork to apply for diplomatic immunity, after which their qualifications are carefully investigated while I wait behind them in line. Or I choose the person who doesn’t get an ideal seat and won’t leave until are they compensated with a free upgrade (“do you know who I am?!”)

As I wait, I realize I need a new policy. I am refining my mental formulas for line choosing. I have plenty of time to figure it out: what else will I do as I wait in line? A refugee in front of me has asked to wait in line while his extended family is airlifted from his home country in Central America.