| Not in Kansas anymore |
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Arrival in the country of the Rising Sun.
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There may be a time that I have felt more out of my element. But I can’t recall it.
I accepted the invitation to fill a sudden vacancy in the U.S. delegation to the URGENCI international symposium on CSA in Kobe, Japan, and my wife Jo (who in a very real sense started this set of events 7 years ago – more on that some other time) has joined me on the trip.
We have made it as far as Tokyo so far.
A 13 hour flight from Chicago left late, due to some kind of repair that is much better handled there than over the Pacific.
It will not be news to frequent fliers to report that economy seats on international flights are inhumane. And that it is a further indignity to allow the seat in front to recline into that space.
That late start caused us to miss all connections to Osaka, and the airlines have us in a hotel near the airport.
As we passed through the airport, we saw signs that we didn’t understand and while many speak English, we are growing confused.
At the desk of the domestic airline whose flight we missed, we met a woman who could not be particularly helpful herself, but patiently listened to our plight and called a young fellow who soon ran up to us. In fact he, and a couple of his colleagues who also got involved, ran everywhere.
Our route from airport to hotel is littered with people I can best describe as polite and patient. |
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Urgenci >
KOBE 2010 > AN AMERICAN DIARY > Not in Kansas anymore |
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He ran to check to see whether new tickets had been issued, then ran off to see if some could. He ran back to offer options of a tight connection to Osaka tonight or a stay in a local hotel, and tickets out tomorrow.
He ran off to get permission from a supervisor for the overnight stay, ran back to ask if we had tickets for the shuttles. “Shuttles?” we wondered. “Oh,” he said, “You have to go to the other airport.” “Other airport?” we ask. Hey, we’re tired. And confused. Our helper ran off to make the arrangements.
Meanwhile other young fellows ran up to ask if we were being helped, or ran off to take care of some detail.
At the money exchange desk, where I asked for some of the cash to be coins for the pay phone, the clerk (unprompted – it was that obvious) pointed to two kinds of coins and said of one, “many minutes” and the other “few minutes.”
A small boost in morale comes when we are asked for advice from some other travelers who don’t realize how little we know, and miss the deer-in-the-headlights look I am sure we have.
All the people we met were thoroughly polite, always willing to repeat themselves, never frustrated with us or our naïveté. Once at the hotel, we have to ask for help to turn on the lights in the room (I’m not making that up) and as long as we had someone in the room who knew something, asked how to make a phone call (I never did figure out the pay phones).
With that bit of advice I can finally contact Miyoshi, secretary to URGENCI and one of our contacts in Japan. She is sure we can catch tomorrow’s tour bus and will try to have someone meet us at the airport. We may still be out of our element, but we have made contact and can sleep easy. It feels like the movie has changed from black and white to color. |
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