Sayonara Tokyo, Nihao Beijing

Up early in the land of eternal humidity to enjoy an instant persperation-fest right out of the shower as we engage in the obligatory last-minute packing. The cab to Narita Airport was quick and unencumbered by traffic—yay. The most excellent Admiral’s Club awaited us as we danced past overpriced Duty Free and fake foods. What’s so great about the Narita Airport Terminal 2 Admirals Club? Self-serve open bar with lotsa booze and Asahi beer on tap at all times (not that we’re drinking---this is a working day as soon as we get to Beijing---but gosh it’s nice to see it), nice selection of nibbly snacks and self-serve espresso drinks, little tiny yogurts, and on and on. The only downside is it’s All CNN All The Time, and really, there’s little that can bum you out more quickly than Wolf Blitzer going in-depth on Jerry Lewis’ open mouth/insert foot boo-boo. Really makes you proud to be an American, and makes me wonder; what other poo can we export to the World? We’ll find something—we’re dependable that way.

Our exit from Tokyo is very timely; a typhoon with 100 mph winds is set to hit the city in a few days, so…glad to miss that, and hope all our new friends in Japan make it through ok—and hope our colleague Lee makes it out of the city ok for her Friday flight to London. Flight to Beijing on JAL was very cool mostly because the 747 we were on had a live camera shot from just above the front landing gear, going into all the cabin and in-seat monitors, with the pilot’s POV during the entire flight, and seeing that perspective as we took off and landed was stunning…and during the flight you could also select to see the straight-down view from the underbelly of the plane.

Familiar faces of our Across China friends were in Beijing to greet us and take us to our first location, the Johnson Controls auto seat and interiors plant, then it was off to our hotel. I demonstrated my ability to revert into doofy boyness by--not once, but twice--blowing all the power to our room when I tried—not once, but twice—to plug in my 110 volt power strip into the 220 volt line using only a plug adaptor and not also a transformer. Nothing like the smell of electical smoke on the 17th floor of a hotel in China to make you feel safe and secure. Thanks to the hotel engineer all was put right and the offending and burnt-out power strip was removed from my possession.

Thursday morning it was off to Tianenman Square for a quick visit with The Chairman, as Nancy from Across China convinced the local Beijing Police and the Army guys that we weren’t journalists, and to give us 10 minutes. Then Mr. Yin and Nancy took us to the grounds of the Olympics to get some more shots of the key buildings. Our perspective from the 3rd floor balcony of one of the worker’s buildings inside the fence was great, however the accomodations for these guys is as bare-bones and user-unfriendly as it gets (What? No wifi? No indoor plumbing?), and the smell of human waste in the hot summer sun was…like the worst subway station in the US magnified by a factor of 10. When we got back in the car Mr. Yin sprayed the air inside the car with some strong stink-away as we crusised back to the hotel and a nap.

Now it’s time to primp for a farewell dinner of Roast Duck as we prepare for a 5am checkout and flight to Hong Kong.