Tokyo-Guam-Yap
This was a day for travel we were up at 5:00 and then cleaned up, finished packing, and checked out of the hotel. Once again we choose a hotel express bus to the airport. Though we enjoy using train systems whenever we are outside of the United States, the thought of maneuvering our luggage and persons through rush hour on the trains and changing lines three times kept us away.
We met an Englishman on the bus from Northampton. He was traveling on business and headed home. We talked international politics, as well as British. We touched on the two other important items beer and football (soccer). It was an interesting and enjoyable ride despite the time of day.
The Narita Airport was little frightening. The mass of people is beyond what you would see in any US airport. Imagine the last major sporting even you been to, like a Cowboys game. Then imagine all those people drawing towards one of three departure terminals. In our terminal there were about 20 ticketing counters with about 20 stations in each. Over %70 were in use with lines three to ten people deep.
After that, all these people went through one of two security checkpoints. Ours had eight x-ray stations; I would assume the other had just as many. Past that was customs and immigration. Here there were about a dozen to 15 lines, twenty people deep.
Despite the mass of humanity, it remained orderly and I really do not remembering waiting in any one line for much more than 10 minutes. We checked in, checked bags, passed security and made it to our gate with less than 30 minutes of wait time. Having said that, we were at the airport 3 hours early and did have to wait for the ticket counter to open up.
The flight from Tokyo to Guam was uneventful. Being a U.S. Citizen, we went to different lines than the other travelers from Japan. We were in and out of customs and immigration in less than five minutes. As we were "in transit" and our bags were checked straight through, we went right back into the terminal. Our layover there was for a little over three hours. We weighed the options of leaving the "secure area" and trying to see Guam for about 90 minutes. But we decided that finding transportation getting somewhere and getting back would not be a good use of time. Besides, it really looked like rain.
In Guam the quotation marks are needed when referring to the "secure area". It is demarked by nylon webbing like you would see in a bank line. Three is one main hallway to the airport and all arriving flights are directed walk the "secured" side of the hallway down to customs. There are crossing guards to stop the already outbound pedestrian traffic from intersecting with the un-cleared inbound traffic. Anyone could duck under or leave a bag sitting to retrieve it later.
One loud and obnoxious traveler I just watched leave a gate on his was to immigration, exclaimed out loud--loud being operative syllable--that it was stupid that he had to walk all the way to customs as his flight out was right back here. He said it to no one in particular, but the five of us in the area who were subjected to his rant tried to ignore him. He seemed to get louder with every sentence.
Have you heard people talk about the "obnoxious" US traveler? It is easy to spot them. They are the ones that are loud, always talking at a volume just below a yell. They expect to be catered to, taken care of, and allowed special privileges. As a country we adopted the term "America" at some point to describe our geographic origins: "I am from America” as opposed to "I am from the United States". Most everyone does this, myself included.
The problem with that, from a global perspective, is that the Americas consist of North America, Central America, and South America. The term America applies to all of those regions. Our using that to describe where we are from is like Germans using the term Europe for the same purpose. This leads to the other tricky phrase, "I am an American." From the perspective of the a U.S. citizen, this is a normal phrase that equivocates to I am a U.S. citizen. People not from the U.S. do not always understand why we do this.
While it is usually obvious that I am from the states, I try to be quieter and try to present my self better than the image of the "Obnoxious American". While it is likely an insult to Canada, I take it as a complement when people ask if I am Canadian before they ask if I am from the U.S. I see too many of the "Obnoxious Americans" when I travel. While they may be a small percentage, they do not reflect well on the rest of the country. It used to be that saying I was a Texan was an instant antidote to being from the states, but our sitting President is from Texas and he does not "sit well" internationally.
Back on topic, our flight to Yap was fine, we arrived on schedule. I will write later about the arrival at the airport and the home we are staying in for the next 10 days.
We met an Englishman on the bus from Northampton. He was traveling on business and headed home. We talked international politics, as well as British. We touched on the two other important items beer and football (soccer). It was an interesting and enjoyable ride despite the time of day.
The Narita Airport was little frightening. The mass of people is beyond what you would see in any US airport. Imagine the last major sporting even you been to, like a Cowboys game. Then imagine all those people drawing towards one of three departure terminals. In our terminal there were about 20 ticketing counters with about 20 stations in each. Over %70 were in use with lines three to ten people deep.
After that, all these people went through one of two security checkpoints. Ours had eight x-ray stations; I would assume the other had just as many. Past that was customs and immigration. Here there were about a dozen to 15 lines, twenty people deep.
Despite the mass of humanity, it remained orderly and I really do not remembering waiting in any one line for much more than 10 minutes. We checked in, checked bags, passed security and made it to our gate with less than 30 minutes of wait time. Having said that, we were at the airport 3 hours early and did have to wait for the ticket counter to open up.
The flight from Tokyo to Guam was uneventful. Being a U.S. Citizen, we went to different lines than the other travelers from Japan. We were in and out of customs and immigration in less than five minutes. As we were "in transit" and our bags were checked straight through, we went right back into the terminal. Our layover there was for a little over three hours. We weighed the options of leaving the "secure area" and trying to see Guam for about 90 minutes. But we decided that finding transportation getting somewhere and getting back would not be a good use of time. Besides, it really looked like rain.
In Guam the quotation marks are needed when referring to the "secure area". It is demarked by nylon webbing like you would see in a bank line. Three is one main hallway to the airport and all arriving flights are directed walk the "secured" side of the hallway down to customs. There are crossing guards to stop the already outbound pedestrian traffic from intersecting with the un-cleared inbound traffic. Anyone could duck under or leave a bag sitting to retrieve it later.
One loud and obnoxious traveler I just watched leave a gate on his was to immigration, exclaimed out loud--loud being operative syllable--that it was stupid that he had to walk all the way to customs as his flight out was right back here. He said it to no one in particular, but the five of us in the area who were subjected to his rant tried to ignore him. He seemed to get louder with every sentence.
Have you heard people talk about the "obnoxious" US traveler? It is easy to spot them. They are the ones that are loud, always talking at a volume just below a yell. They expect to be catered to, taken care of, and allowed special privileges. As a country we adopted the term "America" at some point to describe our geographic origins: "I am from America” as opposed to "I am from the United States". Most everyone does this, myself included.
The problem with that, from a global perspective, is that the Americas consist of North America, Central America, and South America. The term America applies to all of those regions. Our using that to describe where we are from is like Germans using the term Europe for the same purpose. This leads to the other tricky phrase, "I am an American." From the perspective of the a U.S. citizen, this is a normal phrase that equivocates to I am a U.S. citizen. People not from the U.S. do not always understand why we do this.
While it is usually obvious that I am from the states, I try to be quieter and try to present my self better than the image of the "Obnoxious American". While it is likely an insult to Canada, I take it as a complement when people ask if I am Canadian before they ask if I am from the U.S. I see too many of the "Obnoxious Americans" when I travel. While they may be a small percentage, they do not reflect well on the rest of the country. It used to be that saying I was a Texan was an instant antidote to being from the states, but our sitting President is from Texas and he does not "sit well" internationally.
Back on topic, our flight to Yap was fine, we arrived on schedule. I will write later about the arrival at the airport and the home we are staying in for the next 10 days.
posted by JustKJ | 7:00:00 PM
1 Comments:
In addition to our sitting (US) president not being well-regarded internationally, he does not "sit well" domestically. Some would say he's in deep doo-doo.
Thanks for the travel updates with interesting observations.
fil
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