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These are recent stories - the rest are in my latest book,"Walking Through Adversity."

Stories about Asian Trips (1)

Rob bryant
2006-01-07 11:13:24

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at 3:30 PM Sun. through10 time zones. It never got dark because it was getting earlier the farther West we went and when I crossed the International Time Zone, it was the next morning - weird huh? We flew over Canada, Alaska, Bearing Straights, Russia and finally the Japanese Islands. Ironically, my flight took me past Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that spelled the beginning of the end of the Japanese Empire at the hands of the US. As you probably know, Japan cannot maintain a military of its own, so the US protects it from outside opposing forces (the Far East is very nervous about China). I landed at the modern land-locked Narita Airport in Japan and was picked up by the local DynCorp Manager. We drove through Tokyo (http://www.jnto.go.jp) for over two hours. Tokyo is extremely modern and is the home for more than 30 million people (this one city is larger than the entire population of California). Bullet trains shot by full of people as we drove by modern high rise buildings. We drove across Yokohama Bridge that was lit up in shades of green and blue with huge lights. It is one of the largest suspension bridges in the world (the one that Godzilla destroys every other year). Tokyo is so crowded that homes are literally side by side and have several floors. Several generations of the same family occupy the same house and older family members are highly revered and respected. The grandfather normally rules the house. Busy executives are encouraged to work 16 hours per day so they only go home on the weekends and sleep in tubes at their company or downtown. Each tube has a TV and is environmentally controlled. They hang their clothes outside of the tube and they are cleaned and pressed while they sleep.

Atsugi Paradise - We eventually arrived at a naval station on the coast close to Mt. Fuji. (http://www.atsugi.navy.mil/). They put me up at the Base Officers Quarters which is the nicest I have ever seen. My quarters had 3 rooms including ...