Lost In Translation

The month of September is my reserve month, which is about as fun as a root canal.  Usually you end up getting a trip when you want to be home and when you want to fly you sit around.  Last year I got called out on my birthday, the 3rd, when I had plans.  This year, for the first time in many years, I was on reserve over Labor Day and did not go anywhere, which I found surprising.  Well come the 10th of the month when I went back on call, there was no one with less hours than me (0.00) so I was first to go for a trip when I called the tape the night before.  Of course I had plans all day on Saturday, and sure enough the phone rang at 7:00am for an 8:40 sign in to Narita, Japan.  

The trip itself was fine.  My friend Alane was on the trip with me and we decided we would go into town for some brew and noodles.  After a stop at the hardware store, we hit the Jet Lag Club for some beers and then made our way to the Noodle Shop for dinner.  We had what Alane described as a "Lost in Translation" moment, when it was time to pay the bill at the restaurant and we realized we each only had ¥2000 each.  This left us short ¥236.  We started to panic (they don't take credit cards) and I told Alane to pull her hair back because we were about to go on dish patrol.  She had dollars so we were trying to find a way to make it work.  Her cool head prevailed and she grabbed the last group of English speakers (pilots) before they left the restaurant to try to buy some of their yen, but they were actually quite generous and just gave us the ¥236 we needed (which is only a little over $3.00) but still, it's pretty rare for a pilot to give you anything.

I was of course waiting for the random aftershocks, but we only felt two very minor ones, and for all we know if could have been a truck going by.

I did have a chance on the way over to talk with a young man named Jon, a recent high school graduate from Colorado Springs.  He had grown up in Japan as a child and was putting off his first semester of college to go over and work as a missionary supporting the rebuilding effort after the horrible earthquake last March.  He's going to blog about the experience so he was kind enough to share his blog with me, titled, Redemption.