A YEN FOR MACDONALD’S
FROM CAP’N MERYL
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
Ask The Captain
In my last two Weekly Updates I told you about a recent trip
from Chicago to Tokyo and Taipei. That was a long trip with
over thirty hours of flight time and I didn’t fly for the
whole week after that.
So I’ll tell you a little bit about that last morning in
Tokyo. I woke up knowing I had to have something from
MacDonald’s for breakfast. I haven’t been to the one in
Narita for months but I had the urge, so I hopped the free
bus that runs from our layover hotel to Narita about 10-15
minutes away. I just don’t do well with Japanese food,
especially at breakfast.
I had forgotten that recently one stop was added to the bus
route since I last rode it and which has always been nonstop
into town, and it happens to be at the hotel of my friend
Captain Lim of Malaysia Airlines. (Meet Captain Lim, if you
haven’t already, at http://www.AskCaptainLim.com.) He and I have
compared notes and have agreed we’ll try to hook up
somewhere on the planet if and when our schedules ever put
us at the same approximate latitude/longitude at the same
time. If we ever actually succeed in doing this you can bet
I’ll be write about it so you can join us—well, you know
what I mean.
Of course Captain Lim wasn’t there, but at least we solved
the transportation problem since it’s too far to walk
between hotels. Malaysia Airlines crews stay just across
the street from us in Frankfurt and in fact sometimes our
crews stay in the same hotel they do when our own hotel
fills up. We also both fly to several other cities around
the globe, so I feel confident sooner or later we’ll be able
to meet in person. What remains to be seen is whether it
will be over Wiener schnitzel in Germany, Shrimp Tempura in
Japan or something else entirely in some other potentially
exotic locale.
For now, I knew he wasn’t in Narita and stayed on the bus
into town. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I
realized I’d left my Japanese yen back in my room. I didn’t
think they took credit cards at MacDonald’s in Japan (I was
right) but I knew where there was an ATM inside a
convenience store near where the bus stops and right across
the narrow street from MacDonald’s.
What I found out was this ATM didn’t work an anything but
Japanese credit cards. Bummer! I managed to explain my
plight to the clerk, a young man, who took my arm and led me
outside to an enclosed booth I had assumed was a bus stop.
Inside, however, was an international ATM machine.
I thanked him profusely and put my card in, only to discover
that the smallest amount one could get was $100 worth of
yen. I had been thinking $20, but, what the heck, I come
here a lot and I was really getting irritated with myself; I
had no desire to waste a whole hour riding back to the hotel
and then have to come back again. So I stuck my bank card
into the ATM, assuming I would be issued ten 1,000 Yen notes,
but again I assumed wrong. Out came a single note for
10,000 yen.
I once saw a pilot pay for a piece of toast (at my airline’s
training center cafeteria) with a hundred dollar bill and
swore I’d never do that to a cashier. So I went back into
the convenience store and showed the same clerk the 10,000
Yen note, trying to looking as helpless as possible. This
wasn’t difficult since I felt like a complete fool.
He laughed and gave me ten 1,000 Yen notes, and with that,
FINALLY I went back across the street to MacDonald’s and got
my breakfast sandwich. And you want to know the really
scary part? It was WORTH it! It was hot, the coffee was
hot, and I can’t remember the last time someone at
MacDonald’s bowed to me in the U.S. The kids working there
all bowed respectfully and I bowed right back. What a
polite country!
I once wrote another piece about this very MacDonald’s
called “Mama-Sans and Big Macs.” If you care to read it,
you can find it on my Blog by clicking here:
www.fromthecockpit.com/Blogg Once you get there, click on
January 2005 and scroll down until you see this title, or
just click on the title which should appear on the right
side of the page.
When I returned home to Denver from this trip, it was time
almost immediately to head for San Diego to help celebrate
my Dad’s 88th birthday and to meet the artist with whom I’ll
be collaborating for some children’s books. In the interest
of not being overly long-winded (who me?) I’ll tell you
about all that next time. You can see some shots of my
flight to San Diego including the pilots, my Dad and me on
his birthday and Suzy and her husband in my Photo Gallery’s
latest Album addition called “San Diego to Denver.” Click
here:
San Diego Denver
And with that…
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
Link to this week’s column at USAToday.com/travel:
Ask The Captain
In my last two Weekly Updates I told you about a recent trip
from Chicago to Tokyo and Taipei. That was a long trip with
over thirty hours of flight time and I didn’t fly for the
whole week after that.
So I’ll tell you a little bit about that last morning in
Tokyo. I woke up knowing I had to have something from
MacDonald’s for breakfast. I haven’t been to the one in
Narita for months but I had the urge, so I hopped the free
bus that runs from our layover hotel to Narita about 10-15
minutes away. I just don’t do well with Japanese food,
especially at breakfast.
I had forgotten that recently one stop was added to the bus
route since I last rode it and which has always been nonstop
into town, and it happens to be at the hotel of my friend
Captain Lim of Malaysia Airlines. (Meet Captain Lim, if you
haven’t already, at http://www.AskCaptainLim.com.) He and I have
compared notes and have agreed we’ll try to hook up
somewhere on the planet if and when our schedules ever put
us at the same approximate latitude/longitude at the same
time. If we ever actually succeed in doing this you can bet
I’ll be write about it so you can join us—well, you know
what I mean.
Of course Captain Lim wasn’t there, but at least we solved
the transportation problem since it’s too far to walk
between hotels. Malaysia Airlines crews stay just across
the street from us in Frankfurt and in fact sometimes our
crews stay in the same hotel they do when our own hotel
fills up. We also both fly to several other cities around
the globe, so I feel confident sooner or later we’ll be able
to meet in person. What remains to be seen is whether it
will be over Wiener schnitzel in Germany, Shrimp Tempura in
Japan or something else entirely in some other potentially
exotic locale.
For now, I knew he wasn’t in Narita and stayed on the bus
into town. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way I
realized I’d left my Japanese yen back in my room. I didn’t
think they took credit cards at MacDonald’s in Japan (I was
right) but I knew where there was an ATM inside a
convenience store near where the bus stops and right across
the narrow street from MacDonald’s.
What I found out was this ATM didn’t work an anything but
Japanese credit cards. Bummer! I managed to explain my
plight to the clerk, a young man, who took my arm and led me
outside to an enclosed booth I had assumed was a bus stop.
Inside, however, was an international ATM machine.
I thanked him profusely and put my card in, only to discover
that the smallest amount one could get was $100 worth of
yen. I had been thinking $20, but, what the heck, I come
here a lot and I was really getting irritated with myself; I
had no desire to waste a whole hour riding back to the hotel
and then have to come back again. So I stuck my bank card
into the ATM, assuming I would be issued ten 1,000 Yen notes,
but again I assumed wrong. Out came a single note for
10,000 yen.
I once saw a pilot pay for a piece of toast (at my airline’s
training center cafeteria) with a hundred dollar bill and
swore I’d never do that to a cashier. So I went back into
the convenience store and showed the same clerk the 10,000
Yen note, trying to looking as helpless as possible. This
wasn’t difficult since I felt like a complete fool.
He laughed and gave me ten 1,000 Yen notes, and with that,
FINALLY I went back across the street to MacDonald’s and got
my breakfast sandwich. And you want to know the really
scary part? It was WORTH it! It was hot, the coffee was
hot, and I can’t remember the last time someone at
MacDonald’s bowed to me in the U.S. The kids working there
all bowed respectfully and I bowed right back. What a
polite country!
I once wrote another piece about this very MacDonald’s
called “Mama-Sans and Big Macs.” If you care to read it,
you can find it on my Blog by clicking here:
www.fromthecockpit.com/Blogg Once you get there, click on
January 2005 and scroll down until you see this title, or
just click on the title which should appear on the right
side of the page.
When I returned home to Denver from this trip, it was time
almost immediately to head for San Diego to help celebrate
my Dad’s 88th birthday and to meet the artist with whom I’ll
be collaborating for some children’s books. In the interest
of not being overly long-winded (who me?) I’ll tell you
about all that next time. You can see some shots of my
flight to San Diego including the pilots, my Dad and me on
his birthday and Suzy and her husband in my Photo Gallery’s
latest Album addition called “San Diego to Denver.” Click
here:
San Diego Denver
And with that…
Until Next Time,
Maintain Airspeed!
Cap’n Meryl
http://www.fromthecockpit.com
http://www.flyingfearless.com
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