Bonjour Paris!

The flight out of Newark left about an hour late. They actually held the plane to wait for other flights that had been delayed by the storms we were having in the Northeast. By the time we pushed back from the gate we had gone from a mostly empty to plane to a nearly full one.

The flight was not bad at all. No turbulence and I was able to sleep for about 4 hours. Lucia did a little bit better than me in the sleep department. She slept most of the time.

We pulled in at Charles De Gaulle in the late morning. Some of the other passengers wanted to know what gate we were arriving to so they could figure out where they needed to go to make their next connection. Well, like many European airports CDG has an area where the planes park and offload the passengers onto buses. There is no direct connection with the terminal. That's what our plane did to a few people's chagrin.

Customs and immigration was incredibly easy to get through. The police staffing immigration barely glanced at our passports and there was only one young man sitting in the doorway through customs and he was happily joking around with two lovely young women. We cruised right through with our mountain of bags. It was kind of surprising given all of the news about heightened security these days.

We took a cab into the Paris to our hotel. The cab ride was about an hour. The driver seemed somewhat unfamiliar with the address when we got in the cab, but he had no problem figuring out where to go. The fare was expensive - about 50 Euro (at a .667 exchange rate that's about $75). I am glad I can get reimbursed for it.

We checked in to the hotel, got settled, and decided to walk around and to stay awake as long as possible. We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe about a block away from the hotel. The staff was very pleasant and the food was good. We didn't have anything exotic, just sandwiches and a few beers.

After lunch we walked toward the city center and went to the Eiffel Tower! Lu wasn't exactly keen about going to the top, but I insisted - especially since we were there and had no other plans for the day. We had to wait on long lines to take an elevator to the top. The view from the elevators was probably one of the best, but the observation platform at the top was great too. We were lucky to have beaten out some storms coming in and managed to get a few pictures before it started to rain.

On our way back to hotel we stopped at another sidewalk cafe for dinner. We both selected "formule" dishes from the menu. Formule translates to a fixed price with some selection for all the courses in the meal. In our case Lu got roasted chicken, salad, and french fries (no, I am not joking about the french fries) and I ordered beef sirloin with Bernaise sauce, salad, and fries. The last course was dessert. I had a chocolate mousse and we ordered raisson cake for Lu which was similar to a rice pudding.

We did well on staying awake for the day. By the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly 10PM! Lu turned on the TV and found CSI in french! The dubbing was pretty good and it was kind of fun watching an American TV show in a foreign language.

Pics From My Last Trip to the UK

These posts are a little out of order. I am in the UK right now - coming home tomorrow. The pics below are from a trip over the summer to attend the Farnborough Air Show. Our office is in Nottingham so I went there for a few days before heading south to the show. Proir to that is my post from this trip. This time around was all business so mostly all I saw were lots of fields and farms while traveling down the highway.

Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem
The Oldest Pub In England
Founded in 1189AD - Built Right into the Nottingham Castle Wall















Nottingham Castle















Yes, it's an old red phone booth...




















The A380 at Farnborough - Pretty Amazing

Magpie

London Calling...

Alright, no pictures this time. I didn't bring my camera. I do have to say though that England is quite beautiful. Lots of rolling green fields dotted with sheep. I was struck by the absence of strip malls and subdivisions. Maybe that difference highlights America's youth.. England, quiet, peaceful, subdued.. America, loud, well lit, lots of places to buy the latest thing.. Ah, who knows. Maybe I am reading too much into the lack of sprawl. Regardless, it just seems nicer.

I did see a magpie this trip - a black bird with white wings - that was pretty cool.

What am I doing here? Visiting accounts, doing marketing research. I was able to go to Airbus and Rolls Royce this week. It was great learning about the new developments each are working on. I think there are great opportunities for my company if only we can move fast enough to take advantage of them.

I got here last Sunday and fly out tomorrow. I am at the Holiday at Heathrow Airport. A HUGE airport. They have an old Concorde parked here too. It was surprising to see one. I didn't think I'd seen one live before, but I did - at Boeing's Museum of Flight in Seattle. The Museum of Flight has a couple of two seat full motion simulators. You can loop, roll, do pretty much any stunt you can imagine. They were a ton of fun.

Anyways, I haven't written in a while, but maybe I should get back to it. I have moved back to Philadelphia.. Actually have been in the area since May. I bought a house in Abington. It's 2200 square feet with a full mother-in-law suite for mom. I have been busy over the last month or so painting and refurbishing it. It has come up real nice. I think it will be great once I get it done and get everything put away. The job is going well too. I feel like I can stretch my legs more and have come into my own with the position. It's good being in a positive environment.

And have I said I have the best girlfriend in the universe? I think she's awesome. We fit with each other really well too. Offsetting in personality would be a good way to think of it. And she's beautiful and loving and caring and attentive and I adore her.

That's the news for now. Back to the US tomorrow.

Home Again!

I got back to US last Thursday. The trip was long, long, long... a two and a half hour flight from Shanghai to Tokyo then 11 hours and 40 minutes from Tokyo to Detroit then another hour and a half to Columbia. On the Tokyo-Detroit leg there was a woman sitting behind me who had adopted a little girl from China. She was adorable, but noisy. No sleep for me! I have to remember one of two things next time I take a trip like this - noise canceling headsets or ear plugs. It seems every flight I have been on lately has been populated with fussy two year olds!

My last week in China ended up being very busy. I spent the day Sunday preparing my presentation for the training I was providing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I worked from morning until night on Sunday then went to dinner with co-workers each of the following nights.

The trip out to the training facility was interesting. Cooper had chartered a bus to pick up attendees. I met the bus in front of the hotel each morning at 7:45AM. On our way out to the office park we passed numerous newer neighborhoods with huge homes. The strange part was that most of them looked empty. There were also tons of apartment building being put up and additions made to the office parks in the area. My co-worker Dennis and I met a German named Marcus in the hotel lobby who had lived in Shanghai for several years. He told us that the ex-patriot community there was on the order of about 400,000 people. I guess Chinese builders are trying to take advantage of the influx of foreigners. The problem with the housing that is being built is that it's very expensive. Not many people can afford it on regular Chinese wages.

For the most part downtown Shanghai seemed very modern. There were lots of tall office buildings and plenty of restaurants and places to shop. One pair of buildings had some flashy architecture at the top that made them look like a pair of giant artichokes.. In contrast to the modern city on some blocks you'd also see tall apartment buildings that looked kind of worn with metal rods strung from every balcony so that the apartment dweller could dry their clothes. And everywhere, everywhere there was something constantly under construction. It seemed the work crews worked well into the night.

On Monday evening I went out with Lucy from our Shanghai office, one of our salesmen James, and two people from a local distributor. Lucy had a van pick us up and it looked like something out of a movie. Dangling from the ceiling were a bunch of ornamental tassles and the van had definitely seen better days. It was nice to have the ride though and good to get out and see a little bit more of the city.

We went to a very good restaurant that served a variety of different dumplings. They were delicious. The trick to eating them was to pick one up with your chopsticks, put it on your spoon, bite a small hole in it, drink the broth inside, then eat the dumpling. This was a regional specialty - unfortunately I don't remember the region!

Dennis and I went to dinner with the entire sales group on Tuesday night. We went to a typical Chinese restaurant where a variety of dishes are served on a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table. There were plenty of meats like beef and lamb, seafood including jellyfish and whole cooked fish, and a variety of vegetables. There was actually (no joking) dog on the menu! Our Chinese hosts tried to order it, but they were out of it. At dinner the drinking got a little rowdy. When someone toasting with you says the words gan bei, which means bottoms up (literally empty glass), the proper thing to do is to drain your glass. We went around the table several times offering up toasts.

After dinner we went out for some karaoke. Unlike karaoke bars at home - or bars that host karaoke - we went to a place that rented out private rooms for karaoke parties. The guys stopped at the grocery store and stocked up on beer and liquor then we headed to the karaoke room. Dennis and I did scorching renditions of "Tears in Heaven," "Take It Easy," "Constant Craving," "Always on My Mind," and more. It was fun. After we hogged the karaoke machine for a bit the Chinese contingent got on board and sang some songs in Chinese. Everyone was cheering and having a good time.

On my last night in China I met Dennis for dinner in the hotel lobby. We just chilled and called it an early night. I think we were both feeling pretty exhausted. Me from being on the road for three weeks and him with the monumental jet-lag of a 13 hour time difference.

I didn't have enough time to get to see the major attractions of Shanghai - an area called The Bund and the Oriental Pearl Tower that is in every picture of the skyline ever taken. I don't know if Dennis got out to see them or not. He was staying through the end of the week before heading off to Australia. It would have been neat to see them and see the spectacular modern places in the city.

Here are some pics..

The Shanghai skyline on a nice day.













Gloomy Shanghai - this is what it looked like while I was there.















A typical construction site in the city.















Me and Dennis (center) with the Cooper China Team.

Back to Shanghai..

Yesterday was Saturday so we took some time out to go see the Terracotta Warriors site. It is about an hour from the city of Xi'an. I was finally able to travel through the countryside during the day. There were many small farms being tended by hand. Along the road near the highway entrance and exits people lined the shoulder trying to get rides. The houses were of brick construction and looked old and worn. Most of the windows did not seem to have glass and it was hard to tell, but it didn't seem like utility service was available either. Along the shoulder I saw a man walking a goat. People kneeled in the fields tending to their crops. In the towns in the surrounding area most people seem idle. There are small shops selling a variety of wares from brooms made from a bundle of sticks to cheap plastic housewares.

My coworker, Kent said the area around Xi'an is poor because construction is limited by the government. The reason is to preserve any artifacts found in the area. I think I wrote in my previous post that Xi'an was the first capital of China when the country of China was first united under one ruler. Artifacts are plentiful in the area and nobody is allowed to dig more than 2M into the soil.. thus, no construction. I guess that leaves the land available for farming and that's it.

So, in 1974 a farmer who was digging a well unearthed a terracotta head and some other broken pieces of statue. He stopped digging and contacted the government. The government sent archeologists to the site and they discovered what is now known as the Terracotta Warriors.. over 6,000 troops, horses, and chariots arranged for battle to protect the Emperor QinShihuang after his death. The tomb of the Emperor is not far from the warriors site and has been left untouched. The site is about 2,000 years old.

As the Chinese archeologists unearthed the statues they found nearly all of them were shattered from earthquakes and fires. Only one kneeling archer was found completely intact. The Chinese reconstructed the statues on display today. Further, each of the statues was painted during it's construction and the paint was intact when the statues were uncovered, but exposure to the air and mold caused all of the paint to flake off over the years. The statues are now bare terracotta with little or no coloring.

Each statue was made in sections. The legs and base are solid, the torso and arms hollow, and the head was the last piece added at the end. Each statue is different from any other with a wide range of heights and body types. The faces and hair style on each statue is unique as well. The body of horses have a hole in them to allow hot gases to escape when the piece was being fired in a kiln. Again, these were also made in piece with the tails added later.

Last there was a museum showing the Imperial Chariots that was discovered at another site closer to the tomb of Emperor Qin. The chariot were nearly as shattered as the soldiers and had to be completely reconstructed. The chariot that would carry the emperor had a roof in the shape of a tortise shell to signify long life.

The whole museum area was beautifully constructed and immaculately maintained. It was in stark contrast to the poverty of the surrounding area.

In the museum shop I bought a book on about the site and was able to get it signed by the farmer who made the original discovery while drilling the well. He is considered very lucky to have found such an important site.

Outside the gates hawkers sell very cheap souveniers and goods. They are very aggresive and will get right in your face and follow you to your car. Among the things available for purchase were silk blankets, animals furs and skins, "jade" jewelry and trinkets, carved wood objects, and models of the warriors.

After leaving the warriors site we picked up some tools and headed to the airport. We grabbed a flight back to Shanghai. The flight was running a little late, but otherwise no problems. One of the interesting things about flying in Asia - to get to the plane you pass through a gate and get on to a bus. The bus then drives you out to the plane sitting on the ramp at the airport. You climb a set of steps to get on to the plane. Fortunately we deplaned in Shanghai via a jetway - it was pouring when we got here.

We took the magnetic levitation train from the airport into Shanghai. A ticket cost about $5 and the train ride was around 7 minutes. The top speed of the train is 430 km/h.. amazing! This is the fastest I have ever traveled on land.

After checking in to the hotel I went to dinner with the sales team. This was fun and interesting. The team was very engaging and I enjoyed having dinner with them. The meal was more traditional Chinese, but the style was very different than what I had in Xi'an. Where the meal in Xi'an had a wide variety of mild flavors the meal in Shanghai was very spicy. I had duck for the first time, some sort of soup with a brown jello substance in it, fried pork, sea conch, salad, fish, and a fried rice and sesame seed patty. Most of the dinner dishes were very spicy and served with lots of chili peppers.

I am spending today, Sunday, in the hotel. I have lots of work to do to prepare for my training tomorrow through Wednesday.

Here are some pics from China..

People heading to work at the aircraft factory in Xi'an. Most people rode bicycles.














The bell house in Xi'an.















Me and Emporer QinShihuang.















The main pit of the Terracotta Warrior Museum.














Detail from the main pit.















Kneeling archer. The only statue found intact.














Standing archer.














Hawkers selling animal skins and blankets.

Hello from Xi'an!

Hooray! I have internet access. And I am literally sitting in the nicest hotel room I have ever been in. For some reason I was upgraded to a suite with a king size bed. Other than the fact that the couches look a little worn it's very, very nice.

This is my second day in China. It's been such a long trip I am starting to get my days mixed up. I flew here from Korea on Thursday. I had a business class ticket for that leg. Business class is nice in that you have a ton more room than in coach and the food is way better, but it's a pain in the rear in that the flight attendants are constantly attending you. I actually like to just chill when I am on a plane.

Anyway, I landed in Shanghai in the early afternoon ... I gained an hour on the trip so I guess it was around 1PM after leaving Korea at 12:40PM. While we were descending into Shanghai I was looking out the window. Most of what I could see where small farms and there were canals and channels running throughout the area. Bordering some of the channels were small farms with fenced in areas facing the canal. Within this backyard area there were tons of white dots. I was wondering what they could be. As we got lower I noticed the fence continued into the water. Well, the dots turned out to be ducks and geese being raised as livestock. I've never seen anything like it!

I had no trouble whatsoever going through customs and immigration in either Korea or China. Once I got through customs in Shanghai I grabbed my bags and was met right away by our Regional Manager for China, Kent Zhou. We hung out at the airport for a few hours waiting for a flight to Xi'an. I was able to check one of my bags at the airport and can retrieve it when we get back. It was nice to offload a bag!

The first flight we were supposed to be on to Xi'an was canceled or changed or something so Kent ran around and made new arrangements and we actually ended up being able to leave half an hour earlier than we had originally been scheduled.

By the time we landed in Xi'an it was dark out. After getting our bags we headed outside to grab a cab. The first cab in line didn't want to take us because we had an hour drive. We ended up riding in a fairly new Audi which was kind of nice. The air in the area seemed hazy or smokey and I really couldn't see too much of the landscape. What I did see were mostly square concrete buildings.

There was virtually no traffic on the highway except for trucks. The trucks were older and typically had their beds covered with fabric, not like the 18 wheelers you'd see in the states. Some of the overpasses were decorated with lights making it look like we were driving in a giant video game.

The aircraft factory we were visiting is actually located about an hour from Xi'an. We got in to town and headed to the factory hotel. The hotel, which serves as the place to stay for VIP's visiting the plant, is right next to the plant entrance. To call it a plant isn't really accurate either. The production area consists of many, many buildings. Inside they produce civilian and military aircraft for use in China as well as subcontracting work for Boeing and Airbus.

We rolled into the hotel and had a quick bite to eat. I had a ham sandwich and some french fries, nothing too crazy. Afterward I headed right up to my room. I called home and tried to read a little bit, but I was so wiped I was falling asleep so lights out!

In the morning I was woken up by happy Chinese music playing on a loudspeaker outside. The music was accompanied by a variety of cheerful annoucnements. I got up and looked out the window and there were bicycles streaming by the hotel. I found out later that the music and announcements serve as the town alarm clock. Almost all of the residents work at the plant and are called to work in the morning using this system. This dates back 20 years or more from when the factory was producing aircraft for the military. The old system, as a tradition, remains today. Kind of wild!

We had a driver to take us in to the plant for our meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to be meeting with high ranking women today. One of them is on a VP level for the company while the other is a first level manager. It's great that they have the opportunity to rise to leadership positions within the company.

The factory was interesting. Our distributor rep, James, was very good about explaining the business to me. He told me that the factory employs about 18,000 workers, but that the number of workers is misleading. The amount of work isn't that plentiful. Further, the technology and equipment is lagging behind the rest of the world so they don't have the capability to manufacture cutting edge aircraft at this time.

It's sort of backwards from the way we do business elsewhere. Most of the time the engineers in the factory have experience with aerospace tooling and know exactly what they want to use for a given application. Here the Chinese would like us to supply them with a turn key solution based on the application. In other words, we would do all of the work specifying the tool. The surrounding area was interesting too. There seemed to be a lot of unfinished construction projects, the land was dug up in many places, and there were workers doing metal fab work out in the sun. There were huge roads with almost no traffic on them. I could see a bunch of kites flying in the sky in the distance. The new buildings seemed old and worn out before their time and the surrounding town was the same way. While there was no litter anywhere everything seems to have a thin layer of dust in it. It looks like a town would that hadn't been used in a long time.

Tonight we had dinner with the two high ranking women managers from the plant. It was fun. The dinner was served on a lazy susan and there was a great variety of foods to choose from. I had jellyfish, jellied beef soup, calamari, young willow tree salad, bamboo shoots, cucumbers with sauce, spicy beef, dumplings stuff with cucumber and egg, fried dough, fish, and fresh fruit. Believe it or not the jellyfish was so rubbery that it was crunchy! All in all the food was very good.

After dinner we drove back to the city of Xi'an. The drive was about an hour. Getting through town to the highway we had to dodge other cars, people, and bikes that all take up space on the road. One on the highway it was clear sailing again. When we got into the city of Xi'an traffic got much heavier. This seemed to be mostly taxis and trucks with a few private vehicles thrown in. The mix of foot traffic, bike traffic, and car traffic was crazy. It's amazing there aren't more accidents. It seems people cut in whenever there is an opportunity whether they are walking, riding, or driving. There were a few times when we were inches from another car, person, bus, or bike.

As we approached the city the guys pointed out the bell house, or bell tower, to me. Like churches in the US this building rang chimes to mark time throughout the day. It dates back 1400-1500 years. As we got deeper into the city we also passed through the old city wall. Dating back about 1200 years the wall is in amazingly good shape and decorated with lights and rice paper lamps.

And that brings me to now.. sitting in my very nice suite at the Howard Johnsons in Xi'an... I should have an interesting post tomorrow. We are going to see the Army of Terracotta Soldiers, the old city wall, and flying back to Shanghai. Shanghai is the last stop before I head home... Whew... it's been a long trip.

I'll post some pictures later... time for bed...

Hey Jude...

Today is Wednesday in Korea. The last few days have been busy.

On Monday we took our 89,000 pounds of luggage to the airport in Osaka for our flight to Korea. The cab ride was about an hour and cost around $150! The airport was fairly deserted when we got there so it took no time at all to check in. Christophe is a member of Air France’s VIP Club so we were all able to go and wait in the Air Korea lounge.

I had a business class seat on my flight. The trip into Korea and then tomorrow to China are the only two business class tickets I have – the others are in coach. In fact, this was my first time in business class ever! It was nice, I was served orange juice while waiting for the everyone else to board. There was a good meal menu even though the flight was only a little over an hour. I was so tired I ended up reclining my seat and sleeping the entire time.

Passing through customs and immigration into Korea was interesting. They had some new customs workers and all were being very cautious processing us as we entered the country. Christophe’s passport is well worn and they detained him for about 15 minutes while checking to make sure his passport was authentic.

Monday night we got together for a simple meal in the hotel restaurant. The food was typical western style food. We were all pretty tired so we just ate and crashed.

Yesterday we went out to visit Korea Aerospace Industries. To enter the facility we had to show our passports and business cards and sign a paper stating we would support Korea’s anti-communist activities and keep what we saw in the factory a secret. The factory builds fighter jets for South Korea’s military.

We ended up spending the morning in a meeting with the manufacturing engineering staff where we talked about our new tools, prices, lead times, and other issues. After the meeting we headed to the plant cafeteria for some lunch. Unlike other asian countries South Koreans prefer stainless steel chopsticks. They are a little harder to use than wooden chopsticks, but not too bad. Anyway, one of the guys found me a fork, but I didn’t end up needing to use it. I grabbed a bowl of rice from the lunch line, a small serving of vegetables with red sauce on them, some bean sprouts, and one of our hosts found me a bowl of soup. The vegetables were served cold and the sauce was very spicy. The bean sprouts were ok, the soup wasn’t bad either though it was a little fishy. Mostly I ate rice. When I finished my rice I stole some of Christophe’s rice.

After lunch we had coffee, which was very good, and then headed to the factory floor to do our demo. The demo went well and the people at the plant seemed impressed. While speaking with our salesman, SY, he told me that the perception is that Japan and the United States have high quality while China has low quality. There are also some cultural barriers. For example, the Chinese typically won’t buy from the Japanese.

When we finished the demo we headed back to the hotel, had some coffee, then went our separate ways to catch up on work and take a break. We met in the lobby for dinner at 7PM. I thought we were just staying local, but one of our distributor reps wanted to take us out and now I wish I had brought my camera.

We went out for royal cuisine which consists of numerous dishes served hot and cold with a variety of textures. The restaurant had individual rooms for serving meals similar to the restaurant where we had tempura in Tokyo. We had to take our shoes off before entering then we sat on the floor indian-style around a low table on a cushioned seat similar to a stadium chair.

The first course was a bowl of abalone gruel. The color was a tan-greyish-white and the texture was sort of like a soupy mish-mash of ground up rice. The flavor wasn’t bad, but it’s hard to describe. Maybe a little fishy. Next came an assortment of raw and live seafood. This included slices of raw fish, both red spiny and black sea cucumbers, some sea animal about the size of my pinky, but hollow in the middle, (I am guessing this was a sea squirt because it kind of looked like the picture below, but each tube was a red looking meat.), and oysters on the half shell. We had soy sauce with wasabi for dipping as well as korean chili sauce. Well, me being brave, I reached in and went to grab one of the sea squirt things and it curled up! I let out a loud “whoa!” and nearly lept right out of my chair! The hostess, Steve, Christophe, SY and the distributor rep, Charlie, busted up laughing! I tried most everything else, except the oysters, but even at Charlie’s urging to try the sea squirt thing I just couldn’t do it. Every time I tried to grab one it would curl up and there was no way I could’ve managed to keep it down. Regardless, I am getting used to eating raw fish and it is actually quite good with wasabi and soy sauce. Next we had some delicious sticky rice with sesame seeds and something like a wheat pita with beans inside. Both were sweet and very good. Some squid was brought in whole for eating. This appeared to have been boiled. The hostesses cut up the squid into small pieces for eating with chopsticks. Now I understand how calamari is sliced so that there are rings! Next we were served a hot and spicy soup and some vegetables. The soup had some sort of roe in it. It was actually quite good. The hostess then brought in heavy pre-heated cooking plates and made a beef and mushroom stir-fry. The beef was served with a rice soup. The rice soup was fairly bland, but the beef and mushrooms were delicious. Last the hostess brought in some kimchi. I was warned about this, but had forgotten. Kimchi is basically a pickled cabbage and it is covered in a chili sauce that makes it wicked hot! My mouth and all the way down to my stomach was on fire. My eyes watered and my nose ran! WOW! I ate some more of the rice soup to soak up the spices and the warmth of the soup seemed to further activate the heat of the spice. It was incredible. The Koreans say that kimchi helps to relieve SARS and bird flu. I believe it – nothing could survive that heat! Lol.. During the meal we also tried a variety of Korean wines –similar to sake, but sweeter than a typical dry sake – and Korean soju which is a sweet and mellow potato vodka. Koreans drink soju very heavily – something like 1 billion bottles were sold last year alone at a dollar a bottle.

After dinner we headed out to a local bar. The bar was very nice and was set up with lounge acts that were covering popular American and Korean music. It was interesting hearing Cyndi Lauper’s “She-Bop” in Korean. We hung out late and got in to the hotel in time to catch some sleep before our calls on Wednesday…

Later, Wednesday night…

Well, today was pretty ordinary. We demo’ed our tools at the Korean Air Lines facility near the airport. That went very well. There is plenty of interest in our offering. While we were there a technician brought over a 20 year old tool he was having a problem with. Steve showed him how to operate the tool and it worked perfectly fine! 20 years old! Amazing!

KAL also had mock-ups of some of the parts of the 787 they would be manufacturing. This included the tail cone and nose gear wheel well. It was amazing to see how large these parts were. It gives a good idea of just how large the total aircraft will be.

Tonight we had a simple western dinner at the hotel then headed back over to the club to hang out and watch the cover bands. It was a blast. The bands are actually talented and did covers of Mariah Carey and the Beatles (Hey Jude) that were very good. The whole bar got into singing. It was fun!

So, that ends my trip to Korea. All in all it has been fun and interesting. I really enjoyed trying all the different foods at dinner on Tuesday night and we had a great time going out and listening to the live bands. Right now it’s time for me to head to bed. I have to catch a cab at 8AM tomorrow morning… I fly into Shanghai and then right back out again at 5PM to Xi’an. It’s nice to be on the last leg of the trip – I am looking forward to getting home soon.

As Christophe would say.. “Shhhbunk!” Off to bed! More soon…

Our Last Day in Japan

Just a short post today - I am pooped and ready for bed!

Today was our last day in Japan. It was a very nice - warm enough for just a sweatshirt and no jacket - and sunny. After having breakfast and heading to Toys-R-Us to get a gift for Christophe's son we took the train to Kyoto.

The first sight we saw in Kyoto was a Buddhist Temple, Higashi Honganji. Inside the temple was another large hall, the Amida Hall, one of the largest wooden structures in the world. You had to take off your shoes to enter the hall as floor was covered with straw mats, or tatami. There were people kneeling in worship in front of the main alter.

Kyoto was home to the Imperial family from 794 to 1868 and at the city center is an Imperial Palace. After the temple we decided to walk several miles to the Imperial Palace. We discovered that like the Imperial Palace in Tokyo you can walk the surrounding gardens, but you are unable to enter the palace itself. The palace is surrounded by walls that you are unable to see over so the area is more a park than anything else.

After walking for a couple of hours we decided to take a taxi back to the train station. We grabbed some snacks before getting on the train and then we headed back to the hotel. Once again, we did a great job getting around. Taking the Japanese Railway is fairly easy and the people staffing the rail service are very helpful. All in all it's been a nice trip.

We finished off the day hanging out and watching Japan play Korea in the World Baseball Tournament. Japan lost 3-2 - what Steve says is a tremendous upset.

I am all packed and ready to head to South Korea tomorrow. Our flight leaves here at 1PM so tomorrow will just be a travel day. We will spend 2 days working then Steve and Christophe will head home and I will head to China.

Here are some pics from today..

The city of Kyoto.














Higashi Honganji Temple.
























































The Imperial Palace Garden.

Saturday!

Today was a beautiful day. The sun was out and it took most of the chill out of the air. We left the hotel around 11Am and headed to Nara. Nara was the first capital of Japan.

Getting around on the train was interesting. We did a really good job and didn't get lost at all. The ride from Osaka to Nara was about 45 minutes. On the way out a Japanese man came up and asked Steve if he would mind having a conversation with him - he said he wanted to practice his English. We talked about sports and NASCAR as well as where he lived, went to school, and grew up. His English was very good.

Once in Nara we walked up a small street lined with shops to the historical area. The shops were cute and you could buy anything from toys to brushes for Japanese writing to various food items. We did a little bit of shopping and wandering around.

At the top of the street is a beautiful park surrounding a number of historical buildings. We walked around snapping pictures as we went. The park is home to about 1,200 deer. They wander all over the place. Allowing the deer to roam the grounds dates back to pre-Buddhist times when they were considered messengers of the gods and they now have status as National Treasures. You can buy deer toys and deer biscuits from vendors scattered throughout the park. The biscuits look like cookies - I could see someone mistaking them for people food.

The Todai Ji Temple is the main attraction of the park. It is home to the world's largest wooden structure - Daibutsu-den Hall - a huge building housing an enormous Buddha. On the way to the temple you pass through Nandai-mon - an enormous gate. The gate contains two huge Nio Guardians - considered to be the finest wood statues in all of Japan, if not the world.

The present day Daibutsu-den Hall, rebuilt in 1709, is only two-thirds the size of the original building. It houses the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, one of the largest bronze castings in the world. The statue is around 50 feet tall and contains 437 tons of bronze. Over the centuries it has taken a beating from earthquakes and fires, having lost it's head several times.

One of the wooden columns in the Hall has a hole in it's base that is exactly the size of one of the Great Buddha's nostrils. It is thought that if you pass through the hole you are ensured enlightenment. While we watched an old man wriggled his way through, a young man tried and gave up, and tons of kids zipped through.

After visiting the Temple we made our way back to the train station. Along the way we found a Starbucks - friend to hungry world travelers. They always take Visa, they have good food, and they are open round the clock. We enjoyed some sandwiches and mocha cappucinos. Yum!

Here are some pictures from today...

Cool building at the park entrance.















Me in Nara.















Some of the National Treasure Deer.














Approaching the temple gate.















Nio Guardians at the Entrance to the Todai Ji Temple.




























Daibutsu-den Hall.




























Passing through Buddha's nostril.














The great Buddha.

A Real Japanese Steakhouse

It's Friday! The demo we did this morning went well again. One of our tools didn't work quite correctly, but Steve was able to troubleshoot it and get it running again. All in all it's been a good trip for the company. The people we have talked to have been enthusiastic, asked lots of questions, and are already expressing interest in buying our tools.

After the demo was completed we stopped and had some lunch. The meals we could select from were basiclly hamburgers without the bun. You could order the meat served with cheese or mushrooms or some other topping. Side dishes were rice and a salad or fries. I had the salad/rice option. It was pretty good.

Later in the afternoon we were able to walk around the Kobe waterfront. The area is quite mountainous and very scenic. We walked through a local shopping mall too. This was interesting in that it wasn't heated. The stores were heated, but the main walkways weren't.

Tonight we went out to dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse. The couple next to me ordered prawns (shrimp). These were cooked live on the grill. They weren't very lively, but still moving nonetheless. Oh, and I was wrong about eating shrimp heads the other night at tempura. This was actually the middle body section of legs. If you order sushi spider roll in the US that's what's in it... shrimp legs. Anyway, our meal was lobster and steak. The lobster were wisked from their tank and taken in the kitchen in the back and cut in half. They were still moving when they were brought out for grilling. I wasn't sure how I would feel about this at the beginning of the meal, but the food was great and the preparation actually wasn't bad. After the lobster we had grilled filet mignon. This was absolutely delicious. Very tender and grilled to perfection. Along with the main courses we also ate salad, a small bowl of fish, vegetable soup, grilled garlic and grilled onions, rice, and pickled vegatables. Desert was fresh fruit served with sorbet. All in all this was one of the best meals I have ever eaten.

I am glad the week is done and I can get some rest. I think I am getting a cold...

Here are some pics from today.

Christophe's giant Coke.















A car that got a good laugh from us..














The Kobe waterfront.














Dinnertime!

The Long and Winding Road

Just a quick post today as it's already after 11PM here and I have to be up early tomorrow.

Today we started the day in Hiroshima. We headed over to the Mitsubishi factory to do our tool demo. That went really well. The plant is building portions of the Boeing 767, 777, and some parts for Sikorsky helicopter. It was interesting spending some time showing our tools and gaining a better understanding of the work they are doing.

After the demo we dropped our things back at our hotel, grabbed some coffee, and walked over to Peace Memorial Park. We were able to see the A-Bomb Dome - the last structure left standing from when the US dropped the first atomic bomb. It was both sad and interesting. There were a variety of memorial sites includes some trees that had been planted on the 60th anniversary of the bombing.

We left the park, stopped back at the hotel, then took the train to Osaka. The trip was a little over one hour. This time I slept on the train. We arrived in Osaka after 4 and by the time we reached the hotel it was almost 6. After dropping our bags we headed to dinner with the president of our distributor, Mr. Murakami. We met at a sushi bar. Mr. Murakami ordered for me and I had a beef, halibut, another fish I didn't recognize, and salmon served raw and wrapped with rice. This wasn't like American sushi where there are small pieces of fish wrapped in rice. Instead these were rather large pieces of meat wrapped around a small ball of rice. There was also wasabi wrapped in some of the servings. Along with the raw meat I also had cooked eel sushi, egg sushi, and some grilled squid and grilled scallops. Getting used to the texture of some of the food was a little difficult, but it all tasted pretty good.

After dinner we headed out to a karaoke bar. We sat around a table and the hostess served cubes of egg, fresh fruit, and some hot and spicy party mix along with drinks. Everyone got into singing and I did Patsy Kline (Walking After Midnight), Garth Brooks (Friends in Low Places), and Abba (Dancing Queen). All in all the night was a lot of fun.

It's late now and I need to get to bed.. More news tomorrow and this weekend!

Here are some pics from today...

The city of Hiroshima from our hotel.

Daisuke and Christophe at breakfast.

The A-Bomb Dome.

Me and Christophe goofing around.