It's about 6 AM Thursday morning (our flight leaves at 8:10 AM) and we're headed for Customs in the airport. We're all happy to be returning to Japan. There's just something that makes you feel uneasy about being in a Communist country . . .

George presents Yuji and Otani Hard Rock Cafe caps & shirts, along with our thanks for the fabulous job they did planning our tour. We all agreed that they really did an outstanding job making our Beijing trip so interesting and enjoyable.




Personally, I'm glad we went, but I have NO desire to ever return to China!

We see all kinds of interesting airliners as we ride to our plane. We left our gate through a ramp, but it abruptly ended, and we had to climb down a stairway (in the rain!) to to bussed across the tarmac. They're building a new airport that's supposed to be finished before the world arrives next year for the Summer Olympics. But Beijing has a long way to go to be ready . . .

From inside our bus, we barely make out our plane through the pouring rain. It's weird that in a city this size, we cannot walk down a ramp to our plane, but are bussed across the tarmac and have to climb up stairs to board.

Inside the plane, our overhead screens provide safety & emergency info.

Ah, so close and yet . . .

our 8:10 AM flight has been rescheduled to 11:30, so we've been bussed back to the "glass cage" for more waiting. On the other side of the glass are restaurants and shops, but we're not allowed to leave the secure area. It's about 10 now, and the airline reluctantly has issued us each a coke & pkg of crackers. This room has one vending machine which takes only Chinese money, which none of us has since it's illegal to take it out of China!

This is an airline that I (along with many others) will NEVER fly again! We could understand the weather delay, but their inability or unwillingness to re-route us or inform us, or even offer to feed us was unforgiveable!

This cute little girl -- not with our group -- really wanted to play with the "big" girls.

Children play, moms talk, & Susan obviously enjoys Mike's Chinese fiddle serenade -- while we wait, and wait, and wait . . .

Well, 11:30 has come & gone, and after some begging, pleading, & reminding, the airlines furnished us a box lunch, which consisted of rice & VERY bony, mostly inedible fish (not worth taking a picture of!). It was not their idea to feed us -- we only received food at the insistence of our guides! It's now just after 1 PM and we've heard that our flight has been rescheduled to leave at 2. Stan patiently reads, while Margie less-than-patiently checks her watch!

Guess I'm tired -- my watch is blurry! We're still here with approximately 300 passengers who are waiting to travel back to Japan. We've watched flights arrive & depart all day. We've heard through our guides that Dalian is closed because of bad weather, but the airlines has not shared any of this information with us. It's nearly 2:30 and our flight was rescheduled to leave at 2 . . .

Showing more patience than the grownups, the children continue their "adventure at the airport" by discovering a "park" inside our glass cage, and create games to play with the help of one of the grandmas from our group. I heard after we got home that one little girl told her mom this was her favorite day in China . . .

Different ways to bide our time . . .

Exhausted travelers waiting in our "glass cage."

By my watch, you can see it's 4 PM, but the board still says our flight to Hiroshima leaves at 1400 (2 PM)!

As the children continue playing in the "park" this little boy's pants fell down. Someone's mom helps him as the other children have a great laugh!

Terry has taught all the children to play "Red Light" as she & Jerry look on.

Well, it's too late to fly to Hiroshima today, so our guides have somehow convinced the airlines to put us in a hotel for the night. We're grateful to not have to sleep at the airport! It's late, but we've finally arrived at our hotel (not nearly as nice as the hotel we had been staying in!) Although the airline said they had arranged our stay, this hotel seemed totally unprepared when our 70-something group arrived. They wanted to "hold" our airline boarding passes in order to issue our rooms! Of course, we all refused and this led to a loooong discussion. It's late & we're all tired, but we have to wait in line while Otani & Yuji "negotiate" with the hotel clerks. The hotel finally ended up giving us rooms without holding our boarding passes. Our real concern was that they would become "lost" overnight & we would not be able to leave China . . .

Last Chinese meal . . . everyone's tired & not as social tonight after our looong day at the airport.

Looking out onto a little sunroom full of flowers near the elevators of our hotel. These were some of the only flowers we saw in Beijing.

It's about 4:30 AM Friday & we're leaving our airline-arranged hotel in our airline-arranged tour bus for the airport. It's a clearer day, so maybe we'll get to leave today.

After a very short night, we're arriving at the Beijing Airport about 6 AM for our second attempt at leaving . . .

Ms Cho was the manager of our Chinese guides. She helped negotiate with the airline for our hotel Thursday night, and came out to the airport Friday morning to help us leave Beijing. Otani (one of our Japanese guides) was convinced we would not have been as successful without her. (Air China was NOT very cooperative or helpful!)

Well, we're going out Gate 50 again from Beijing -- hopefully we'll make it out today!

More foreign planes, but at least it's a clear day today.

Yep -- that's the Chinese flag on the plane. Notice we're climbing up the stairs from the tarmac.

We got exit row seats today -- look at all the leg room!

Stan's last chance for a Chinese beer.

Landing in Hiroshima, our entire group broke into applause! I think this confused some of the other passengers who may not have realized the ordeal we'd been through for the past 2 days.

Home again as we unload our bus on base Friday afternoon. We really had a whirlwind tour & got to see & experience some very cool things. And of course, it was extremely well-planned by our travel group. They worked very hard and got very little rest & a LOT of frustration in China. I'm glad we went, but it's my first & last trip to China. It's soooo good to be back in Japan!

Since we've returned, I heard that one woman was taking pictures of a sleeping airline employee during our very long day at the Beijing airport, when another airline employee (or a guard?) took her camera away from her. When she protested that all her travel pictures were on her camera, he deleted the last picture taken & returned her camera. Yes, it's VERY good to be back in Japan . . .

We're Back Online!

If you're a regular reader, you have noticed that there haven't been any postings since the cherry blossom pics that I took just before we left for China. That's because right after we returned, my HD crashed -- yes, I got the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death" at home and am just now recovering. I was working on my China pictures when it happened, and had not yet backed them up. Stan has been able to recover over 300 of them (about half!) and he had shot a couple of hundred on his camera, so maybe we'll get them sorted soon & show you Beijing, China. Stan bought me a Mac & so I'm having to re-build, as well as re-learn! If you haven't heard from us in a while, please email, so we can add your email address to our new address book. And thanks for your patience . . .

Cherry Blossom Time ~~ April 2007

Cherry trees on base near the Monzen Gate as we drive to the Kintai Bridge area today. The weather was bad last weekend, and this is the last day we have to see cherry blossoms before we leave on our Spring Break trip to China tomorrow! We're afraid they will all be gone by the time we return.

We're taking the scenic route down to the Kintai Bridge today. There are lots of cherries blooming along the rivers in Iwakuni.
















Small shrine along the river.





















More old cherry trees along the river. This is a two-lane road, of course.

The tide is in and you can see cherries blooming on the other side of the river.
















Cherry trees form a canopy here along the river.
















Gardens near the river and the double bridge area.