Going to a new world...

Friday 2 November 07
Geneva

I woke up about 4:30am to be able to go to the airport on time. I had a taxi waiting for me at 5:15 and I had to say the last goodbyes to Rania and Garfield. This trip seems easier to handle than the ones before because I know Rania will not be alone on this one. She is planning to go to Italy tomorrow with her mother to Mc. Arthur Glenn designer outlet shop where they will have the feminine pleasure of wandering in a village with dozens of designer shops supposedly selling their products at huge discounts.

The taxi was waiting outside on time. The driver, a medium built black man with close shaved hair helped with the luggage. I waved goodbye to Rania and the car took off. A pretty clear street this early in the morning and the airport was just 15 minutes away. I paid CHF 36 for the trip. It costs almost exactly the same for the trip every time no matter what time or day or what is the state of the traffic.

This is the first time I travel anywhere with Air France. I didn’t know before that there is a separate terminal to go to France where the French police where in the airport checking passports before the check-in. The Swiss has little sense of the traditional “sovereignty” where you do not let foreign officers control the situation on your territory, and the French have little sense of the traditional “security” where you do not tightly control the flights and trains while leaving all car routes completely loose.

The usual waiting took place in the airport. I had a coffee and a croissant at a little café in the gate. This terminal differs from others in this same airport by the fact that there is no smoking area which means I will not be able to roll a cigarette until Paris CDG.

Later, I met Alex and we took the plane to Paris.

In Paris, the airport was quite busy. This is a strange design for an airport it is necessary to go through passport control in order to go from one terminal to the other, hence the need for a visa even to go in transit through Paris. Fortunately for me, since I have been living in Geneva, there have been no problems with the European visas and I have one that will work until mid-next year.

We finally had the smoke and went back into the terminal. While waiting before the electronic gate, Alex told me a story from when he was going to Cuba with the French Red Cross and he was stopped in this same airport by a customs officer trying to look strong by intimidating a Red Cross person. I think that is quite normal, what would one expect from a uniformed officer who needs no qualifications and is given the power to control the gates.

The trip to Tokyo was the longest of my life. More than 13 hours on an Airbus plane from Paris to Tokyo with a quite unexpected route. We went north east first then levelling east, passing through Norway, Sweden and then Finland to enter the Russian air. We flew very close to St. Petersburg and then east over the Urals towards what appeared on the map on my screen as the “west Siberian plains”. The route took us south by south-west over Mongolia to finally go to Japan from the North.

I watched 2 movies on the flight. “License to wed”, with Robin Williams doing a dodgy pastor who wants to guarantee that a couple in love would actually survive their marriage. A chick-flick with a twist and Williams did his usual funny self. I quite like it when he does a comedy for the sake of it without much to prove. The second movie was part of the “Transformers” with the alien robots that can transform to cars and helicopters and trying to save humanity from other alien robots trying to take it over. It is either I am getting old for this or it is real shit. It is not really a kids movie as the comics were intended to be, too violent and trying too hard to look real and make sense, but it is also not too much of an adult movie because it is just silly. I guess it would be enjoyed by young men in their early twenties, and this is an admission that I am from another generation, and older one. But I guess it is agreed now that a generation, in social terms is shrinking while it is being prolonged in biological ones. Which in other words make me OLD.

I had two patches of sleep on the plain. I had two seats for myself and did my best to have a semi-comfortable sleep. This didn’t work very well but I guess I cumulatively slept for about 6 hours on the trip. It got a bit boring in the end but we finally touched down in Tokyo Narita airport at about 6:50am.