Chapter 1

The Adventure Begins

This trip really began in September last year when Gerry 
won first prize in a raffle at the fashion show which Rush-Presbyterian-St. 
Luke's Medical Center holds every year. The prize was two round trip 
tickets to Hong Kong on United Airlines, and ten nights in the Hong 
Kong Hyatt Hotel. Analyzing our good fortune, we concluded that we 
wanted to do more than spend ten days in Hong Kong and return, but 
at the same time, United, having just gotten its routes and equipment 
from Pan American, had not yet received authority to fly to other 
destinations or between points in the Far East.

On February 10th, United acquired this authority, and on February 
11th Debbie began putting our trip together. We left on March 2nd 
and returned on March 26th. We entered seven countries, traveled 
over 25,000 miles on four airlines, made over 500 Kodachrome<M^><190><D> 
slides, almost 200 Kodacolor<M^><190><D> prints, and 5 1/2 hours of 
color and sound videotape.

Chicago to Tokyo

11:03 P.M. Chicago time. 39,000 feet somewhere over the Western Pacific, 
we are 8 hours and 42 minutes out of Los Angeles with about 2 more 
hour to go to Tokyo. We were about an hour and ten minutes late out 
of Los Angeles. 

Travel Log

So far, it's been a long and interesting day and I guess it's just 
about half over. We did the following:



Arose at 5:30 A.M.

Left the house at 7:00 A.M.

Arrived in Los Angeles at 12:35 P.M.

Arrived in Tokyo at 11:46 P.M.

11:31 P.M. Tuesday, March 4th

It's been a long day, but in many ways really quite fabulous. Let's 
go back to the beginning. As related above, our trip yesterday was 
a good one with fine weather, accompanied by underlying clouds much 
of the way. Our 5400 mile<$FNautical miles> flight from Los Angeles 
took us north almost to the Kurile Islands and then down into Tokyo. 
Letting 
down through the clouds over a rough sea we saw many fishing boats 
and other vessels all headed into Tokyo. Our approach into the Narita 
Airport involved a long, slow descent which, after passing the shoreline 
(strangely reminiscent of the West shore of Lake Michigan although 
with some sandy beaches), gave us an opportunity to see many small 
patches of cultivated ground. Tiny houses, and even small factories. 
Everything 
seemed miniature. At 4:25 P.M.<$FLocal time> the sun was still fairly 
high in the sky, but due to what appeared to be smog visibility was 
probably not more than 5 miles. Quarantine and customs proved no 
problem, but immigration was slow with much attention to detail. Our 
5:15 P.M. limousine<197>really a rather large bus departed promptly 
and carried us on our hour and fifteen minute, 66 kilometer trip into 
the center of the city and the Imperial Hotel. Much of the super highway 
into town is screened by noise abating walls. Traffic moves steadily 
at about 50 miles an hour and we observed no speeding. The new Imperial 
Hotel is every bit as good as its reputation<197>somewhat more elegant 
than the Ritz Carlton. Our room in the new tower looks exactly like 
the picture in the travel folders. It's not exceptionally large. It 
has a bay window overlooking the Ginza with the ocean in the background, 
very nice furniture, and a well-appointed onyx and plastic bathroom. 
<169>Extras<170> 
abound: Toothbrushes, terrycloth bathrobes, kimonos, slippers, coffee 
making equipment, etc. There are eleven separate restaurants in the 
hotel, all<197>as we have found by inspection (reading the menus that 
is) very expensive. To settle later discussion by the way, the price 
of our room is 34,000 Yen per day plus 10% gratuities and 10% tax 
on the whole thing.