Outbreak

While the H1N1, Mexican Flu,Swine Flu scare, or whatever Sanjay Gupta is calling it these days, may have subsided in the U.S., my flight to Beijing proved a different environment. Now, the sight of an Asian wearing a germ mask in Chinatown is probably as regular as an umbrella on a 90 degree day, I definitely noticed a large percentage of passengers wearing them on the Tokyo leg of my flight. The fear is alive and well here in Asia, and they are certainly playing a strong defense. What was remarkable was the difference in defensive techniques among Japan and China, a dichotomy more intense than the Prevent vs. the Goal Line.

Last time I made the east coast of U.S. to Asia trip I was flying business class and loving every minute of it (work trip to Singapore). Now that this is my life 'after trading', I had the pleasure of a coach flight with two layovers (in NYC and Tokyo). When we landed in Tokyo, after a 14 hour flight where I of course had the middle seat, they didn't let us get off and announced that there would be members of the quarantine team coming through. Two guys walked through the aisles with masks on and some weird outfits and machinery. It struck me that they just walked up and down while the announcement said that "if you are experiencing any symptoms like fever, swelling of the glands, nausea, or diarrhea, please raise your hand and identify yourself." Ummm...okay. I guess things just worked a little differently out here. I could just imagine raising my hand and informing them, "yeah, on that last point, I don't want to jump to conclusions here, but I did eat your airplane Japanese seafood curry for my dinner. I'm just saying." Needless to say, no one raised their hands and we were out within minutes.

China...a different story. A similar announcement that the quarantine team would board the plane when we landed. This time it took a little longer. The 'quarantine team' representing the People's Republic of China went through, and had this weird plastic gun-like thermometer that they stuck in front of everyone's forehead one by one, and I think it took your temperature (I hope that's all it did). Someone near the back either had a slight temperature, or was suffering from Ebola, as about six members of the Q.T. all congregated back there and talked very seriously. In the end, we were all given a card saying "you may be exposed to communicable diseases. if you experience flu-like symptoms in the next 7 days please take this card to a doctor." Ruthless defensive efficiency.

If I'm not blogging in a week from now, please email or call to check up on me.

Other observations:

It was pretty awesome on the car ride to the airport, hearing my Indian parents make amazingly sweeping generalizations on China and Chinese people. Exchanges like, "It's disgusting, they eat absolutely everything over there. I heard they eat dogs." "But mom, you've told me in India you guys have eaten goat brains." "Yeah, but that is SO different, those are good." My father also warned me they will probably confiscate my hard drive upon entry.

I heard Keri Hilson's "Knock Me Down" three times in the Tokyo airport. Watch out for this to be the official song of the summer.

I was telling some people during my last flight that SkyMall magazine is definitely a 'boom time' magazine as I can't imagine during a recession people are buying a 20 ft. x 10 ft. world map for their child to practice world capitals. That being said, if you thought SkyMall had some ridiculous shit in it, you should see the Japanese Airlines version of SkyMall. I don't even know where to begin.

Is it the same woman working at every Hudson News location? She is about 40something and looks maybe Moroccan or a darker Arabic? She looks like she might've been pretty back in the day in an exotic way and I swear, at the JFK location it looked like she was working with her twin. I think she also works at most Dunkin' Donuts locations in
the Boston area.