A Slow Boat To China

I picked up my one-way TWA ticket for Frankfurt to Chicago at the Executive Travel Office in Osaka after putting my bags in a locker at the Namba station. I made it to the boat one hour before departure, finally pulling it off -- after several months of uncertainty.

"Uncertainty" -- just finding a travel agent in Osaka that could plan such a trip was an ordeal in itself. I didn't want any package plan where you adhere to a schedule, stay with your group, and follow a flag. I wanted to take a slow boat to China and travel the Trans Siberian railroad to Russia. JTB wasn't interested in my plan.

A colleague, Len, at Wakayama University recommended Executive Travel in Osaka. I visited their office on March 17 and gave them the details on what I wanted to do. I received my visas, passport, vouchers, and tickets on July 4 via express mail and departed from the Osaka port on July 7 (Good thing July 4 is not a national holiday in Japan). They were cutting it pretty close. It reminded me of Woody Allen in Love and Death, where an angel visits him in his prison cell the night before he is to be executed and tells him not to worry, that he will be saved at the last minute. At the very moment he's being blindfolded by the executioner and the firing squad is taking their aim, the last words to go through his mind are
" . . . they're cutting it pretty close . . ."