Hanukkah in Israel

Today began our last trip before Baby Ernie's proximity closed our plane travel window for who knows how long.

My dear mother bought me an Apple AirTag for Christmas and I decided to use it to keep track of my suitcase. It feels a little bit like bugging my own phone but here we are.

Lydia's baby bump is getting bumpier and bumpier.

Finally this pregnancy started paying off. Lydia got to sit in the special people seat on the tram at the airport. Must be nice.

I wanna make love in this club (Hey)

In this club (Hey)

In this club (Hey)

In this club (Hey)

Our flight was delayed hours for deicing as it was snowing in Seattle.

It's funny that Istanbul is still such a gateway to the east. Fun fact: Istanbul is the most populous European city.

I have a unique illness where I like to record airline safety videos. 

We were sitting in cattle class but I appreciate them handing out little menus like we were important too.

The sour cherry juice caught my eye as something a little bit exotic. Yes please.

I got some good cinema time in on this flight. Bullet Train was very fun and had an amazing ensemble cast with a ton of fun cameos to boot. I'm not generally the blowhard braggart type but I, probably way before Brad Pitt, have also taken a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto.

Say what you want about Turkish Airlines but they are generous with the free booze. The food wasn't bad for cattle food.

Now I was just on a golden movie selecting streak. I really enjoyed Elvis too! I mean, it features the magnificent Tom Hanks which in my book makes a movie watchable all by itself, but it also taught me some (dramatized) bits about Elvis' life. For example the movie made it seem like Elvis' evil manager trapped him into the Las Vegas residency. Sadly Elvis wanted to go on a world tour but never once played outside of North America. His shady manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, was essentially an illegal immigrant and was too scared to leave the country due to the risk of not being let back in.

There was what seemed to be a Russian child sitting in front of me that seemed to have been raised in a barn. I didn't check his passport or anything but he had a little gold chain and track pants on. He kept reclining his chair while I was eating which set off a Cold War. I'm a decent sized man and the seats are cramped, so it wasn't difficult for me to prop my legs such that the little russkie's dad had to ask me permission for him to recline. After a detente we agreed that the child would be allowed to partially recline but not all the way. Someday I will be the world's greatest diplomat.

It was fun because I think they were also on their way to Tel Aviv so I saw them a few more times. I made sure to always make lots of eye contact and smile at them. The Russians only respect strength.

Istanbul has a fun airport. It's funny I've been in the lounge here so many times that I could probably tell you the menu from memory. They have a station where a dude makes fresh pide, the famous baked Turkish flat bread.

I like Turkish delight, and I have on at least one occasion eaten about 40 free samples at this airport. They probably stopped that practice after covid because now I see not a sample in the house. It just goes to show, you have to follow your dreams.

It was late when we got to Tel Aviv, Israel and so we didn't do much besides go to the hotel and pass out. Getting through immigration was a bit of a hassle, and we needed to do some visa paperwork on arrival nonsense. Big sad.

On our cab ride from the airport we got our first baby mazel tov from the driver which I was excited about. We were in Israel during Hanukkah so I definitely did notice the Christmas tree on the hotel desk.

Any religion that involves free donuts is alright in my book.

Hawaii Trip Preparation

I blew a big chunk of the last of my ill gotten JetBlue miles on a business class flight from California to Hawaii. I'm not wild about Hawaii but Lydia's always wanted to go there. Well today we did a little bit of preparation so that we won't be overcome with culture shock when we land in Oahu.

We made a boozy ice cream concoction with a volcano name for refreshment.

We also watched the so-bad-it's-good Elvis flick Blue Hawaii.

Howard Thompson of The New York Times called the film "blandly uneventful" with a "nonsensical and harmless" plot, though he wrote that Presley "delivers the songs and rhythmical spasms right on schedule. We counted fourteen tunes, about half of them replete with ukulele trimmings and exotic, weaving dancers. One of them, a number called 'Beach Boy Blues,' is nifty, and Presley delivers it accordingly. No kidding."

The little Hawaiian man servant's name was unfortunately Ping Pong.

Well I haven't read the guidebook yet but I think it's safe to say we are both ready to head to Hawaii.

Springfield Student Delegation in Town

The Springfield student group arrived last weekend and is probably running around town as I write this. Two girls are homestaying with kids from Yamabe, and I met each of them on Monday. It's nice when there are foreign visitors at school because the teachers and students both become much more interested in English. It gives everyone a chance to ask their favorite questions to new victims, like "How many people are in your family?" "Where do you live?" "What Japanese food do you like?" All of the classics that I have become so very accustomed to answering time and again.

Another nice thing about the Springfield group arrivals is we always have nice reception dinners for them at the best hotel in town, the New Miyako Hotel. We listen to lots of welcome speeches and get to eat good food. The meals are 5 or 6 courses long and pretty pricey looking.


The first course was pretty fancy, unfortunately it looked much better than it tasted. Subsequent dishes were much nicer.

It is also a nice chance to meet and chat with many of the international association and school board people that I don't see very often. A special guest at this particular event was the newly elected mayor of Ashikaga, Minoru Omamiuda. He is quite a bit younger than the previous mayor and his English is quite a bit better-he read his whole welcome address in English. Hopefully I will have more time to chat with him in the future. I am interested in city issues but the language barrier is a large one.


The mayor sang some Elvis surprisingly well.