THURSDAY, MAY 31ST AND FRIDAY, JUNE 1ST, 2018 – NASHVILLE, TN TO MISAWA, JAPAN:
I am traveling overseas again for the first time for “business” since my return from South Korea on January 3rd! My only overseas trip this year has been with Lindsey, Zac and Zoe to London and Paris for Spring Break – which was awesome…except for the flights! We were diverted to Huntsville, AL when we departed Nashville to Atlanta and then got stuck overnight in Atlanta…missing one full day of our sightseeing. Delta was nice enough to let us change our return flights and stay over an extra day. Then on the return, we had to land in Iceland (couldn’t get off the plane!) for a medical emergency. Got stuck in Detroit at the airport hotel overnight! The kids were so great through it all and loved their first overseas adventure.
So, back to business! I am traveling to Misawa Air Base, Japan today with “B.o.B” and his entourage. “Echosmith” will be meeting us in Tokyo and flying with us to Misawa. This is the annual “American Day Festival” for the base and is their 30th Anniversary. Ambassador Bill Hagerty will be attending and I’m looking forward to meeting him as he is from Nashville. He was kind enough to take a meeting with Charlie Nagatani a few months ago and will hopefully be able to attend Country Gold in October. I have worked with Misawa Air Base for 3 years now – first with Sublime With Rome and last year with Vertical Horizon and Everclear. Vanessa and her staff at the base are awesome to work with and the Wing Commander and Services Commander are great people, too.
I only got 2 hours of sleep before getting up at 2:30 am to shower and head to the airport. Started having problems with my cell phone before we ever got of my driveway! Why does that always happen right before flying overseas? Arrived at the airport in time to go into the Delta Lounge and say hello to the sweet ladies in there before boarding the flight for an on-time departure. The B.o.B group are traveling from Atlanta and scheduled to land about an hour after me.
We pushed back on time for the flight to Minneapolis but the pilot came on and said he was unable to start one of the engines, so we were going back to the gate. He called maintenance and while we were waiting, I called Delta to see what my options are. I know that there is only one flight a day on ANY airline from Minneapolis to Haneda, Japan. And, routing through Haneda is the only way to get to Misawa the same day. There was a later flight out of Nashville to Minneapolis that would have a really short connection, so the Delta representative held a seat for me on that flight.
About 15 minutes later, the pilot advised that the “starter” would have to be replaced on our aircraft and that would take several hours. Then he said the good news was – there was a “spare” airplane in a hanger and he thought we could use it. When does that every happen??? We were taken off our original airplane and put on the new aircraft and all our bags were switched over. We departed were scheduled to land in Minneapolis about 40 minutes before having to board the flight to Japan. Thankfully, everything went smoothly and we landed exactly as planned.
I hurried into the lounge and met the B.o.B entourage – who are such nice people! Have never worked with them before and have been looking forward to meeting everyone. I did meet Echosmith “briefly” when they performed in Nashville a couple of weeks ago and they are all nice people, too.
We boarded our flight and it’s one of the older Delta aircraft. I don’t think flying into Haneda is a “priority route” for them but unfortunately, it works so much better for our tours to Japan. Right after take-off, I opened the video monitor. It’s mounted on the side of my cubicle and something was wrong with it because it kept swinging closed. I finally managed to wedge some paper in it and get it to stay open. I’m going to have to start carrying on the duct tape I always travel with, I guess.
I picked a movie and the weirdest thing happened. I could hear the “music” on the movie but not the voices. I tried a different movie but had the same problem. The flight attendants shut down my video system twice and replaced my headset but it didn’t fix the problem. Then some of the other passengers began complaining that the WiFi would not connect. Eventually, the flight attendants shut down the entire system and when everything powered back up, the problems were fixed.
I watched a movie while I ate dinner – which was some of the best food I’ve ever had on Delta. I have “free WiFi” for one hour through T-Mobile on my mobile device, so I checked emails to see if there were any “fires” and then emailed my office that I was going to SLEEP. And I did – for 2 whole hours – which felt like 10 because I was so tired. Realized I was not going back to sleep, so got up and set up my “office”….only to learn that WiFi is out again. The flight attendants keep saying it is a “black spot” but it’s been an hour now and still no service. I kept asking them to “re-set” the system but they refused. I mean, what would it have “hurt” to have at least tried??? I tried to sleep again for another hour but couldn’t. I was finally able to log back onto the WiFi the next time I tried.
We landed on time at Haneda and Delta had a rep meet me as we exited the airplane. She stayed with us until we received our luggage and then directed us to the baggage “re-check” counter. Everyone re-checked their bags and took the shuttle over to the Domestic Terminal. I got a text from Echosmith just as we boarded the shuttle bus saying they were at the International terminal waiting for the others to arrive.
We cleared security except for B.o.B’s tour manager who had a small tool kit in his carryon bag. They made him go back to the check-in counter and “check” just the tool kit! We all roamed around for a while looking for somewhere to eat. I wasn’t really hungry, so I found a coffee shop and drank coffee and worked for about an hour.
Echosmith’s plane was late but everyone made it to the gate on time. Our flight to Misawa departed on time and it was only about a 1 hour and 15 minute flight. Landed on time and Vanessa and her staff were waiting for us. They had already picked up two members of Echosmith’s group at the train station. I had an email from the Sapporo Consulate telling me that the Ambassador had a schedule conflict and wouldn’t be able to attend the American Day Festival. He is sending a representative and I’ll be meeting with her.
We got checked into lodging and hurried over to the Wild Weasel Club on base for a quick dinner. They had a private room and special menu set up for us. We stopped by the shoppette where I purchased water and yogurt and then everyone went to their rooms. Lots of TIRED people.
Tomorrow starts at 10:20 with an interview for Echosmith at AFN, then sound checks, VIP Meet and Greets, and dinner off-base. The weekend is going to FLY by.
I’m really disappointed that this is Vanessa’s last festival. She and her husband will be stationed in Alaska as of October! Going to bed now and try to get at least 5 hours of sleep!
Jude
SATURDAY, JUNE 2ND – MISAWA AIR BASE, JAPAN:
I actually slept for 5 hours but woke up every hour thinking I had overslept! Was able to get up and answer some emails before the office closed. I guess there was a power outage and the server at the office is down. Not good, especially while I am out of the country and need access to my files!
I showered and ate the yogurt that I purchased last night. I love that we have a coffee maker in our rooms. Met Echosmith downstairs at 10:20 am and we drove over to AFN for an on-air radio interview. That went great as the group is very enthusiastic on air. Afterwards, we went to Lakeview Grill – yes, it had a great view of the lake. It’s also the Country Club. I took a photo of a tiny strip of land with a flag at the end of it because I thought it was one of the holes on the golf course. But, it’s actually the Marina flag. The food was great there.
I went to the stage with Echosmith for their sound check. Everything went pretty smooth except for one keyboard that wasn’t shown on their list of backline equipment required. But, Vanessa actually borrowed one from their club. B.o.B’s tech and DJ did his sound check for him and that took about 30 minutes.
It is such a beautiful day in Misawa….high’s in the low 70’s. Last year it rained on sound check day but today was perfect. Echosmith and B.o.B had a VIP Meet and Greet with contest winners for 30 minutes each. We went back to lodging to drop our bags and headed to dinner off base. Went to my favorite restaurant – Hamazushi. It’s the conveyor belt system with amazing sushi and other items. I sat with Graham, Jacob and Vanessa and we had a pile of plates that towered above our heads. There were about 16 people total and everyone ate like it was our last meal. The total bill was less than $200!!!!
Graham is my new “hero”…He ordered 5 different desserts….and ate them! LOL!
We were back at lodging by 9 pm and I am going to try to go to sleep before midnight tonight!
Jude
30TH ANNUAL AMERICAN DAY FESTIVAL AT MISAWA AIR BASE, JAPAN:
Beautiful, perfect weather for an outdoor festival this year. Sunny and high’s in the low 70’s. That’s the good news. Bad news is:
Talked to Greg – my computer “guru” – and it’s not good news on the server. The operating system is what was “fried” by the power outage. He says all the files are “still there” but he has to completely rebuild the system and download them from the backup drives. That’s a full day process. I’m praying he’s right because otherwise, I am “out of business” without my files. Hopefully, he’ll have everything back up and running by the time I land in Nashville on Monday night. ☹
Met Echosmith in the lobby and rode over to the venue to “start the day”. There were already more people lining the streets where the booths are located this early in the morning than we had last year. And the bleachers in front of the stage were already filled with fans.
First order of business for me was to blow up 25 “beach balls” that I brought with me. I also brought an electric pump to make the job easier. The only problem was….the smallest nozzle that came with it was still too big for the valve on the beach balls. I was able to wedge it into the larger ones and slowly blow it up but we had to blow up the smaller ones manually. Thankfully I had some help from Vanessa’s great staff. Then we realized that the plugs weren’t staying in the smaller ones and they were deflating as fast as we blew them up. We borrowed some tape from the production company and taped each one closed.
The show started on time to a huge, cheering crowd. Echosmith’s performance was phenomenal and the audience loved them. I walked around the crowd taking photos and checking out the booths. Was really amazed at how many people were spread out through the “town”.
During the set change, Vanessa and I had to walk over and meet the lady who was attending to represent Ambassador Hagerty. Turned out, she was someone I had met previously at several of the Country Gold festivals. Really nice lady and hopefully she can help Charlie in locating more sponsors. Also ran into Colonel Jobe while we were talking. He’s here until July and then off to the Pentagon.
B.o.B arrived and he also had an outstanding show. These two artists put smiles on the faces of so many men and women – those serving our country as well as the “locals”. It was really “hot” today but the crowd stayed until the very end and rocked out. Could not have asked for a better day!
I stayed for a few minutes after B.o.B left in hopes of seeing Lt. Colonel Squires again and giving him the Christie Cookies I had brought him. I did find him and chatted with him for a while before heading back to lodging. My “intent” was to drop my bags and then walk back over in time to see Colonel Jobe and Lt. Colonel Squires perform. They have a “smokin’ hot” band! About 10 minutes after I arrived at lodging, I realized I was getting a migraine. I have medication for these and rarely get one anymore but this one was a bad one. I didn’t feel like going back over to the venue and hate that I missed their performance.
Everyone was going their own thing for dinner tonight so I waited until around 7 pm and walked over to the only restaurant within walking distance. Of course, I got lost since I have absolutely no sense of direction.
Vanessa and her staff are so great to work with – before and during this event. I’m so sad that she is leaving Misawa in October as she and her husband will be relocating to Alaska. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know her and working with her for the past two years.
We have an 8:30 am lobby call tomorrow and then the flight home. Talk about a QUICK visit! But worth every “mile” and “hour” flying for such a successful and fun event. Echosmith and B.o.B were both a real pleasure to work with! Definitely need to do some more shows with both of them for our military overseas!
Jude
MONDAY, JUNE 4TH — MISAWA AIR BASE TO NASHVILLLE, TN:
I forgot to include one of the funny stories from yesterday…
Vanessa had gone to quite a bit of trouble to secure two golf carts to transport B.o.B from the front gate to the stage area – about the length of a long city block. All the streets are closed in front of the gate and the street is lined with food booths and crowded with people. They weren’t sure how well a golf cart was going to work trying to navigate through that area but were wiling to give it a try. They had parked the carts in a “secure” location and taken the keys with them. When she went to retrieve them the next morning, one of the carts was missing and the other was filled with beer bottles! Evidently some resourceful airmen were able to hot wire the carts and have a little party run. They were nice enough to return one of the carts but Vanessa and her staff had to implement a “search and rescue” for the other one. They did find the cart but it was outside the barricades that were in place for the festival. Fortunately, someone was able to get the cart back inside and delivered to the correct location. She did say that maneuvering through the crowd in a golf cart took a lot longer than walking through the crowd which is what everyone else had done.
So, back to today. I have no idea why I bother setting an alarm because I always wake up much earlier than the time I schedule. At least it gives me more time to answer emails that have come in overnight before departing lodging. We were scheduled to meet in the lobby at 8:30 am but I was down there by 8:00 am and found several other people already waiting as well. We departed on time and check-in was quick because it’s such a small airport. Usually I am first in line so that I can talk to the agent and find out if the bags can be checked all the way through, etc. But my suitcase was one of the last to come off the bus and that put me at the end of the line. By the time I got through the bag scanner and up to the counter, everyone but a couple of people had already checked in and left the area. I did ask the agent if she could check my bag all the way through and she said she needed to see my itinerary. Once she looked at it, she confirmed that she could do that. I told TJ who was the person still in line next to me to ask his agent to do the same. Once I got checked in and said good-bye and thank you to Vanessa and her staff/volunteers, I went upstairs to clear security. I asked the other groups if their bags were checked all the way through and they were not. It’s no big deal but it means stopping at baggage claim to pick up the bags and then having to load them onto the shuttle bus to take to the International Terminal to check in.
Right before we departed, we all started receiving messages that our flights were going to be delayed to the USA. One group was going to LA and one group was going to Minneapolis with me. The LA group was delayed by 40 minutes and since that was their final destination, it didn’t really affect them. But the Minneapolis flight was delayed by 1 ½ hours and the Atlanta connections were going to be missed. I was fine because I was scheduled to have a 5 hour layover before flying to Nashville. Will just have a much shorter layover now.
Before we departed the baggage claim area, I asked an agent for the number of the bus stop where we would be able to take the shuttle to the International Terminal. She said Stop #8 and we all walked outside just as a bus pulled off from that stop. Another one pulled in behind it and we all boarded. When we arrived at the first stop, it was another one of the domestic terminals and the driver said that the bus does not go to the International Terminal. Evidently the buses that stop at #8 have either a blue stripe for the domestic terminal or a green stripe for the international terminal and we got on the wrong one.
Once we arrived at the correct terminal, we had to go upstairs to check in and get our boarding passes for the flight. All the Atlanta passengers had already been rebooked onto the next flights. Two of the Echosmith passengers decided to use their delay as a good excuse to stay over in Tokyo for the night.
Obviously we had a very long layover at Haneda – 6 hours! I went back to the store where I had purchased all the different flavors of Kit Kat last October and stocked up for Zac and Zoe. That was the only thing they asked me to bring them back. Then went into one of the many restaurants and had a bowl of Udon soup with tofu. It was the largest bowl I’ve ever seen with a HUGE ladle. But the amount of soup in the bowl was the same, just a huge bowl. Strange.
I went through security and immigration and down to the Lounge near the gate. Spent a couple of hours in there answering emails and working. Our flight boarded at the new departure time and the flight attendants were trying to get us boarded as quickly as possible. The pilot actually came to my seat and thanked me for my over 2 million miles of flying with Delta – which was a first!
I finished reading my book and had “dinner” and then decided to sleep for 3 hours since because of the time difference, the office wouldn’t be open yet and emails shouldn’t start coming in for another 3 hours. I dread opening the email from Greg to find out the “status of recovering my data on my server”. Trying to keep a positive attitude about this though.
As happened on the flight over, I could not connect to the WiFi! I turned off all the “anti-virus” protection and Windows Firewall and still couldn’t connect! I tried connecting on my phone and logged right on so something on my computer is blocking the Wi-Fi. I went back and got one of the flight attendants to help me but of course, as soon as he came to my seat, I was able to log on!
The email about my server was much worse than I expected. Because the power went out at exactly the time the server was backing up the data to the hard drive, both the main drive and the back-up drive were corrupted. Greg shipped the hard drive off to a company who specializes in recovering data and I’ll know tomorrow if there is anything they can do. It is going to be VERY expensive if they can. I really don’t have any “options” as I need the data.
We landed in Minneapolis and all the Altana passengers were running for their connecting flight. Only one person checked a bag and fortunately his bag came off quickly. Mine on the other hand, were the last ones to arrive. By the time I re-checked my bag, went through security and “ran” from the gate where we landed to the departure gate at the other end of the airport, there was less than 30 minutes left before we boarded. Then, an announcement was made that our flight was delayed because the incoming aircraft had not arrived. It arrived about 20 minutes later and I thought we would board. Nope. Another announcement was made that they were “waiting on the flight crew to arrive”! We finally departed and arrived Nashville about 30 minutes later than expected.
It was a great tour and I’m proud to have been a small part of the 30th Anniversary of American Day in Misawa, Japan. NOW I need some sleep….
Jude
