Misadventures part 6
Taipei, Shanghai, and Japan
The time had come to leave Hong Kong and it was well past due, I had been there for nearly a
week as I started my website and entered all the entries from my journal to bring everything up to date.
I had made numerous flights into the city taking photos and experimenting with screenshots, so
I was happy to finally be on my way.
I chose a KLM 747 for the trip to Taipei, it had been a while since I flew a heavy and I realized
how much I missed it once I took to the sky.
ATC turned and twisted me up and around until I was headed towards Taiwan, I wasn't sure what I would
find there but really didn't expect much. I climbed up to FL390 and sat back for the ride. Honestly I didn't expect to see
another really great city until I reached Tokyo.
The coast of China eventually disapeared and a short while later some scattered island started
popping up, followed shortly by the main island of Taiwan.
The final approach and my landing went perfectly, but I had forgot shut off the auto throttle
and went barreling down the runway trying to figure out why I couldn't slow down, once I noticed the problem it was too late
and I ran right off the end of the runway. Man, it's always something with me!
After the support crew showed up and got the 747 back on the runway I headed for the gates. Figures
that I can screw up an otherwise perfect landing even once I've reached the safety of the ground.
I transfered over to a Baron and headed for town, there were a few small buildings and an airport
downtown but that was all, no need to hang out here, on to Shanghai.
I loaded up my Text-o-matic and rigged a 737-400 with Dragonair colors for the short trip to
Shanghai, only about a 45 minute flight. Soon I was once again airbourne and heading back towards the Chinese mainland.
After crossing the edge of the East China Sea little islands started popping up everywhere and
I was back over China.
I flew past the Yangdang mountains and crossed Wangpan bay. I started my approach into Shanghai
which went well concluding with a nice smooth landing, I do love the 737-400 Greatest Airliners add-on, I recommend it.
I repeated the motions from Taipei and took the Baron up for a cruise around town, and just as
I expected there was little to see. So I headed back to the airport and just sat in the plane watching traffic take off and
land as the airport seemed quite busy.
As for my next destination, Japan, I felt confident there would be some interesting
scenery to explore, especially Tokyo. I just couldn't wait.
Japan
I would fly for Cathay Pacific on my trip to Japan, in a 777.
So here I went on another trip across the sea, it wouldn't be much longer and I would start to head
inland Asia and leave the ocean and sea's behind for a while.
My first stop would be Osaka, then I would carry on to Tokyo.
The flight path took me past the island of Cheju just off the Korean peninsula, and soon the first small
Japanese island began to appear.
Once I started over the mainland of Japan I could see cities popping up all over the place, this
would be a great place to do some regional city hopping, although I wouldn't be doing that on this trip. I really need to
pick up the pace on my journey so I can get to some of the more interesting places on earth, of course Tokyo was one of those
places.
Osaka's airport is on an island of it's own and turned out to be quite colorful. I made a perfect
approach and landing and just as I was pulling onto the taxiway ATC instructed an AI aircraft to go around, I remember thinking
"Ha, now you gotta wait for me, be-yatch" I'm surprised he didn't just land on top of me.
I had aquired several new planes recently and decided I would use this airstrip to test a few
of them out, they included a 707, a DC-8, a Korean airways DC-10 and the Concorde, all of which I took swimming at least a
time or two before figuring out the right configuration for getting them off the ground, unfortunately I don't have screenshots
of all this fun.
I have it noted that the Concorde is a mother to fly, but I don't have details.
The next day I took the King Air for a spin around Osaka bay and visited the cities
of Kobe and Osaka, the area is pretty nice and has some okay scenery, I made my way back to the airport and watched AI traffic
for a while, and I noticed that they don't really flare much, they just kinda plop down on the runway, there were 5 or 6 takeoffs
and landings in a row then the action died down, I looked at my map and decided to fly VFR to Tokyo, that way I could fly
over Kyoto and Nagoya along the way, so I taxied back out and headed cross country to sight see.
I kept my altitude at 2500 feet for as long as I could and winded my way through the valleys,
this Japanese backcountry is quite awesome, I didn't find anything worth mentioning at Kyoto or Nagoya so I pointed towards
Tokyo, sort of.
I was really enjoying flying through the valleys and taking the backway into Tokyo, the mountains
get quite big so I adjusted my altitude as necessary, I never realized what a beautiful place Japan is, I add Japan to my
list of places to return to.
Pretty soon I flew around a mountain and there was Mt. Fuji directly in front of me, I flew towards
it for a while and took some photo's, then turned back in the direction of Tokyo, I stopped at a small airfield along the
way to view the photo's I had taken so far.
Tokyo was very near and once I returned to the air I started to see buildings on the horizon,
lot's of buildings, nice beautiful buildings, I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed here. I made many trips around the
city sightseeing, there is a lot to see here, I took many photos as I flew around Tokyo and made my way around Tokyo bay.
Later in my stay I took a night flight, I expected the city to be brilliant but discovered it
to be rather lame at night,. I did find one cool place that I took a photo of, not sure what it is but they were advertising
Microsoft office 2000 I believe.
While I was here in Japan I made it a point to visit Sony corporate headquarters and bitch about
the PS2 I bought that eventually would only play a handful of games, resulting in me having to buy another PS2, the same thing
happened to my brother, of course, they worked well until the warrantys expired. The Sony people mumbled some jiberish in
japanese then presented me with a certificate for five yen off my next purchase of a Sony product. On the way out I stopped
and pee'd on their bonzai's.
Originally I landed at Haneda airport RJTT which is the old International airport I guess, but
it's close to downtown, I figured I would fly over and check out the new International airport Narita RJAA, this flight took
place early in the Japanese morning just before sunrise, so once I landed I watched the sunrise seeing as how I was in the
land of the rising sun, right?
After sunrise and a cup of coffee from the cafe, I hopped back in the King Air and made one more
flight back around Tokyo, I would be leaving Japan soon, although I'm pretty sure I will return in the future, I feel there
is a lot more to see in this country, I make my landing back at Haneda and park where I can watch traffic.
I have to say Japan has been one of the nicest places I have visited so far, Tokyo is quite a
place to visit with plenty of scenery to check out, and cruising through the back country and the valleys was one
of the best times I've had so far on my trip around the world, I have no complaints and will return here to explore again
someday, and next time I will stay a bit longer.
I have been away from home for a long time already, I feel as though my piloting skills have
tremendously improved since leaving the states, but there is still the occasional goof up, almost always pilot error, theres
still a lot of the world to see and I needed to get going, I will head to Korea and then on to see the Great wall of China,
and after that who knows.
I don't expect to see much in the way of extraordinary scenery for a while, so once I depart
Beijing I may head for the Himalayan region, only time will tell.
Next-Korea, Beijing and the Great wall of China
