Land of the Setting Sun
4/14/2007 - Jurisdictional Trouble
Over the next couple of weeks, we rushed to prepare for the upcoming journey. Dr. Blythe somehow managed to get his Chinese visa within a day of sending me that fateful email, and I got mine by the end of the week, although it was a pain in the ass to drive down to Houston to turn in the papers personally. One by one, our ragtag crew got their visas, except for Ogasawara, who stayed mysteriously silent about the affair until about two weeks out when he declared that he "didn't need a silly visa". Nobody asked questions.
The last two weeks passed by with bated breath, as the excitement began to mount. To pass the time, I badgered Dr. Blythe for information about the other three members of our expedition, until he cracked and revealed their names. First was Qara Reed, the photographer from Ogasawara's team, and a young Mongolian woman in her twenties. I did a bit of unsavory MySpace stalking to figure out that she was indeed, very attractive. After thirty or so thirsty minutes, I tore myself off her page and searched for the second name I had been given. Aubrey Allen, an American hitman whom I realized very quickly had almost certainly given me a fake name. I couldn't find any kind of information on him and could only wonder what kind of hitman would choose "Aubrey" as his alias. A bit concerned and irritated, I moved on to the final name, Itaki Kyoshi. This was Ogasawara's family friend whose house we were going to visit.
When May 17th finally arrived, tensions were high. I was going to meet Dr. Blythe at the St. Louis airport, have a bit of a layover in Detroit where we'd run into the others, and then fly directly into Beijing. And for the most part, things went according to plan.
When I arrived in the terminal for our first flight, Dr. Blythe was already there waiting impatiently. He then revealed to me that he had already been there for three hours, which I found ridiculous, but typical for Dr. Blythe. He was wearing a terrible button-up/sunhat combo, indoors no less. I made a mental note not to grow so old that I dismissed the laws of fashion completely. His carry-on bags were equally atrocious, practically bursting at the seams with useless garbage: some old metallic rocks from another expedition, a set of wooden candlesticks, and a weird glass skull. It looked more to me like the ingredients for an occultist ceremony, but I knew better to inquire. Inquiries required answers, and we had a three hour flight ahead of us.
Running into the other four in Detroit was a bit of an awkward union. Ogasawara was loud and boisterous as usual, wrapping Dr. Blythe in a very stereotype-shattering hug, practically snapping the frail old man in two. I braced myself, and he almost lifted me off the ground, soles barely scuffing against the ground. Ogasawara was extremely tall and large for a Japanese man, nearly 6'3" with a neck like steel bridge cables. He looked like he was in his mid-fifties. He introduced us to Itaki next, who quite literally stood in his shadow to his right. Itaki was frighteningly skinny, wearing a shirt a couple sizes too large that drooped over him like a poncho. Shaking our hands with a firm grip, he thanked us for coming along. Behind Itaki, a man wearing a two-tone Hawaiian shirt seemingly materialized and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He had light blonde hair and an angular face, and you knew before he even spoke that this must be Aubrey. Rather than speak, he gave a simple nod.
Suddenly, I got blinded by a flash of light from the side. A camera flash. When the combination of white and gray dots faded from my eyes, I spotted the last member of our crew, Qara, behind the lens of a Canon Powershot S5 IS. She smiled as short black hair framed her face, and I instantly remembered my overenthusiastic stalking I had done not even a couple weeks earlier. I hoped my face didn't show it as she taught Dr. Blythe and I Zolgokh, a Mongolian way of greeting, by Dr. Blythe's insistence.
The flight to Beijing was nearly 13 hours, but sitting next to Dr. Blythe? An eternity. Even as I turned our cabin lights off, he continued ranting and regaling me about his and Ogasawara's adventures in Thailand, back in the 70's. I had to really control myself. It wasn't his fault he couldn't understand social cues.
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We arrived in Beijing just as the sun rose over their runway, battered and bruised, and proceeded to customs. Everyone got through fairly quickly, apart from Dr. Blythe and Ogasawara. Dr. Blythe had over ten grand in cash on him, so he was filling out a declaration form, but Ogasawara seemed to be having a heated argument with the customs personnel. He raised his voice suddenly, attracting looks from people around us, including security. Several customs officers now watched him through the Plexiglas service window, as Ogasawara became more and more frustrated, veins on his neck popping out. Dr. Blythe excused himself from his window, and intervened carefully, trying to calm down the behemoth of a man. They whispered quietly to one another aggressively, and he came back over to us.
"It seems our friend Ogasawara is running into issues with his... contingency for getting through customs. I'm afraid we're going to have to turn back with him." Soft-spoken Itaki objects immediately.
"For what reason? I paid good money for this trip, Mr. Blythe," he spits. "Ogasawara knew as well as all of us what was required when we passed through Chinese customs."
"Isn't he your friend?" I chimed in suddenly.
"Of course, but even if we left with him, we lose our chance at getting into Japan. I lose my chance at seeing my home." Dr. Blythe runs a thin finger across the wrinkles on his face, a classic sign that he was thinking hard.
"Maybe not, Itaki. I have a few contacts in Taipei, and quite a bit in American dollars. They may formally be a part of China, but they're much easier to bribe. It would be a far more difficult boat trip, but we could still make it with a larger boat and a small hired crew."
Aubrey stood in the background like a monolith, and that's when you realized Itaki must've been his employer, not Ogasawara. Qara and I looked at each other, the only ones who hadn't really chimed in. She shrugged at me with some indifference, and I realized I was going to have to be the tie breaker.
Over the next couple of weeks, we rushed to prepare for the upcoming journey. Dr. Blythe somehow managed to get his Chinese visa within a day of sending me that fateful email, and I got mine by the end of the week, although it was a pain in the ass to drive down to Houston to turn in the papers personally. One by one, our ragtag crew got their visas, except for Ogasawara, who stayed mysteriously silent about the affair until about two weeks out when he declared that he "didn't need a silly visa". Nobody asked questions.
The last two weeks passed by with bated breath, as the excitement began to mount. To pass the time, I badgered Dr. Blythe for information about the other three members of our expedition, until he cracked and revealed their names. First was Qara Reed, the photographer from Ogasawara's team, and a young Mongolian woman in her twenties. I did a bit of unsavory MySpace stalking to figure out that she was indeed, very attractive. After thirty or so thirsty minutes, I tore myself off her page and searched for the second name I had been given. Aubrey Allen, an American hitman whom I realized very quickly had almost certainly given me a fake name. I couldn't find any kind of information on him and could only wonder what kind of hitman would choose "Aubrey" as his alias. A bit concerned and irritated, I moved on to the final name, Itaki Kyoshi. This was Ogasawara's family friend whose house we were going to visit.
When May 17th finally arrived, tensions were high. I was going to meet Dr. Blythe at the St. Louis airport, have a bit of a layover in Detroit where we'd run into the others, and then fly directly into Beijing. And for the most part, things went according to plan.
When I arrived in the terminal for our first flight, Dr. Blythe was already there waiting impatiently. He then revealed to me that he had already been there for three hours, which I found ridiculous, but typical for Dr. Blythe. He was wearing a terrible button-up/sunhat combo, indoors no less. I made a mental note not to grow so old that I dismissed the laws of fashion completely. His carry-on bags were equally atrocious, practically bursting at the seams with useless garbage: some old metallic rocks from another expedition, a set of wooden candlesticks, and a weird glass skull. It looked more to me like the ingredients for an occultist ceremony, but I knew better to inquire. Inquiries required answers, and we had a three hour flight ahead of us.
Running into the other four in Detroit was a bit of an awkward union. Ogasawara was loud and boisterous as usual, wrapping Dr. Blythe in a very stereotype-shattering hug, practically snapping the frail old man in two. I braced myself, and he almost lifted me off the ground, soles barely scuffing against the ground. Ogasawara was extremely tall and large for a Japanese man, nearly 6'3" with a neck like steel bridge cables. He looked like he was in his mid-fifties. He introduced us to Itaki next, who quite literally stood in his shadow to his right. Itaki was frighteningly skinny, wearing a shirt a couple sizes too large that drooped over him like a poncho. Shaking our hands with a firm grip, he thanked us for coming along. Behind Itaki, a man wearing a two-tone Hawaiian shirt seemingly materialized and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He had light blonde hair and an angular face, and you knew before he even spoke that this must be Aubrey. Rather than speak, he gave a simple nod.
Suddenly, I got blinded by a flash of light from the side. A camera flash. When the combination of white and gray dots faded from my eyes, I spotted the last member of our crew, Qara, behind the lens of a Canon Powershot S5 IS. She smiled as short black hair framed her face, and I instantly remembered my overenthusiastic stalking I had done not even a couple weeks earlier. I hoped my face didn't show it as she taught Dr. Blythe and I Zolgokh, a Mongolian way of greeting, by Dr. Blythe's insistence.
The flight to Beijing was nearly 13 hours, but sitting next to Dr. Blythe? An eternity. Even as I turned our cabin lights off, he continued ranting and regaling me about his and Ogasawara's adventures in Thailand, back in the 70's. I had to really control myself. It wasn't his fault he couldn't understand social cues.
----------
We arrived in Beijing just as the sun rose over their runway, battered and bruised, and proceeded to customs. Everyone got through fairly quickly, apart from Dr. Blythe and Ogasawara. Dr. Blythe had over ten grand in cash on him, so he was filling out a declaration form, but Ogasawara seemed to be having a heated argument with the customs personnel. He raised his voice suddenly, attracting looks from people around us, including security. Several customs officers now watched him through the Plexiglas service window, as Ogasawara became more and more frustrated, veins on his neck popping out. Dr. Blythe excused himself from his window, and intervened carefully, trying to calm down the behemoth of a man. They whispered quietly to one another aggressively, and he came back over to us.
"It seems our friend Ogasawara is running into issues with his... contingency for getting through customs. I'm afraid we're going to have to turn back with him." Soft-spoken Itaki objects immediately.
"For what reason? I paid good money for this trip, Mr. Blythe," he spits. "Ogasawara knew as well as all of us what was required when we passed through Chinese customs."
"Isn't he your friend?" I chimed in suddenly.
"Of course, but even if we left with him, we lose our chance at getting into Japan. I lose my chance at seeing my home." Dr. Blythe runs a thin finger across the wrinkles on his face, a classic sign that he was thinking hard.
"Maybe not, Itaki. I have a few contacts in Taipei, and quite a bit in American dollars. They may formally be a part of China, but they're much easier to bribe. It would be a far more difficult boat trip, but we could still make it with a larger boat and a small hired crew."
Aubrey stood in the background like a monolith, and that's when you realized Itaki must've been his employer, not Ogasawara. Qara and I looked at each other, the only ones who hadn't really chimed in. She shrugged at me with some indifference, and I realized I was going to have to be the tie breaker.