Mercer's Sapporo w/o pictures

With this and the three blogs that follow, please come back later this week when Mercer will be able to upload his photos of the last several stops. Computer problems kept him from downloading his pictures. Check back! One night in Sapporo, June 23, 2008 It is a short flight, relative to our normal legs, to Sapporo from Seoul. We check in to our on airport, Japanese style Microtel. A little Spartan for our hotel rooms at Missouri River Aviation, Jim. They are nice enough however and very efficient. This is a modularly constructed hotel. Unfortunately, you have to step up 4” to go into the bathroom. Oddly, none of us could remember this important detail of Microtel living in the middle of the night. We were all a little gimpy with stubbed toes next morning. We took the high speed train from the airport into the Sapporo downtown train station looking for dinner. There is not too much English spoken here so we struggle a bit getting our bearings. We are assisted by this very cute, train station hostess in pillbox hat and red suit. Not much English but she aimed us at the ATM machine and the taxi cabs with a great big smile. We are off but know not where. We have not eaten for many hours so we are getting desperate. Nothing is open yet, it is 4:00PM local. We finally wander in to a #10, crab restaurant. Traditional Japanese in every respect. Beautifully dressed staff in kimono point at pictures of crab prepared in every way imaginable. The food was great and the Sake better. We decide to take taxies back to our Microtel in that we had no idea where we were. This is I am sure a generalization, but the gentle and respectful nature of oriental people, Chinese, Korean and Japanese is so refreshing and appreciated. We are now almost done with this great adventure around the world and what is most striking to me is how wonderfully we have been treated by all we have met. People don’t make war. Governments and wacko’s do. People are pretty much the same. There are huge economic differences, but at the end of the day from the poorest to the richest we all just want to be able to live and prosper in peace. My goal is to study more about other cultures. To date, I have based my world view and opinions on too little information, handed to me in sound bites by organizations which are influenced by agenda or economic situation. I finish this trip much more optimistic about the world. Huge problems exist and finding solutions is way above my pay grade. There will continue to be horrific events in many areas of the world. There always have been. I continue to believe that 99.9% of the people on the face of the earth are good. We just need to coordinate our efforts a little better to deal with the .1%. I am looking forward to getting back to my wonderful wife, Mary and our family and friends. I have missed them greatly. I have the best clients imaginable and they have been so gracious in letting me take this time away from the office. I have seen a lot of architecture and dozens of FBO’s. Brace yourselves. Mercer