This is a continuation of my diary from my RTW trip from November 2003.I left Hiroshima and flew to Beijing via Tokyo, landing late at night.
Three things interested me about the flight from Hiroshima to Tokyo. Firstly, the translator at Hiroshima Airport needs some support as the Gates are labelled in English as 'Wicket'. I was confused until I looked it up later and learned that wicket is a synonym for a small Gate. You learn something new every day!
Secondly, it’s the first time I’ve ever been on a 747… for a domestic flight.
Thirdly, I may or may not have seen the pinnacle of Mount Fuji! Check out the picture and judge for yourself whether the Grey smudge with the straight diagonal line to the right of it is the snowcapped top of Mount Fuji.
The night flight from Tokyo was amazing. The plane flew over the South Korean mainland and with a cloudless sky I could clearly see the lights of Busan. I spotted too the Olympic and World Cup stadia in Seoul as we flew over the Korean capital too.
The most direct route to Beijing would have taken us over North Korea. As we flew over Seoul, the nearby North was clearly invisible, cloaked under a blanket of darkness, the border demarcated by the electricity production of the South and the lack of production (despite all of that peacefully intended nuclear power) in the North.
The plane banked sharply before we crossed the border however and we embarked on a detour across the Yellow Sea; North Korean airspace closed to our Japanese aircraft.
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