Global Aviator February 2018 / Vol. 10 / No. 2 17
did not agree with me, also because
the colour of the Eiffel Tower had
changed into bright red. Well ... it
turned out to be that the Japanese built
a similar tower in 1958, just slightly
smaller, as a communications and
observation tower. Mystery solved.
Tokyo was a very crowded and
busy place. And big, really big. The
metropolitan area housed already
24 million people in the 60’s.
No tourist to speak off and hardly
anybody spoke English. All signs in
the streets, shops and underground/
train stations were only in Japanese
characters. To avoid getting lost, our
hotel supplied us with a card which
said - in Japanese – to please return
the carrier of this card to the hotel. The
hotel was luxurious to the extreme.
Since I only had to work one day a
week, flying to Anchorage and back, I
strolled the streets in Tokyo endlessly,
visited large department stores where
the service was out of this world. At
the entrance each and every client was
greeted by a lady who opened the door,
made a deep bow and addressed you
in Japanese which loosely translated
meant: “You most appreciated client,
we thank you for visiting our humble
establishment”. Humble establishment,
it had about 11 floors and numerous
escalators, where at the bottom and
top ladies with white gloves wiped the
railing and made sure you arrived safely.
Some department stores even sold single
engine airplanes made by Subaru and
Fuji. The electronic department was
massive and it was just unthinkable not
to buy some of these gadgets – tax-free.
In The Netherlands at that time this was
just not available at all, Japan was way
ahead of Europe. There were whole
streets with only shops selling electronic
stuff. Or streets with only Bonsai trees
shops, others with only kite shops, etc.
Taxis were spotless. I noticed that
some taxis had a little green, blue or red
flag attached to their windscreen, just
popping out over the roof line. I was
told that was to indicate that a driver- at that particular day - had either a
difficult emotional, physical or
intellectual day in their Biorhythm. The
passengers and other drivers could
then react accordingly; very thoughtful.
Also people with a cold wore masks, to
not infect others.
Once I organised a trip to Mount
Fuji, by train. The trains were called
Shinkansen, the so called bullet trains,
which already then drove 200 Km+.
Driving through the city on elevated rail
tracks at 200 Km/hr I found way more
spectacular than flying at 800 Km/hr.
For us climbing Mount Fuji
was an exciting outing, but for the
Japanese it was a pilgrimage to Holy
ground. All over the paths were
little shrines, where people paused
for meditation or prayer. One could
notice that the Japanese were in a
special state of mind, and you more
or less automatically adjusted. The
top of this mountain, which we never
reached, nor even came close to,
is always covered in snow and ice
and the shape is very symmetrical,
from whichever side you look at it.
My job was to fly once a week
from Tokyo to Anchorage and back.
We left Tokyo on Monday evening
and arrived in Anchorage on Sunday
morning. I say this again, left Monday
evening, arrived Sunday morning.
You had a whole second Sunday. After
staying in Anchorage one day, we left
Monday morning and arrived back
in Tokyo on Wednesday morning, so
missing out Tuesday completely. This
because we crossed the International
Data Line, but I never got used to that.
On board we had also Japanese
stewardesses, who looked wonderful
in their traditional kimonos and we
could learn something from their way
of serving passengers.
I remember, when boarding in
Anchorage for our return flight to Tokyo,
how cold it was in the aircraft. The
icy wind was blowing into the aircraft
through the open doors at both sides;
even with a jersey and overcoat, it
was still stone cold. Passengers also all
kept their overcoats on, until at least
half an hour into the flight.
During our stay in Anchorage,
which was then still a small town,
with dirt roads and sidewalks made
of wooden planks, we could hardly
get out, because it was winter.
Sometimes when you woke up, about
20 inches of snow had fallen during
the night. But when the roads were
drivable, we took a KLM car and drove
out of the city. For a guy from tiny
Holland, it was quite an adventure
to drive for hours on end, seeing
only endless forests and miles and
miles of dirt roads, seeing not a single
car – or people, only now and then
a bear or moose crossing the road.
Now the flights from Amsterdam to
Tokyo are non-stop, take about eleven
and a half hours and cross Russia. The
crew is back in Amsterdam in three days.
I’m glad that I worked with KLM in
the 60’s, when there was still plenty of
time to see the world.
That KLM recruitment brochure
I found some years before in my
parents newspaper, said: “Travelling
the world and seeing exotic places”.
And that’s exactly what I did. •Above: No wing lockers, just an open shelf - Pic by Clive Peace Above: 'Old School' cockpit instruments - Pic by Skymember