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I arrived yesterday afternoon from Beijing, with a connection at Tokyo's Narita airport. It's cold and gray in Houston today.

Anyway, here are some pictures from this latest trip:

1. Dinner
The team took us for dinner on Thursday evening at a fancy restaurant. There was a lot of food on the table. I was asked if I could recognize this particular plate and I couldn't until I took a close look.

The plate consisted of meatballs and scorpions. I tasted the meatball and it was good. I was asked to try the scorpions. I took one and tried it. The texture was like sand and I couldn't finish nor swallow it. So here it is:



2. Customs at Beijing Airport


3. Beijing airport: waiting for my connection to Tokyo


4. One of the duty-free shops at the Narita airport


5. This was the NWA Airbus that I took from Beijing to Tokyo.


6. The flight to Houston was delayed because the plane was coming from Newark was delayed due to the winter storms in the US east coast.


7. At the arrival area in Houston

Back In Beijing

It's 5:40 am Monday in Beijing. I arrived at the hotel late last night - close to midnight after my 14-hour flight from Houston to Narita was delayed.

When I arrived at Narita, the passengers disembarked and either you go through immigrations or you proceed to your connecting flight. The names of people who were arriving from late connections were posted. I guess I was the only person from the Houston flight (Continental Airlines) who was going to Beijing as I saw only one name listed on the board - mine.

I go through another security check and made my way to the Northwest flight, which by this time was already delayed. The Houston flight landed at 5:10 pm, the Beijing flight was supposed to board at 5:15 pm and as of 5:17 pm, I was still going through the security line.

The good thing is that when I arrived at the hotel, I was informed that I was getting an upgrade room. During my previous stay, the room was already great, the hotel being rated 5-star. The major difference, I guess, is that this upgraded room has a bigger seating area than my previous one. It has a couch, a coffee table and another chair on one end. The work desk looks the same.

I'm looking forward to breakfast. I was hungry when I arrived but I was too tired even to order room service. I have to shower now and get ready. I'm taking a cab to get to work but I'll take the hotel shuttle on the way back.

I'm on Skype but my family's offline. I called the cellphone but no one's answering.