Randy Lewis

I would be experiencing Japan for the very first time.  They had more "English subtitles" that I expected but the logistics were still challenging. 

As you can see it's 2:45 p.m. in Nagoya, Japan.  Nagoya is 16 hours ahead of San Clemente in time.  That meant we landed in Nagoya's mid-afternoon but it was 10:45 p.m. "my time".  That's about when I go to bed.

People were arriving from all parts of the world into Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city. 

This was my first contact (so to speak) with Japanese ingenuity.  It makes sense to have to different sized toilet seats on the same toilet!

I normally rent cars on each of my trackchasing trips.  However, on this trip we would be using public transportation exclusively. 

 We would be riding the train and then switching to the subway in order to get to our downtown hotel.  Of course, we would need to get some cash (the system did not accept credit cards) and negotiate most of the trip by trying to read instructions in Japanese.

In seemingly no time, J.J. had our tickets for the train and we were off. 

I bank with Citibank.  I was surprised to see a Citibank ATM in the airport.  This made it seem like it would be easy to get cash when I needed it.  However, this was the last Citibank ATM I would see on the entire trip. 

Ever seen a $10,000 yen bill before?  Currently one U.S. dollar buys about 113 yen.  That makes this bill worth about one hundred dollars. 

This Japanese train from the Central Japan International Airport to Nagoya Station was the smoothest riding train I have ever seen.  It even had a HD flat screen TV showing live video of where the train was headed.  We mistakenly ended up in the first class reserved section of this train with unreserved tickets.  A few extra yen paid to the train's agent solved the  problem. 

We needed to change from the train to the subway to get to our hotel.  This was a typical scene on the subway.  We saw virtually no Americans.  The Japanese were very well-groomed and dreesed, quiet and polite.  There was no graffiti in the train cars that I often see when riding in American subway systems. 

Our hotel, the b Nagoya, was conveniently located in downtown Nagoya. It was within walking distance of most things we needed. 

The lobby area was located two floors above street level.  We found this to be the case at several other hotels we visited. 

The staff seemed to know enough English to keep us moving in the right direction. 

 
The expresso machine (complimentary) was a welcome site each morning.

Our hotel room was on the small side, but the beds were comfortable.  The bathroom was small.  When I showered I felt like I was in an RV. 

Our room had a flat screen TV monitor and fridge.  The hotel offered free internet as well.  The only English speaking channel was CNN and sometimes it was overwridden with Japanese audio.

This fellow didn't look like he was "from around here".  Nevertheless, he was an excellent guide to this city he had never visited before.

Once we landed in Japan, we conveniently "forgot" what time it was back home.  Our first dining spot featured traditional Japanese fare.  As you can see, we were asked to remove our shoes.  That's Matt, a fellow airline pilot seated wtih J.J.

At each restuarant we visited, we were provided with a warm and moist hand towel.  This was the first visit to Nagoya for both Matt and me. 

DAY 1 – IT’S ONLY FOR NGD POINTS TRACKCHASING TOUR

EDITOR’S NOTE

I would like to thank everyone who called or emailed us regarding the California fires.  It’s nice to now so many folks were thinking about us.  J.J. and I left for Japan the day the fires started.  Carol was supporting us (like always) with garden hose in hand.

The fires were all around us to the North, East and South.  Thankfully, the Pacific Ocean is to our West!  When I returned home this past Thursday, my first breath of outside air was filled with smoke.  The atmosphere is thick with a smoky haze.  Our patio has a significant covering of dust and soot on it.  The local golf courses were all closed on Thursday as well.  That is very unusual.

We have had virtually no rain over the past 12 months.  When the Santa Ana winds come and the humidity drops (the humidity was 7% in Malibu the day their fires started), the atmosphere is ripe for spreading fire should one start.  The top wind speeds at our local mountains were recorded as high as 111 M.P.H. during the firestorm.  The prevailing wind in SoCal comes in off the ocean.  During Santa Ana winds, they blow TOWARD the ocean.  This is often how ocean front homes (like ours) can be burned to the ground.  The fire can start inland a mile or two where there is less residential development and more tinder dry brush and then blow toward the ocean.  This puts all of the high value homes that are situated near the water in danger.  The entire episode reminds us to make sure our fire insurance is up to date, we have photos of everything in the house and we know what we would want to take with us if we had only a few minutes to decide.

Again, thanks to everyone of thought of us.

TODAY’S HEADLINES

This trip started in Japan before progressing to Tennessee.  This was my first visit to Japan, where I intend to return for trackchasing some day.....................more in “The Trip - Japan”.

Do you want to know the REAL reason, I went trackchasing in Tennessee? …………..details in “The Objective”.

Did you ever do the “twist” to Chubby Checker 45 RPM records? …………..details in “Race Review – 411 Motor Speedway”.

Click on this link or paste it in your browser to take you to today’s Trackchaser Report via my website at

www.ranlayracing.com

GREETINGS FROM BLOUNTVILLE, TENNESSEE AND THEN SEYMOUR, TENNESSEE.

I WOKE UP IN SEAT 17A OF A DELTA AIRLINES BOEING 757 THIS MORNING (LAX-CVG) AND WENT TO SLEEP IN GEORGETOWN, KENTUCKY, BEFORE RETURNING TO SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA ON SUNDAY.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED TODAY.

PEOPLE/STRATEGY/TRAVEL NEWS

The Objective 

The trackchasing season is winding down.  I’m trying to wrap up some loose ends while laying the groundwork for a successful 2008.  I’m considering the option of increasing my trackchasing penetration in non-English speaking countries in the coming year. 

With that in mind, I made a “pre-decision” trip to Japan this past week.  The Japan part of the trip was initially meant to be the last part of my Colorado trackchasing trip from last Sunday.  However, the Pueblo Motorsports Park or more accurately the Rocky Mountain SCCA group modified their schedule at the last minute.  I couldn’t make the revised schedule so I bagged that trip and went onto Japan with son, J.J.

You can read all about the Japan trip in “The Trip – Japan” below.  I also highly recommend you take a look at www.ranlayracing.com for photos from Japan.  Click on the “Trackchaser Reports” tab and then click on “Pre-decision trip”.  This was my first ever trip to Japan.  I always enjoy the cultural differences I encounter on visits like this.  The trip was a wild success as I begin to plan several international adventures in 2008.

I returned from my Asia trip on Thursday afternoon.  By late Friday evening, I was headed for Tennessee.  There is no idle time in the world of trackchasing.  Why was I going to Tennessee?  I was in search of National Geographic Diversity points.

I entered the day ranked #12 in Tennessee.  As you probably recall, any trackchaser who ranks 11^th or lower in a state is given 15 NGD points.  Those chasers in a state’s top ten get the same number of points as their ranking.  If a chaser is 6^th in the state’s rankings, he/she gets six NGD points.  Obviously, the lower your NGD score the better.  Low score wins just like in golf.

There are normally 25-40 or more individual trackchasers who are ranked in each state.  When the NGD program was developed five years ago, it was decided that all trackchasers outside of a state’s top 10 would get 15 points rather than the points that would equal their rank.  That seemed better than saddling a 40^th place state trackchaser with 40 points.  That would have been too big of a penalty for poor performance.

I currently have 13 individual states where I do not rank in the state’s top 10.  This gives me a total of 65 (13 X 5) penalty points.  My overall NGD score is 6.65.  Since each NGD point equates to .02 points of the overall NGD score, those 65 penalty points account for 1.3 points or about 20% of my overall NGD score.  It would be great if I could improve my position in these 13 states and get a top ten ranking or better.

By the way, I rank out of the top 10 in these states.  My current track total follows each state’s name in ( ).

Delaware (5)

Maine (4)

Maryland (3)

Massachusetts (7)

New Hampshire (11)

New Jersey (10)

New York (47)

Ohio (48)

Pennsylvania (64)

Tennessee (15)

Vermont (2)

Virginia (13)

West Virginia (3)

Do you see anything that these states have in common?  They are almost all Eastern states.  There’s a reason I rank so poorly in these Eastern states.  Probably the biggest reason is that almost all of our leading trackchasers live in the East.  They are mainly regional trackchasers who have mined these states for the better part of 30 years.  I am facing a double whammy.  There are many Eastern trackchasers and they have been adding tracks in their home territory for a long time.

I have strong numbers in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, yet I trail the top 10 chasers by a large amount of tracks in each of these states.  If I am going to do well I am going to have to overachieve in the 37 states where I already rank in the top ten.

I have not given up hope in all of these 13 states.  That is why I am in Tennessee today.  My day/night trackchasing double will improve my rank from 12th to 8^th place.  This reduces my Tennessee NGD score from 15 to 8.  That reduction in seven state points reduces my overall NGD score by 0.14 points.  My new NGD score is 6.51.  This is the lowest lifetime NGD score anyone has ever recorded in the five-year history of this contest.

Nevertheless, this might not be enough to unseat three-time NGD lifetime champion Gordon Killian who currently sits just nine state positions behind me with a score of 6.69.  If Gordon would simply send me a sign that he is throwing in the towel, then I would not have to take all-night flights in an attempt to beat him. 

I’m doing the best I can here.  Tennessee was the place where I could get the best NGD point reduction by adding two tracks.  I will hope to gain a few more points before the year wraps up.  I’m trying as hard as I can.  If I don’t win this year, I will focus even harder on this aspect of trackchasing in 2008.

The Trip - Tennessee

During a 72-hour period from Monday to Thursday of this week, I flew just over 10,000 miles round-trip to Japan.  Less than 36 hours after arriving home from my international trip, I was on an all-night flight to Cincinnati and then on to Tennessee.

During three of the past six nights, I have slept overnight on an airplane.  I have a very simple philosophy in trackchasing.  I will do whatever it takes.  This way I don’t have to think very much.  I simply do whatever it takes.

After flying all night, I had a cool 305 miles to drive to this afternoon’s show featuring senior champ karts.  This sentence should prove the point made in the above paragraph. 

I must admit that trying to sleep in an airplane seat for the three hour and forty-two minute flight from LAX to CVG was difficult at best.  I was forced to take two power naps along the drive today.  Not to worry, the show ran late (so what’s new) and I didn’t miss a thing.

The Trip - Japan

Tuesday 

I have seen more tracks than anyone else in North America has.  With an eye on the future, I going to have to branch out beyond my home continent for future trackchasing opportunities.  I’ve already seen a good deal of racing in English speaking countries such as New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.  In order to really become an international trackchaser, I’m going to have to pick up the pace in non-English speaking countries.  Would I be up for the task?

I decided to make a “pre-decision” trip to Japan to find out what my capabilities and limitations might be in this area.  Think about this trip as taking your kids on tours of college campuses.  You and your child are scoping things out to see if this plan is going to work.  It is with this mindset that our son J.J. and I took off for Japan.

Why did we pick Japan?  It was for no other reason than this location had the best first class airline seating availability.  We would have gone anywhere that had the most first class seats open to us as “non-revs”.  Our plan worked.  We were able to fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Nagoya, Japan (NGO) in first class both ways.

Do you have any idea what United Airlines charges each passenger for a first class ticket?  They never discount their first class tickets in any way.  How does $10,300 strike you?  No, I did not make a mistake with my zeros.  That’s TEN THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS AND NO/CENTS.  Business class seats are bargain priced at around $7,500 per ticket.  I am happy to report that in true RANLAY Racing fashion, we did not have to pay full price.

The flight time from SFO to NGO was a little more than 11 hours in length.  Fortunately, the flight back to California was slightly less than nine hours.  Flying east to west always take longer because of the head winds.

International first class flying is a very pleasurable experience.  First, the seats fold completely down (flat) into beds.  Each passenger has his or her own video monitor.  Flight attendants call you by your name when they offer some twenty or more current movie titles for you to chose from and play on your own individual movie player.  When we boarded, we were greeted with orange juice and Champaign.  This was followed by wine and unlimited alcoholic drinks. 

The food just kept coming.  I felt like I gained five pounds on this flight alone.  There was a fine assortment of breads and even ice cream sundaes following my sea bass entrée. 

Each passenger is given a “free” goody bag.  This bag contains eyeshades, earplugs, face cream, toothbrush, etc.  There are even socks and slippers so passengers can walk around the first class cabin in comfort.  Of course, those ner’do’wells in the coach cabin (dare I say steerage) are not allowed anywhere near the first class passengers.

Do I enjoy first class seating and service?  Of course, I do.  Would I pay $10,300 for it?  Not on your life.  I can’t imagine ever being rich enough to pay that price, but then I never imagined as a junior high student I would have what I have.  Suffice it to say that J.J. and I very much enjoyed our royal treatment.

We landed in Nagoya, Japan at about 2 p.m. local time.  The local time in Nagoya is 16 hours ahead of California (Pacific) time.  We had to cross the international date line to get here.  We would be in Japan for exactly 50 hours.  When we landed, our first mini day of touring was just about to begin.  It is our policy to refrain from thinking about what time it is “back home” when we are in a foreign country.  However, I can tell you now that when we landed it was 10 p.m. at home.  Our day was just beginning when everyone at home had a day that was just ending.

By the way, everyone should know that Carol was invited along on this trip.  However, Carol is sort of the “Cinderella of San Clemente”.  That’s a polite way of saying she has chores to do.  I can travel every day of the year, if the destination is of interest to me.  Our kids are just like me in this area.  Carol prefers to limit her travel to once a month and sometimes not even that often.  She actually enjoys puttering around the house.  Yes, they do say that opposites attract.

Nagoya, Japan is the fourth largest city in the country behind Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.  Nagoya was nearly leveled during World War II.  Nagoya is in Aichi prefecture in the Chubu region of Honshu, one of Japan’s islands.   The city is in central Japan and boasts a brand new airport that opened in 2005.  The Chubu Centrair International Airport is one of the biggest and most well appointed airports I have ever seen.

When I travel, I almost always rent a car.  When J.J. travels, partially because first and second year pilots are so underpaid, he normally uses public transportation (trains, subways, buses).  We would be spending most of our time in the city, so driving didn’t make much sense.  I was surprised to see that all Japanese cars are right side steer and they drive on the “wrong” side of the road.

Logistics in foreign, non-English speaking countries can be daunting.  Upon landing we needed to clear Japanese customs.  This was rather simple and took almost no time at all.  I was happy to get a Japanese stamp in my passport.

Next up was a change of clothes.  In order to fly “non-rev” on United in first class, we were required to wear long pants and a shirt with a collar.  Soon I was in shorts and a Gonzaga University t-shirt.  With daytime temps in the 70s, this attire was very comfortable.

We would be riding the train and then the subway to our downtown hotel.  I had reserved the “b Nagoya” hotel for our stay via www.sidestep.com.  I reserved the room for two people, although we had three in our party.  J.J.’s friend, Matt was joining us on the trip.  Matt was J.J.’s flight instructor a couple of years ago and now flies for Express Jet, a regional airline that works with Continental Airlines among others.  Express Jet is headquartered in Houston.  It was nice to have Matt along for the trip.

Let me say that buying train tickets when most of the instructions are in Japanese is not the easiest thing in the world to do.  On this trip, J.J. is in charge of logistics such as these.  Normally, I run my own logistics program.  I must say it was nice and relaxing to have someone else doing most of the legwork.  However, as with all good things, there can be a drawback.  When you’re not doing your own planning, you don’t learn as much.

In order to buy train tickets, you need money.  We figured we would just use credit cards.  Wrong!  We were surprised at how few merchants and machines accepted plastic.  That meant we would be using ATMs.  We did not bring any Japanese currency with us on the trip.

Sometimes our ATM cards worked in the Japanese ATMs and sometimes they did not.  After a while we came to look at the ATMs as if they were slot machines.  When they “paid off” we were happy.

The Japanese currency uses the Yen.  Right now one U.S. dollar can buy about 113 Yen.  When we saw a price in Yen, we simply moved the decimal point two positions to the left.  As an example, an item that cost 10,000 Yen converted in our lingo to $100 U.S.  In actuality, this example would convert to about $88.50, but we figured we were close enough for government work.  The smallest paper bill in Yen is the 1,000 Yen bill.  This meant we frequently had a good deal of change in our pockets.  Some of the Japanese coins have holes in their center.

I don’t really know how J.J. and Matt were able to decipher the train ticket situation.  I was off taking pictures of the airport.  However, soon we were seated on one of the more luxurious trains I have ever ridden on.  We would discover the train even had a flat screen TV monitor that gave us the same live time picture the train’s conductor was seeing.

However, we quickly found out we were on the wrong train!  We were on the right train to take us downtown, but we had unreserved tickets (peasants) and we were seated in the reserved section.  Soon our fellow passengers began entering our train car and sitting in their reserved seats.  By the time we realized our error, it was too late to switch.  Of course, J.J. and I are Lewis’.  We knew immediately, we could extricate ourselves from this situation by simply pleading ignorance if it came to that, and it did.

Soon, the train’s ticket agent appeared.  He stood at the head of the car in a very neat brown uniform and said several words in Japanese.  He might have been saying, “If you don’t have reserved tickets, you’re idiots and need to get your butts out of here right now”.  After whatever he was saying was finished he put his hands together in a praying motion and bowed his head toward us. 

When he approached our seating area, he immediately surmised we were U.S. ner’do’wells’ who had the wrong ticket.  Not to worry.  A simple “fare adjustment” was all that was needed and we were on our way.  The train ride lasted about 40 minutes.  The train dropped us in Nagoya station, which is the center of the Nagoya subway system.

We each had a rolling luggage bag that made moving around fairly easy.  I also had my briefcase and laptop.  This was less convenient as we had steps, both up and down, in the subway to negotiate.  This meant a decoupling of bag and briefcase each time we encountered steps.

We were hitting the subway at just about rush hour.  The Japanese people that we encountered were a well-groomed and well-dressed populace.  They are slight of build.  I’m not sure I saw a Japanese person who was overweight during our entire trip.  The men all wore dark suits.  The woman wore lots of knee high boots and/or knee socks.  Everyone was quiet and kept to themselves.  They didn’t seem to be too surprised that “three white guys” who looked like they “weren’t from around here” were in their presence. 

We bought all day subway passes for 850 Yen.  The subway proved an excellent way to get all around the city.  Our hotel was just two subway stops and a two-block walk away.  By the way, we walked a lot on this trip.  The average person walks 3 M.P.H.  We walked at least 2-3 hours everyday.  You can do the math.

Our hotel was modern and reasonably priced for Japan.  We paid about $130 per night.  I am told that Tokyo is much more expensive.  When J.J. visited Tokyo, he slept overnight in “pods” to save money.  Pods are something like expanded coffins that include a small TV.  Pods are often located in “capsule” hotels.  Check them out at http://www.links.net/vita/trip/japan/lodging/capsulehotel/.  J.J. told me that we could save money in Nagoya by sleeping in pods for $25 per night.  I told him I didn’t mind picking up the room expense since he had gotten us here on first class airline tickets!

Our hotel room was not large, but I’ve seen smaller in New York.  We had two beds that each might have been close to a double bed in size.  We were staying on the 13^th floor.  This gave us a view of the backs of several urban buildings. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see we had a fridge and a flat screen TV monitor.  The only English-speaking channel was CNN.  They told about the California wildfires that were just starting.  We also had free internet access, which came in handy.

The bathroom was the most unusual.  It was small.  It was also mostly plastic.  Standing on the bathroom floor or in the bathtub while taking a shower reminded me of being in an RV.  The toilet was unusual.  When I sat down on it, water began to run inside the toilet bowl.  I don’t know if they were trying to get me in the mood or just preparing for the inevitable.

After checking in on Tuesday night, it was time to find somewhere to eat.  I always notice American branded restaurants when I travel internationally.  I don’t want to eat in them; I just want to observe them.  It took us a long time to see the very first.  During our entire travels, we saw a few McDonalds and a couple of Denny’s.  We also saw two Mister Donuts that we (I?) had a hard time passing up.

The boys wanted sushi.  Although I like most kinds of foods, I am not a big fan of sushi.  Our first stop was at a very small Japanese ma and pa eatery.  The place had about five tables.  J.J. and Matt were alerted to this place when they saw what appeared to be “dollar beers”.  These guys are economy travelers.  It turned out that the beer special was being offered “tomorrow” night.  Just our luck! 

Nevertheless, we entered and were required to remove our shoes.  We sat on pillows provided at our table.  We enjoyed Japanese beer and some sort of “chicken on a stick”.  This was a pleasant first Japanese dining experience.  It really didn’t seem like it was 4 a.m. in the time zone we had just left.

We walked around a bit in what felt like a very safe environment.  Even though several of the streets were dark we never saw or heard anything that made us fearful like we might have in most American big cities.  The city was as neat as a pin.  We ended up stopping at another Japanese café for some fried rice.  I was surprised to learn that most eateries of this type serve Coca-Cola but not Diet Coke.