Saturday, May 2, 2009

Pearls after swine

My mother traveled to South Korea recently -- she's still there now -- and since she was transferring at the Tokyo airport, asked if I would maybe like a little pair of pearl earrings as an early birthday gift. Which offer I declined with thanks, but as it turned out, she wouldn't have had time to look at any airport shops. When she got off her plane, she was whisked into a quarantine room and had a thermometer shoved in her ear. So it went for every person off every incoming flight from every swine flu-stricken country. As my dad put it, "Japan, they don't mess around."

ETA: No, apparently my dad got it slightly mixed up. Two guys came on the plane in full Hazmat suits and scanned everyone with those infrared heat-seeking cameras to see whose temp was elevated. Even better.

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