Here in Japan, on the way to Singapore

I am on my way to Singapore to teach another course in the Baruch Overseas Executive Master's program, and find myself spending the night in Tokyo. Our flight from Detroit to Tokyo had to make a landing in Minneapolis-St. Paul because someone on board had a medical emergency. We didn't get much detail, of course, but apparently the passenger had a problem related to diabetes. There was apparently a physician and a nurse on board, so the passenger got good treatment while we were still in the air. We initially were headed to Duluth, but weather issues there meant that we had to go to Minneapolis-St. Paul instead. It turns out that Minneapolis was the better bet for us, because (as one of the flight attendants told us) they had used all of the medical kits on board to treat the passenger, and we would not have been able to get replacements in Duluth, so our flight would probably have sat there for who knows how long. But since we went to Minneapolis, which is a NorthWest/Delta hub, we were able to re-equip the plane more easily. Of course, we also had to re-fuel, since we had to dump a LOT of fuel in order to land (otherwise we would have been too heavy). The pilot said we dumped 30,000 pounds of fuel. We were still heavy when we landed, which meant that we had to wait over an hour for the mandatory "brake cooling period". So eventually we were back in the air, landing in Tokyo about 4 hours late, I think. At first they announced that passengers heading on to Manila would still make their connections, but then they came back and said that they, too, would be staying here overnight.

Everything in Tokyo was very easy and smooth. Quickly through Immigration and Customs, a shuttle to the pre-arranged hotel with a shuttle back in the morning, dinner at the hotel cafeteria and breakfast in the morning, and re-routed tickets waiting when we landed. I was a little surprised on the plane during the medical situation, because the flight attendants were really flustered. I would have thought this was the sort of thing they handled from time to time, but several of them seemed really unsure of what to do.

So for this evening, I am at the Excel Hotel Tokyu, to get a night's rest. Then back to the airport, to finish up the journey to Singapore. Hopefully the next time I check in here, it will be from there.