Chitose Air Show

This morning Kawagishi-san took me to the Chitose Air Force base to see the annual air show. He worked there for 30 or more years so he knew a lot of people. He even showed me his old office, which surprisingly didn’t have air conditioning.

Kawagishi-san’s plan was to park in a Pachinko-ya’s parking lot about 3km away from the base. His reasoning was that we’d be stuck in traffic for hours trying to get in. He was right about the traffic, but geez it was a long walk in the 45 degree heat, especially on the way back.

It was awesome seeing the F-15 Eagle up close. That’s the plane Ai’s father used to fly. The Americans also put on a great show with their F-16 Falcon doing some tricks. The Japanese also made a modified version of the F-16 and called it the F2.

I got sunburnt since I forgot to put sunscreen on and the temperature got up to 45 degrees during the day, and 100% humidity. The rain was threatening all day, but thankfully the Blue Impulse stunt planes got to fly.

I really enjoyed the show, but it also made me hungry to see more. It made me miss San Francisco’s Fleet Week, where the Blue Angels fly around for a couple days and I even saw a B-2 stealth bomber. The Americans get more freedom to do impressive stunts at lower levels than the Japanese.

As I mentioned before, the walk back to the car was quite a journey and very hot.

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