My wife's cousin Reiko just retired after 34 years as a flight attendant for a Japanese airline. Most of those years were on flights to and from America. Japanese passengers are the quietest passengers on Earth. They do not talk to strangers. They do not press the call button, because that would be a bother. When the plane lands, they sit in silence and wait to be told they may stand. Reiko kept a small notebook in her apron pocket for 34 years. The title on the first page, in Japanese, is "Americans at 35,000 feet." I got to read it last week. Here are some pages. DALLAS "By the time we serve drinks, row 34 has shown each other pictures of their dogs. By the time we serve dinner, someone in row 34 has been invited to a wedding." CHICAGO "Three different men stood up to give a young soldier their first-class seat. They argued about it in the aisle. He was asleep in economy before they finished." HOUSTON "A baby would not stop crying. On a Japanese flight, everyone politely pretends nothing is happening. Here, a grandmother three rows back stood up, held out her arms, and said, 'Give him here, sugar. Go eat your dinner.' She walked that baby up and down the aisle for an hour. They had never met. When she gave him back, he was asleep and she was showing him pictures of her grandchildren." OHIO "A man pressed the call button at 3 a.m. I ran. He whispered, 'I just wanted to tell you you're doing a great job.' He was asleep again before I stood up. In 34 years, nobody else has ever pressed the call button to give me something." MONTANA "A cowboy lifted my bag into the overhead bin. I am the crew. He did it anyway. He said his mother would know if he didn't." NEW YORK "Every American thanks us at the door. All of them. One man from Texas shook the captain's hand and asked whether he was available for adoption." Then there's one flight that takes up eleven pages. Chicago to Tokyo. Four hours from landing. A Japanese grandfather, 80, in row 41, flying home from visiting his granddaughter, grabbed his chest and slumped into the aisle. Reiko got on the intercom and asked the question every flight attendant dreads. "Is there a doctor on board?" On a full Japanese flight, she says, that question is followed by a long, polite silence. Everyone hopes someone more qualified will stand up. On this flight, seven people stood up at once. An ER doctor from Chicago. A children's doctor from Atlanta. An ICU nurse from Ohio. A paramedic from Arizona. A retired Army medic, 78, who said, "Vietnam. I still remember." A veterinarian from Iowa, who said, "Technically I'm a horse doctor. But I'm here." And a plumber from Michigan. "I'm not anything," he told Reiko. "But I can hold stuff." For four hours, over the Pacific, they worked on him in the galley. The doctors kept him stable. The nurse ran the oxygen. The paramedic and the Army medic took turns. The veterinarian, a large man, held the IV bag over his head for two hours straight and refused to let anybody take a turn. And the plumber knelt on the galley floor beside the old man and held his hand. Not one word of Japanese. The old man had no English. So the plumber pulled up his photos and showed him fish. Walleye. Bass. A pike so big he had to show it twice. The old man, gray in the face, reached for his own phone and showed him his granddaughter. Then the plumber showed his grandkids. They traded pictures for four hours. On page nine, Reiko wrote one line that I keep coming back to: "The doctors kept his heart beating. The plumber kept him wanting it to." When the plane touched down in Tokyo, an ambulance was waiting at the gate. The old man was alive. And then three hundred passengers started clapping. The Americans started it. Reiko has heard Americans clap when a plane lands a thousand times. She always thought it was a little strange. The pilot can't hear it. The plane doesn't care. That night, after 34 years and something like four thousand landings, Reiko clapped too. The old man is 81 now. He's fine. This spring, he caught his first fish. Ever. He mailed a photo of it to Michigan. It's a very small fish. He sent it twice. America, I know half of you are embarrassed about clapping when the plane lands. Please don't stop. Reiko asked me to pass this along: the crew can hear you.

🎞YouTube One More Day -remix- feat. REIKO, RAN, SEITO, KAIRYU [BMSG FES'25] @reiko__official @mazzel_official #BMSGFES# #OneMoreDay# #SKYHI# @SkyHidaka