"Ryan Ginstrom" <ginstrom@hotmail.com> wrote
> "Gerry" <222ggg@adelphia.net.invalid> wrote
> > Jeez!  Are you saying if you *bounce* at LAX, hang for 
> > an hour and leave you still need a visa?  Amazing!
> 
> Yeah, this all changed after 9/11. I remember some Homeland 

When I came (in April) they didn't require a visa but we had to
check-in the luggage again. Some people were searched, had to remove
their shoes, etc. This added about 2 hours to an already quite long
trip.

Later they started to require a visa. Ridiculous.

> Security type going on about how they were going to plug a 
> significant hole in the nation's security, how somebody 
> without a visa could hang out at a US
> airport...

But even before 9/11, we couldn't "hang out" at the airpoirt. 
People without US visas had to stay at a waiting room. Reasonable.

BTW, it shouldn't be news to you, but I was amazed by the contrast
between airport service in US and Japan. In US many workers were not
only unpolite but sometimes downright rude to their "customers" (?).
They seemed to hate their own jobs.
Well, maybe the Japanese also do, but I'd rather cope with gozaimasugo
than swearing.

Rafael