Imagine an oblong balloon that's longer than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet and has a small glass bowl of a passenger compartment dangling precariously from its underbelly. Despite the slogan "Fly with me" emblazoned along its length, the Zeppelin NT didn't look like the most reassuring vehicle in which to entrust your life thousands of feet above terra firma. But this was work.
When I landed this airborne assignment, my editor was presumably (or not!) unaware of the severe vertigo that I experience. But how does a grown man admit that his knees tremble at the mere thought of being atop a ladder a couple of meters off the ground? Nope, I had my pride. I just gritted my teeth and feigned a cheesy grin.
And so, one gorgeous, sunny day last month, I trekked out to the green pastures of Okegawa in northern Saitama Prefecture for my maiden flight aboard the Zeppelin NT, courtesy of the JTB travel agency in west Japan, which is working with the Nippon Airship Corporation to offer 90-minute flights over Tokyo from Nov. 23 (¥126,000 by day; ¥168,000 by night).