Last Friday on UA's NRT-SFO flight I did the "here's the baggie" at the mandatory jetway search. Security did a cursory look inside the carry on, handed me back my baggie, and I was on my way.

What I can't help wondering is why there's a difference between NRT / HKG and, say, GRU? I flew out of GRU on UA a month ago and could buy duty free alcohol - it was delivered to the gate. I flew out of HKG on UA last week and couldn't buy DF (DF clerk said "only CX"). Who's making the decision at each airport - airport security authorities or UA?

What is the deal with GRU? I just called AA and was told that no liquids (DF, or not) or gels were allowed on board.

A little bit of Japanese (from an apparent Gaijin) seems to go a looong way at the security and "liquid screening" checkpoints in Japan. If you can get a couple phrases down - even hello and thank you - this may help disarm them enough to make them more cooperative and friendly with your bag.

During a recent gate check at Narita, a forced "Excuse me please, do you have liquids?" met with my "kore dake" (pointing to my Freedom Baggie) and a cheap smile seemed to do the trick, as I got a very cursory look at the outside of my bag and I was done.

On the other hand, I saw in the discard bins things like bottles of water, small containers, and even Chapstick-type lip balms. Clearly, not the model of consistency. Does anyone even know what they're looking for??!

I have experienced secondary gate searches (starting in 2002 to present) ranging from the full luggage check / pat-down to the current liquid search at SIN, HKG, NRT, and ICN only when flying on US carriers. Consistently and without exception, if I flew on an Asian carrier (like SQ, OZ, or NH), there was no secondary gate check. This does nothing to make me safer, and does make me cringe at having to fly US-based carriers to Asia. (Especially true in light of the generally better service I get on the aforementioned Asian carriers).

A classic example of this lunacy with regard to Asian airports and American carriers was the immediate aftermath following the liquid ban and subsequent Freedom Bag regulations: an entire section of the HKG terminal that housed United Airlines gates was roped off and all passengers on UA had to undergo liquid screening that was comprised of standing in line for 15-20 minutes, and then having your bags searched by hand meticulously. Even my Chapstick tube was opened (yuck!) and analyzed by the screener. I'm surprised he didn't taste my eye drops.

Hmmm... Why don't we write "Kip Hawley is a bakayaro" on our Freedom Baggies?

If you check an English -> Japanse translator put in the name as single string
"Kip Hawley"
it will yield
"bakayaro"

:D

Romanji might be better than a hybrid of English and Japanese.

Bablefish choked on "Hawley" (perhaps it's profanity? ;) ) but gave me:

キップは愚かである

which translated back to "the kip is foolish".

I don't know enough Japanese to improve on this translation.

The kanji/hirigana for "stupid" (foolish) is: 愚か

Kip is キップ, which is just transliterated into Katakana, but also happens to be the Japanese word for ticket (like airplane ticket).

Hawley has to also be transliterated (just the sounds turned into Katakana) so Babelfish can't do it. The way to write it is ハーリー。

は愚かである means something like "is a fool". Normally in this case you would use Katakana for Baka, and you can shorten it to just はバカだよ！
　
Giving you: キップ。ハーリーはバカだよ！ (say it "kippu harley wa baka da yo!")

I would translate this into English as "Kip Hawley is an idiot!"