I have been writing regularly about how other people have been using Skype to stay in touch.

'This post is about my son David, the Chicago editor of the Onion's Decider.

This morning at about 6:45 .m. Chicago time the phone ran. The wake-up call was from David.

He was calling on SkypeOut to our suburban Chicago landline from Tokyo to let us know he had arrived safely and to share first impressions of Tokyo. He could just as easily have called my mobile.

My wife Judi marveled afterward at how wonderful this is for parents. I recently recounted the Boston area mom who wrote about staying in touch with her daughter in Africa on Skype.

As David would say, per Seinfeld, Skype is super, terrific happy--and inexpensive or free.

Follow David's journey in Japan at his superterrific blog.