I’m writing this a little after midnight in our sleeping room surrounded by a half dozen men sawing logs. Some seem to be getting more done than others (if you know what I mean). We started today out with the group from Iowa, Illinois and northwestern Indiana arriving and getting all introduced up. Rebekah made me a fried egg and I got packed up. We got some basic instructions from our “travel agent”, explanation on her baby bump, and had a prayer for God to watch over us. I plugged in my car and got my luggage out. The full van got fuller.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time, got all checked in and through security without too much hassle. (Waiting for a group member to leave security to dump out a stainless steel jug full of water and go back through wasn’t a hassle for me and neither was waiting for a missing boarding pass and laptop inspection) Eventually we were all through and had most all our stuff. We got to the gate early and roamed to get food or whatever. I worked on the computer stuff (this blog) before getting food. Flight was quick and our connection in Chicago was only like 4 gates down, so some got food while we waited.
The next aircraft we rode was the 787 DreamLiner where we were stuck for the next 13 hrs. Honestly the flight length didn’t bother me much since I could get relatively comfortable. We were in the rear, left section and took up 5 rows; turns out nobody was in the middle seats, which was very nice.
The was a lot of annoying light turbulence on the flight and we changed altitude and course a few times to help reduce it. Here was our final path:
Inflight meals were pretty good. I slept some at the beginning and then read a book and played sudoku the rest of the flight. The sun was setting as we descended into Tokyo and I was able to catch two cool pictures. The one is the sunset across the water, and the other was a super zoomed in photo of Mount Fuji from across the plane.
After landing we went through the border checkpoint and got our visa stamps. Thadd seemingly confused the border agent who asked him to place both index fingerprints on the scanner to which Thadd responded by holding up his hand with half his index finger missing — apparently his middle finger’s fingerprint works. We waited for our checked bags and when I got mine, it was about 1/3 of the way unzipped; doesn’t look like anything is missing.
Another quick pow-wow to get on the same page and then we progressed through customs and on to currency exchange. After getting our Yens we went to pick up our Japan Rail passes and get subway cards. Pow-wowed once again before taking the subway to the station closest to our AirBnB. Supper weird and yet quite nice how quiet it is on the subways! Complete silence from the passengers, hvac, and even the rails when coming to a stop. Super on time too! Great experience and sounds like we’ll take it tomorrow to church too.
We walked from the station to the AirBnB where we all quickly learned how cozy it is. It’s 3 bedrooms and 3 stories. The entrance at ground level has all the shoes. A few steps in and there’s bedroom doors on the right and left. The bedroom on the left has a bathroom connected to it. Straight ahead is a tiny wooden staircase that winds directly up to the second floor where the living room, kitchen and dining area are.
The other bathroom and a washer are on level two also. Going up to the third floor winds up as the roof slopes down, so hitting the ceiling with your head is easy. The upstairs room has 4 mattresses basically on the floor. Hardly room for luggage, but we’ll get by. A few of us went to the 7-11 at the corner of the street and grabbed some beginner snacks/items. We came back, ate some things and talked as people took showers and wound down for the night. We have a lot planned for the trip, so it should be an adventure.
I can’t believe I’m actually in Japan!!
Also, they have so many different cars here. Like cars I’ve never seen! Kei cars are fantastic!
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