June 13--Arrival in Japan!

After a 10 1/2 hour flight and crossing the international dateline, we arrived at Narita International Airport at about 2:15 p.m. Need I say that the flight was looooong???? Luckily, I was seated in Economy Plus (along with some other JFMFers), so I probably had a little more room than a lot of people.

This trip is extraordinarily well-organized. After going through passport control, we saw a series of people with JFMF signs, pointing us in the right direction. I kept waiting for someone to say "Follow the yellow brick road!". There was no way that anyone could have gotten lost! Our groups assembled and buses took us to the Akasaka Prince Hotel in Tokyo. Our luggage was taken on a truck and delivered to our rooms (I'm used to hauling luggage on buses, into the hotel, up stairs, etc, so to me, this is true luxury!).

Our Aizuwakamatsu group was on a bus with the group that will go to Kesennuma and the woman who will be their group coordinator was with us. On the ride to the hotel, she gave us some information about Japan. Did you know that the country is about the size of California, but while California has a population of around 35 million, the population of Japan is about 127 million! The Tokyo metropolitan area has a population of about 31 million!