Feb. 22: Home again!

One last early morning and trip to the konbini, where we picked up some breakfast and lunch items:

Then we were on our way to the airport that we thought would put us on our flight back home.  However, as one of our students put it, "We were done with Japan, but Japan was not done with us!"

When we reached the Nagoya airport and tried to check into our flight from Nagoya to Tokyo, we were told that it was six hours delayed, and we would never make the Tokyo to San Francisco connection.  Thinking fast, Hurley Sensei calculated that we could make the Tokyo flight, just maybe, if we quickly caught a series of trains taking us from Nagoya to Tokyo instead.

Thus at 10:00 AM we began our long series of train connections, sometimes making it with only a few minutes to spare.  The highlight was a spectacular view of Mt. Fuji on the Nagoya Station to Tokyo JR train:

At 2:45 PM, we arrived at the Tokyo airport, ran up the stairs and asked to check into our flight, which was scheduled to leave at 3:30 PM.  The airport staff was so kind and efficient that we were able to check in our bags in just a few minutes; and good luck must have been with us, because there were no lines at security or at immigration.  When we ran onto the plane, everyone was already seated and ready go to; as soon as we sat down, the door closed.

Hurray!  Hurley Sensei was very proud of the group for focusing and making that fast, difficult 5-hour train ride with the multiple tight connections.  We were so happy to be on our original flight and not waiting in the Tokyo airport.

So, happy and tired, we made it home.

Feb. 14-15: And We're Off!

The day started early at 9:00 in the morning, gathering in front of Northwest Airlines at San Francisco airport.  Impressively, most of the students and families arrived at the airport early, getting our trip off to a great start.

Hurley Sensei ran around doing paperwork and helping us get frequent flier miles for this whopping flight, while we mingled, spent time with our families, and filled out luggage tag information with the name of our youth hostel in Osaka.  Finally the Northwest desks asked for our bags, and we began saying goodbye to our parents.

Mr. Hurley rounded us up for a final word about being on our toes during this trip -- we don't want to waste any of our precious Japan time waiting for people to stop their conversations during important announcements!  And we also don't want to miss any information that might be crucial to our safety or our comfort.  Although it took us a couple of times to get our responses to Mr. Hurley's whistle-summons fast enough for his liking, eventually we figured it out.

Security was busy as always, but when we finally got to the gate we were happy to sit for a while.  Mr. Hurley reviewed our plans for the next couple of days one more time, and then we had a whole half an hour before boarding.  We walked around the airport, picking up food or water, or just stretching our legs.

Finally time to board!  On the plane we were all seated near each other and Mr. Hurley.  The flight was long, but each seat had its own movie screen with options to play games, watch movies of our choice, or listen to music.  You could even send an email (with a quick swipe of your credit card...)!

As we neared Tokyo airport, we were surprised to see the sunlight streaming through the plane windows.  Apparently our plane was chasing the sun, moving in the same direction, so although it was after 11:00pm to our California-acclimated bodies, it was a bright 4:45pm in Japan.

The first longer flight connected with another shorter one, which took us from Tokyo airport to Nagoya airport.  In the Nagoya airport, we took some time to exchange our money and purchase rail passes, then took a train from the airport to Nagoya Station, where our hotel was.  Upon reaching the station, we walked to the Chisun Hotel and collected to debrief for the next day.

Our job that first night was to pack our small bag so that we could survive for the next night without needing our larger suitcases.  Our Chisun hotel rooms put us in pairs, and the rooms were clean, small, and efficient -- the bathroom unit was barely big enough to turn around in, but had everything that we could possibly need.  Happy to be in Japan, we fell asleep.