Arrival! June 16

Whew! No one told me that a 12 hour flight could be so grueling! Up at 5:30 am, at the airport by 7:30 am, our flight left for Chicago at 10:40 am....and that was the easy part! We had a three hour layover at O`Hare and then boarded a Japanese Airline flight bound for Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan.

JAL was amazing! Each of the 4oo+ passengers had a persoanl TV screen mounted on the back of the seat in front of us and a set of personal headphones. We could to watch up to 20 movies (some in Japanese of course, with subtitles!, listen to 20 preprogramed music stations, or play video games. It was very cool...but on a 12 hour flight the novelty of it wear's off after about 6 hours. I watched Eight Below, the movie about the husky team stranded in Antarctica. A very good movie, but I was suprised to learn that the story is Japanese in orgin and is based on a true story about a group of Japanese archeologists and their dogs. I intend to watch the original Japanese movie on the flight home!

While I've not flown a lot, I've flown enough to now great service when I get it...and JAL provided the best I ever had. All the flight attendants were Japanese and spoke fluent English as well as Japanese. I had my first opportunity to practice my very limited Japanese. "Konichiwa" "domo arigoto gozaimasu" (thank you very much..polite form) and "sumimasen" (excuse me! I need this one a lot!).

We finally arrived in Narita around 6 pm Tokyo time and processed through immigration and customs in under an hour. Then it was off on a 1.5 hour bus ride through Tokyo to our dormitory at the National Olympic Youth Center on the grounds used in the 1964 Summer Olympics. By the time we arrived I'd had 3 hours of sleep in the past 48 and was largely disoriented and very tired. We got everyone checked in and then it was off to bed. I knew Japanese people were used to less "space" than us, but I was surprised to see my room. It was about 10 feet long and perhaps 4 feet wide...and shaped like an L (upside down). My bed was in the base of the L, my desk in the stem. There was just enough room between the bed and wall to fit my suitcase! I was pleased, however, to have my own bathroom complete with shower and Japanese style tub (more on that later).

By 10 pm I laid my head on my pillow which was foam on one side and some form of husked shell on the other. You could flip your pillow over and the bead were supposed to cooler and would also shape to your neck and head for a more comfortable sleep, but it sure takes some getting used to!