Journals Days 1-2

I am a bit on the tired side due to the fact that I stayed up all night to pack, work on my scrapbook and to get so tired that I will immediatly get on the sleep schedule in Japan. I have already met with my delegation and made it through security, without any incident and am now on my way to San Francisco where I will change planes to land in Japan.

Speaking of Security incidents, I thought I was going to have one this morning. While packing, my Mom asked me if I had checked the airplane baggage requirements sheet she printed off from the People to People website. I hadn't and after checking baggage sizes, I found that my bag was 60 inches and not the limit of 52!!!! Quickly I ran upstairs and checked the United Website. I sighed in relief to see they allowed International flights 62 inches and 70 pounds of weight for each bag. Now that I talked to leaders, I found that some airlines only allow 52 inches so they put in for all.

I have now been on my second plane now for a few hours and while the last flight, I am everything but comfortable. I have a window seat in a 747-400 by United. Where the first class has only 6 seats in one row, we have 10 in coach (3 by 4 by 3). At least I am not in the middle but I have a window seat and now for some reason an overactive bladder. We all have been served our first meal and I had steak. There will still be a snack service and a 2nd meal service all before we land in some 7 hours from now.

There are a few movies on this plane and I will probably sleep through the first few. I am getting excited that I will soon be "invading" Japan.

Well I am in Japan. Tokyo is HUGE!!!! We flew into a suburb of Tokyo that itself is over a 45 minute drive before we hit the city limits. The airport itself is large and like most, under construction. After de-planing, we walked toward customs where we saw signs welcoming us to Japan along with many others in Japanese and other languages. The places look so American the I don't feel as though I left. After waiting in line for customs for around 20 minutes, we got our bags and walked out toward the street where we met our delgation coordinater, kyo. She is very nice and speaks broken english but we don't mind. She helped us out to our bus where we loaded our bags in a U-haul type of car and boarded the bus. Between the bus and the airport, I saw no less than 10 vendingmachines in about 100 yards.

Everyone drives on the left side of the road over here just like in Britian. We drove for over an hour and arrived at our hotel. It is a very western style hotel with beds and toilets (Some places we will sleep on the floor with Futons and use smelly holes in the ground for the ''potty") Dinner was spaggetti in Meat Sauce and was very good! After that we had free time to go to 7-11 and get snacks. I bought a drink and went back to my room where I am now.