We met at Biola at 8:30 ish and were off for the airport shortly after our target time of 9am. We were all there by 10:30, checked in by 11 and through security and waiting by the gate by 11:30. Relatively painless for such a large group.
We boarded right on time at 1:10. Japan airlines was very efficient and we loaded quickly. The plane was a 2-4-2 configuration (787) with a lot of seats empty. Many of the middle four seats had only 1 or 2 people in them. This was as empty as I have seen it in my 12 trips. So our whole team got to sit together whereas in past years it was more split up. We took off at 1:50 and were served our first meal at 3:15. This would have been 7:15am if we were in Japan time. The meal you see in the picture (main course) was what they called “Ketchup Chicken”. Didn’t taste that much like it, but it was good. Uneventful flight (hardly any turbulence). The 2nd meal was served about 9:15pm (or 1:15pm Japan time the next day). We made it to Tokyo about 4:30 and had to catch a connecting flight to Nagoya. Between deplaning, getting our luggage, re-checking in and making it to the gate, we actually had to call the gate and ask them to wait. Japan airlines employees were absolutely wonderful through this whole process. This second flight seemed harder in some ways. Everyone was tired from the first long flight and when we got on the plane, the air wasn’t working and it was rather stifling. To add to it, the plane was another 20 minutes before it pulled out and then another 20 minutes of taxiing down the runway. At times it felt like we were going to drive to Nagoya. Anyway, the flight was only 45 minutes and we were met at the airport by Pastor Hasui who had a bus to take us to Iwata. The bus ride was 1 hour 40 minutes, so we didn’t get to the church until almost 11pm. The bus could not fit in front of the church (as the streets are so small), so it parked in the usual spot about 2 mins walk away. Pastor Hasui’s wife Keiko met us at the bus with her van to be able to load all the luggage that was either the big team stuff and/or ones that weren’t on wheels. The rest we wheeled to a 2-min walk to church. No evening meal, no showers, just a quick evening meeting and off to bed. The men are sleeping on the 2nd floor, Paul in Pastor Hasui’s office, and Gil & Brett in the little room off the kitchen. The ladies are in the sanctuary where the pews get turned front-to-front and makes a little bed to put the futon (foo-tone) on. Will show pictures of sleeping arrangements tomorrow. There is no video montage today as not enough happened to make one. I did include one video though, taken about 5:30 this morning. It gets light very early, as shown by the sunrise picture taken about 4:30 and the video about 5:30. The video just shows a panorama of the street the church is on, but the point was for you to hear the noise of the cicadas. They are really loud and were going at least by 4:30. It is constant all the time.
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