Spontaneous Scribbles: Japan Day 1--Travel

Well, we have all arrived safely in Japan. There were a few near misses (no trip is complete without them), but we made it through and I’m sitting at a table with Anna Schortmann, Ethan Hunter, and Mike Gilbert in the downstairs of the Nozomi center.

Ethan and I are the designated chefs for the duration of our stay here, and killing time trying to make the internet work before we need to start on breakfast.

But back to near misses. Wednesday night as I was packing, it suddenly occurred to me that I would need my passport. It’s one of those things that’s so obvious you assume you’ve already taken care of it—like inviting your best friend to a party at your house: of course she’s invited, so you must have already told her about it, right? Well, I meandered over to the drawer that I always keep it in and discovered that it was not in fact there. I did, however, find my international driver’s license (the one I didn’t get to use last year because Uncle Brian had to be chivalrous all the time—David Moore did let me drive once, though, bless him), and discovered that it’s valid for a year from the date I got it (August 23^rdof last year). Hooray!

Anyways, after searching in all the obvious places I told the boyfriend it was time for emergency prayer while I kept searching.

“Got it,” he said.

Thirty seconds later I found my passport under my bed.

I’m a big fan of the prayers that get answered in less than a minute. The prayers that take years to get answered “yes,” or “no” teach one patience and trust in God. The ones that get answered in thirty seconds make one all excited about the POWER OF GOD. I have now experienced both.

Passport tragedy averted, I experienced no other airline problems until we were all on our flight from Atlanta, GA, to Narita-Tokyo. Then I was just completely miserable for over 14 hours. A combination of antsyness from sitting still for so long, plus air sickness, made for a very long bout of grossness. Our flight was supposed to be 13 hours and 40 minutes, but ended up being 42 minutes later than expected. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing… until you realize that we got into Narita-Tokyo at 4:42pm (Japan time), our flight from Tokyo to Sendai was supposed to leave at 6:20pm, and we still had to go through customs, exchange our money, pickup our bags, check them in, then get bused to our flight. Losing 42 minutes was a huge blow to this process. Also I accidentally left my pillow and blanket in one of the customs sections and had to ask a nice Japanese flight attendant to go back and find it for me, which she kindly did.

Due to this time constraint we had what would have been a brief but hilarious comedy scene consisting of a slow-motion montage of our team jogging through the airport alongside some similarly-tardy, neatly dressed Japanese businessmen, their ties and our tongues flying in the breeze while elegant and smiling airline hostesses urged us on. To add a more serious tone, the theme music from Chariots of Fire could be playing, and anyone watching would be swept up into the drama and excitement that combined desperation and hope can bring.

This rush is also why I did not update anybody on the fact I’d made it to Japan alive (sorry, Garrett!)

We made the flight. Instead of the dreadful 7 hour drive from Tokyo to Sendai that we had to make last year, we hopped on a plane and were in Sendai in under an hour. It was a glorious relief. Cal and Edie Cummings, Yui-san, and some other people met us at the airport and drove us to the Nozomi center. It is beautiful. It seems so much bigger now, what with the walls, floors, and furniture, and everything. Cal and Yui took us through the “Rules of the House” and some of what our schedule will be like. Anna and I find it very different from last year, which was basically a “fly by the seat of our pants” sort of affair. This time around we have official jobs and everything. I ended up volunteering for cooking duty with JB and Ethan. Ironic, since I normally do not enjoy cooking. I do, however, sort of enjoy the power that comes with the title. Also, this is a very grateful crew.

Well, we are heading out to work in some strawberry fields and a private garden today. Cheers!

EDIT: Pictures!

Thursday in Atlanta, I meet the first of the team... Ed Pearce, Ethan Hunter, Jo Pearce, and Ben Schweitzer.

Ben practices on the keyboard... IN THE NOZOMI CENTER. I remember passing bags full of tsunami sludge out of that window on the left while standing on 2x4 boards.