The Xenia group on arrival in Tokyo
Unfortunately, Sam was not able to make it onto our plane as his was delayed just long enough to barely miss us. He arrived and left the plane as we started taxiing out of the terminal. We had tried to hold the flight off as long as we could and spent a long time walking between terminals to see if there was anything we could do to get him on our plane. In the end, they switched him to another similar flight and he arrived about 8 hours after we did. Thankfully everyone is here in Tokyo now safely. We are so thankful it worked out without a larger delay. The rest of the time for the Xenia team was spent waiting and flying. The long layover found us all going a little stir crazy and doing a lot of walking in an airport we now know every detail of. When we did finally fly out, we had an 11½ hour flight over the pacific.
We all tried and failed desperately to stay awake for most of the trip as we wanted to get our sleep schedule switched to Tokyo time. We received two meals that were very good and practiced using our chopsticks. When we landed, we went through customs, grabbed our bags, changed some money to yen, and grabbed a train ride to our hotel. Everything went very smoothly and we all got booked into our tiny separate rooms.
Nathan and I got a 4 hour nap and are taking the train back to pick up Sam from the airport. The rest of the team is hopefully getting some well earned rest from the incredibly long time without a bed. Today we plan on sightseeing and exploring Tokyo with Josiah the pastor here.
~ Caleb Dingus on behalf of the Japan Team
Sam Katon on arrival in Tokyo, with Nathan and Caleb
~ Caleb Dingus on behalf of the Japan Team