We woke up early Tuesday morning to get started with our very long day of travel. We spent some time saying our goodbyes to the Henderson's and then headed out the door not knowing the adventure that awaited us. We got to the train station to get on the train that would take us to the airport.
The thought had not occurred that we would be going to the airport during rush hour on the trains. Just to say the train was packed would not describe the situation we found ourselves in.
The train was so full that when the doors opened there was no space to step in. When the first train came we were quickly disheartened and abandoned our futile attempt to breach the human shield that faced us. We regrouped and decided to split up between the different train cars so that we had the best chance of everyone getting on. To get on the train, we had to push to barely get in so that the doors could close and then still more people would push there way into the train at the other various stops. You had almost no control of where you ended up on the train. You had to just go where you were pushed and somehow there was always more room.
When we got on the train Sam Katon was not able to get on, but his flight did not leave till the evening. This was the last we were able to see him before leaving and were not able to get a proper goodbye. The rest of us got off on our first train stop to transfer to our final train to the airport. Myself, Shari and Christin were able to push onto the train, but Jackson, Charis and Alvin were not able to. They waited for the next train. We were already running a little later than we had wanted. Shari, Christin and I successfully made it to the airport. Once we arrived Alvin realized that the train they got on was in fact not heading to the airport.
The 3 of them finally got back on track to the airport while Christin, Shari and I started to check in and head through security. I decided to wait for the other 3. They arrived with enough extra time to not have to rush to our gate....or so we thought. There was an issue checking them in and it took a lot of time. By the time we had everything finished and were heading for security we had just a little bit of time before the boarding process for our flight started. Thankfully God was gracious and we got through security very quickly and made it to our gate just as the boarding started.
Sounds like the fun should end there right? Well hold on it keeps going. We got on the very uneventful 13 hour flight to New York ready to get home. Once in New York we all made it through customs and security easily, except Shari who almost wasn't allowed through because of her ticket name not matching her passport name (totally my fault). Thankfully they allowed her through. We then had a couple of hours before our flight left. The time finally came to board our flight and we all got on and were excited to finally get home! Then we waited and waited and waited. Turns out ATC could not find a route for our flight to take through all the storms. We had to head back to the terminal and get off the plane. After a little bit they seemed to think were would finally be able to take off so we all loaded back on the plane and waited again. After almost an hour or 2 they finally cancelled the flight and there was no flight that we would be able to take until Thursday afternoon and we really wanted to get home. We wanted to try to rent a car and drive home through the night. This was almost an identical repeat of our flight home last year including Mark Groman driving to Cleveland and waiting for us only for it to get cancelled. Thanks Mark!!
Turns out that flights have been getting cancelled like this for over a week here. Which meant that all the rental cars and nearby hotels had been booked already. We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out our plan. After taking the New York metro we ended up getting a hotel in downtown Manhattan, right near Times Square. The difference from a big city like Tokyo and Manhattan is quite noticable! After finding a late night dinner we headed over to Times Square to walk around for a little bit.
We got back to the hotel to get some sleep, hopeful that in the morning we could find a rental car and drive back home. One bonus day on this trip is more than enough for us! At this point it had been around 30 hours since we left the Airbnb in Tokyo and we all had had very little sleep. Shari and I got up early Wednesday morning and walked to a couple of the nearest rental car companies all of who were completely booked. We were finally able to find a couple online at the Newark airport. Online they only showed smaller cars, so we reserved two.
We called an Uber and headed to the rental company. Once at the rental company they had one large SUV left so we were able to change our reservation and all drive home in the same vehicle. After picking everyone else up from the hotel we started on our 11 hour drive home.
It was a very uneventful drive which if you know all the goings on on this entire trip, that seems like a surprise. There was plenty of laughs reminiscing over all the events from the past two weeks. All in all it was a fun drive home. We met up with Charis' mom along the way, so she could get home. We were back down to the original 5 that left Cornerstone a little over two weeks ago. We finally arrived at Cornerstone by 10pm and all parted ways to get home and get some much needed sleep. We miss everyone we met in Japan, but are glad to be home.
God has been so good and we are grateful for all of your prayers! We can't wait to see everyone and tell you more about the trip. Till then - Matthew Somers
