24 Hours of Travel (by Maura)

Getting ready for flight to O'Hare

We started our day of travel at 6:00 am Eastern time on Thursday with a drive to the airport in Charlotte. There was bad weather, so our flight to Dulles got canceled so we caught the next flight to O'Hare in Chicago. At O'Hare we got on a huge plane (a 747) and started our 16 hour journey to Narita International Airport in Tokyo.

The flight was SO long, but we kept ourselves entertained by reading, watching movies, eating, and sleeping. Most of the passengers were Japanese, and the announcements from the pilots were made in Japanese and English.

On flight to Tokyo

We arrived at Narita Airport at 4:30 pm on Friday (local time, which is 13 hours ahead of North Carolina). We went through immigration, where we showed our passports and answered questions. They took my mom's fingerprints, too. Then we went through customs, where we turned in another form saying what we were bringing into the country. My dad, who had been in Japan for 10 days already, was on the other side of customs waiting for us to arrive.

After hugs, we exchanged American dollars for Japanese yen. The exchange rate was about $1 for 100 yen --  a can of soda costs 130 yen here (about $1.30 at home). We bought train passes, and got on a train to head to the apartment we are renting in the Ryoguku neighborhood.

On the 45 minute train ride, we saw a lot of rice paddies (fields) and the suburbs of Tokyo. We had to change trains at Tokyo Station--the busiest train station in the world--during rush hour. There were people everywhere!

We arrived at the apartment, had dinner, and went to bed exhausted but excited about the start of our journey.

Bedroom in Ryoguku apartment

Apartment in Ryoguku