Journal - 36 Hour Travel Day

9:00amEastern time - Checked in at Louisville airport and had group prayer for traveling mercies. 
11:09amE - Departed from Louisville airport. Short hop to Detroit.
12:30pmE - Landed at Detroit and ate lunch.
1:45 pmE - Boarded the most ginormous airplane I have ever seen, the largest in Northwest Airline's fleet. We made our way to our seats and were met with pillows, blankets, and headphones provided.
2:15pmE - Departed Detroit.
3:30pmE - Dinner service begins.
4:00pmE - By the time the cart gets to us way in the back, they have run out of the beef dish. We had roasted chicken breast with asiago and parmesan crust, carrot and rice mix, peas and yellow squash, 3 cold shrimp with lemon wedge and cocktail sauce, a tiny salad with tomato and cucumber and creamy italian dressing, roll with butter, hot green tea, and Pepperidge Farm brussels cookies. Surprisingly tasty and filling!
4:20pmE - We realized that since we were flying westward, with the sun, it would not actually get dark during our flight. We discussed our Sunday outing to Matsushima.
5:20pmE - The flight attendants asked everyone to close their window shades, darkening the main cabin considerably. First movie begins. "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". Some watched, but I have already seen it so I napped.
7:35pmE - Second movie begins. "Dan in Real Life". We decided to not watch that one. So we talked some more
8:05pmE - Snack time. Mini sub sandwich with swiss cheese and meat of ambiguous origin, Dijonaise, and Oreo cookies (strangely served with water, not milk...).
8:50pmE - Second movie is over. We girls chat and work on crocheting scarves.
9:30pmE - Third movie. "27 Dresses". Cute chick flick.
11:15pmE - Movies are all over. Nap time.
2:00amE - When I wake up, I decide to switch to Japan time. It is 3:00pmJ. Breakfast is served. Omelet with colby cheese (airplane eggs have a most unusual texture...), roasted potatoes, sausage links, fresh fruit (again with the strange texture), blueberry muffin, orange juice, green tea.
3:45pmJ - Land at Tokyo-Narita Airport. Went painlessly through customs. (Evie's 30 copies of The Jesus Film made it through! Praise the Lord!) We meet up with ML and JY, who were on an earlier flight through Chicago.
5:12pmJ - JR Rail Line to Nippori Station. We got our first view of Japan from this train - adorable little houses with the coolest roofs, huge apartment buildings, flooded rice paddies with little plants just starting to shoot up, huge bicycle parking lots, and some car dealerships with names I recognized (Subaru, Mazda, Suzuki...)
6:10pmJ - We arrive at Nippori and take a second train on a short hop to Ueno Station. Once there, we play cards and have a snack while waiting on our Shinkansen.
7:15pmJ - We board our Shinkansen (bullet train) and discover that the reason we got such good ticket prices is that we did not get reserved seats. We smush up together with all of our luggage in the passageway connecting two train cars, because the cars themselves are packed. A woman with a snack cart (similar to those you see on airplanes) comes through the cars, offering beverages, snacks, and gifts for purchase. We have to shuffle around so that she can go to another car. I love this photo that I took from the platform:
8:00pmJ - The cars empty considerably at a station stop, so we stow our luggage and find seats.
9:05pmJ - We arrive at Sendai Station.
9:30pmJ - Our host arrives with two friends. We are driven to UpTen, the guys house. We spot some interesting stores along the way, like White Wine (which turned out to be a laundromat), Steak & Hamburg, Mos Burger, Shop 99 (like a Dollar Tree), Dog Hair Works: Trimes, Goo (looked like an ice cream stand), Java: Wash Amuse (car wash at a gas station), KFC ($10 for a meal! Yikes!), a normal-looking McDonald's, and a beautifully fancy bistro-style McDonald's. We arrived at UpTen and I was made painfully aware of my status as a giant ;-)
10:25pmJ - We girls go to the girls house, but our host has misplaced the key and we can't get in. We discover that both houses are *very* near the university campus.
10:30pmJ - We go back to UpTen. We haven't eaten since "breakfast" on the plane, so we all go to a cafeteria-style restaurant near campus called Handa Ya. I had white rice and a little bowl of something that tasted remarkably like Mom's beef stew (beef, potatoes, carrots, onion, with some ginger on top).
11:30pmJ - We all return to UpTen. The guys offer to give us their beds upstairs, and they took sleeping bags downstairs. They said they were "camping". Such kindness! We will get the key situation worked out on Saturday.
MidnightJ - Bedtime. We all fall asleep quickly.

All in all, we had a wonderful, although long, travel day. Looking forward to all of the sights and tastes that the weekend brings us.