Planes and Rain: Arriving in Japan

Day one of our trip was a long and tiring travel adventure. Many of us started out the morning waiting an extra hour in the Salt Lake airport because our flight was delayed. Fortunately we all arrived in San Francisco with plenty of time to spare before our international flight to Japan.

The flight over the Pacific ocean went as good as you might imagine. We flew across the big pond on a JAL 747... and our entire group occupied the last 7 rows of the plane. The kind stewardess seemed a little bewildered that nobody in rows 60-67 would taker her up on some coffee or green tea. Most of us passed the time away by reading and watching the movie Bucketlist 2-3 times. The Japanese style meals were interesting as well: Salmon noodle surprise with grapefruit, yogurt, and a roll was my personal favorite. Our flight lasted about 10 hours before finally touching down at Narita airport near Tokyo. We soon made our way through customs and then caught our connecting flight to Kyoto after kicking around the terminal for another couple of hours.

By the time we arrived in Kyota it was well past dark and the rain was coming down pretty hard. Though it was only around 8:00pm local time, most of us had been travelling for over 24 hours. We all made our way into our hotel, the New Miyako, located in the Southern part of the town near the train station. Looking at the itinerary this morning some of us figured we would have some spare time when we arrive do browse around Kyoto.... but fatigue after a long day of travel can put a damper on late-night tourist activities. Virtually all of us immediately head off to bed where we experienced the firm support of a Japanese style mattress.