On 7/7/2012, after giving our children kisses and hugs, we left them in the hands of their Aunty Karen and Grandma Newville. With our hearts full of anticipation and excitement, we arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Our plane was expected to take off at 1pm to Detroit, and then from Detroit to Haneda, Japan.
However, as we were sitting in the plane waiting for the final plane engine check, we heard the announcement that there was a mild electrical problem that has to be resolved first. We waited patiently, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and ....... We were worried that we will miss the connecting flight. Finally 3 hours later at 4pm, we reboarded plane and we were waiting to take off for the second time. Then, unexpectantly, the pilot made the announcement that due to weather and wind conditions, the airport has shut down and no plane was allowed to fly or take off, and we were number 28 in line waiting to take off. At this time, we knew that we would miss our connecting flight to Japan.
There were a few small children in the plane, who were amazinglky behaving so well even though they have waited around all day like us. They reminded me of my own children and wondered will my children be as patient as these children if they were here with us.
We sat in the plane for another two hours. Finally at 6:00pm, the plane plane was ready to take off for the third time and we were saying prayers that there would be no engine problem again. We finally arrived at Detroit at around 9:30pm Eastern time. We had to reschedule the connecting flight to Narita, Japan to the next day afternoon. Delta Airline provided us a room at Best Western, meal tickets and upgraded our seat for the next flight to Economy Comfort with more leg rooms.
7/8/02 Our plane took off on-time today. Thank God and all your prayers, it was uneventful compared to yesterday. We had three meals served and watched four movies on the plane. Surprisingly, I did not get air sick as I had anticipated. (The new Dramamine works good for me, minimum air sickness and non-drowsy compared to the original Dramamine Fomula. I will definitely continue to take some with me for future traveling. I may be brave enough to get on a cruise in the future) Jim, however, experienced some GI issues and did not feel so good.
Twelve-and-a-half hours later, we arrived at Narita, Japan. The next adventure was to try to get to Tokyo station and get to our hotel, which is about 1 hr away by express train. We exchanged the JR railpass and got on the Tokyo Express. The express train ride was a lot rougher than I had imagined. When we arrived at Tokyo station, I could only describe this place as a living maze with people going in all directions. We followed the EXIT signs and successfully navigated ourselves out from the maze. Then we took a TAXI from the station to the hotel.
Wow, what a long two days of traveling and we were totally exhausted.
Tomorrow, we will be traveling to Tono, where the volenteer base is and I will continue to tell you the story. Please continue to keep us in your prayer.
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