In Japan!

Sunday - June 2nd, 2013

This is already amazing.

I am at the hotel where I will be lodging most the time I am in Japan.  It's a nice hotel sort of on the outskirts of Tokyo near a neighborhood called Fuchu.  Fuchu station, which I take it is a fairly decent sized station, is close by but there is another station even closer right outside the hotel.

So... if you're going on this trip in the future and you want to find where you are staying on a map, look for Fuchu station, then look one station closer to central Tokyo and you'll see essentially where the hotel is.  Also, the name of the hotel is the Marroad Inn Hotel.

Alex and Dayana and I all took flights from our respective local airports and met in Washington D.C. where we then had a flight together to Japan.  We easily met up in the airport via texts and calls.  Actually, Alex and I just happened to run into each other as our respective flights to D.C. arrived at about the same time.  We found each other looking at the same Departures/Arrivals screen and soon met Dayana near our gate for our flight to Japan. Things started off well as we were all upgraded from economy to "economy plus" seating.  I've got to tell you...  those extra 4 or 5 inches make a big difference on a flight that length.

Now, as the faculty leader, I was curious as to what my responsibilities would be with the students.  The impression that I got was that my job was to make sure they make it to Japan, make sure they get on the right plane heading out of Japan and check in with them throughout the trip to make sure everything was going well.  The rest would be taken care of by Technos.

I seemed a little surprised by that but was reassured it was an accurate assessment of my responsibilities.  Well, as we arrived at Narita airport outside of Tokyo, I was hopeful it was right.  As we made our way out of customs one of the students asked me "Where do we go?"  I said, "When we walk through these doors, I think Technos takes over."   

As we rounded the corner out of customs I was full of hope and a touch of unease.  I was responsible for these two students.  We've been traveling for hours and hours.  I hope this all works...

Well... that was the very last moment that I ever doubted anyone on this trip.  Walking out of customs we were greeted by a half dozen students and faculty from Technos with Hobart and William Smith signs, Technos International Week shirts, and smiles that instantly made us realize we were in good hands.

We met faculty and students from Japan and we met the faculty and students from the other participating institutions.  They even bought us snacks at the airport which was so very nice.

 Koala inspired snack cookies.  Thanks to Yuna Kanai for the gift!

We also met two very important people - Yuji and Sho.

Here's a great picture of Yuji that I took during week two.

An amazing pic of Yuji and Sho taken at the Edo Tokyo Museum during week two.  These guys were great.

Yuji is going to be our group leader for the next two weeks.  Yuji is in a really challenging position.  Yuji is 22 years old.  He just recently graduated college.  He has only been working at Technos for two months.  He was hired to be the group leader after the planned group leader had a bit of an emergency and had to leave.  So, not only has Yuji been trying to pull much of this trip together, he's also been learning the people of Technos.  Everyone he is dealing with is new to him on both ends!

Sho is our tour guide.  When we go on excursions Sho will be leading us through the various sites.  Yuji has a very relaxed demeanor which is probably great for his role as the overall group leader.  Sho on the other hand is very energetic.  He was wonderfully fun to watch at the front of the bus as we drove through Tokyo.  He's very animated and I can already tell that he really loves sharing the highlights of Japan with others.

Dayana, Alex and I were apparently part of the first wave of participants.  A second wave was coming later.  So, after the first five or six schools arrived at the airport we headed to our hotel.  Later that night we all had dinner at the hotel.  Truthfully, everyone was so exhausted that the conversation was fairly labored and tired.  Many of us have been up for 36 hours with only a few hours of sleep on the plane.  However, even though we ate our meal in relative silence, we all were excited for what was already proving to be a great trip.

Students and faculty from various countries all starting to interact together at the airport.