Japan- DAY 1

OK, I am here. It has been the most unbelievable, unforgettable, Hand of God sort of day. Let me explain.

I crawled out of bed just hours after crawling in on Thursday morning at 3 AM, Nashville time.
Went to the Airport and was told that our flight was cancelled. I thought the lady was joking, but quickly found out that joking wasn't a part of her nature. Thankfully, one of the sweetest ladies in traveling history spent about an hour getting our group of 8 folks rerouted through another airline. I was supposed to head to Washington, D.C. and then head to Tokyo around the world to the right. However, I went to Dallas and around the world to the left. Sort of. Now here's the crazy part. We wound up getting a shorter flight by about an hour. If you've ever spent 13 hours straight on a plane, that last hour becomes very important. But the cool part was, our new flight took us right over the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea------------You know, Home of the Crab Fishing Documentary, Deadliest Catch. Talk about a sweet little touch from the Hand of the Father. We didn't really see much because it was pretty cloudy, but we're able to see a little bit of the retreating ice pack. That was way cool.

I kept catching myself singing on the plain to Dallas. We were seated right in between the engines. "Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story." Apparently isn't everybody else's favorite tune. But it helped me get over the jitters

On the big plane we were served 3 meals. All of which would rank in the "close to Nasty" department. The first meal included a little sushi. YIKES!!! I wanted a new mouth after that one. The big plane was a 777 and here's the stats from our flight:
From Dallas to Tokyo it is like 6450 miles.
The plane hit a high speed of 600 plus MPH.
The outside temp was a toasty -78 degrees.
The Altitude was 38,000 feet.

Pretty cool. And when you think about how the bathroom on the plane is situated, you come away smiling and proud of the fact that you went to the bathroom in speeds of over 600 MPH. That is awesome.

Thankfully, on the big plane we had lots of movies available. I watched 4 on the way over:
The Other Boleyn Girl. A Crappy waste of time.
The Spiderwick Chronicles. OK, but borderline new agey.
Fools Gold. OK.
Second Hand Lions. WAY GOOD.

The Assembly doesn't start until tomorrow morning (Tokyo Time) Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of Paducah. That is making it hard to keep in contact with home. Especially since I was too tight to spend the money on the thing for my phone to make it work over here. I'm stupid. In the future, always pay to have your phone working when you go out of the US.

I'm Jet Lagged out as I write this, it is after 1 AM. Have only slept about 4 hours in the last 48. My hotel is very nice and I will try and get a picture of the toilet. That thing is more high tech than the space shuttle. McDonalds, Wendy's, Subway and a Donut Shop are within a block of the hotel, so, while Japanese food is NASTY, I will not waste away to nothing. My first purchase with yen in Japan was a meal at McDonalds

I've rambled enough for today. Hopefully will get my act together, get some sleep and do this right tomorrow.

He Has Made Me Glad!
Jeff

Oh, I forgot a big funny. When I finally found a restroom in the airport in Japan, I was doing my thing and felt the mop hit my foot. I looked up and there was the cleaning lady. Mopping away. While 20 men utilized the urinals. Talk about WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The stalls we're even crazier. I've been using the bathroom all of my life, and I still have no clue what your were supposed to do in those. They just had like a porcelain hole in the floor. CREEPY! They have certainly taken something that God made easy and upped the level of difficulty.