Arriving in Tokyo

After a 12-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, we arrived in Tokyo safe and sound.  The flight path of the airplane from Denver to Tokyo is kind of strange.  We actually flew north from Denver (we thought we'd fly pretty much straight west), through the panhandle of Idaho, into Canada and along the edge of Alaska.  By the time we got to Tokyo, we had flown very near Russia!  We ate three meals on the plane, read, and watched movies.

We arrived at the airport to this cool welcome sign.  It was on the wall in the hallway on the way from our arrival gate to the customs area.

We had to go through customs where they check your passport, take your fingerprints, and take a photo of you!  Then, once we got our bags, we had to fill out a form telling the Japanese agents what we had in our bags, and then we went through another quick checkpoint.

Also at the airport we exchanged some of our dollars for yen.  Can you figure out how many yen we got for $100?

We rode a bus for about an hour and half from Narita Airport to our hotel, the New Sanno Hotel.  The New Sanno is a hotel for US military personnel and those civilians who work for the US Department of Defense.  The security is pretty tight, so Pam and I had to have a "sponsor."  Our sponsor is an instructional facilitator for the DoDEA school district of Japan.  She came from Yokota Air Base to be here when we arrived so we could get into the hotel.  We always have to have our passports and paperwork with us in order to get back in once we leave the hotel.

On our way we say these umbrella stands outside one of the hotels.  As you can tell, it rains a lot more in Tokyo than it does in Wyoming:-)

We also drove past Tokyo Disney Resort!  It was pretty awesome.  It had a huge castle in addition to all the rides and attractions.  We also drove past two HUGE ferris wheels.  Pam took this picture of one of them.  As you can tell, it was a bit overcast yesterday afternoon.

Alright, Pam and I better get going so we don't waste our Friday in Tokyo!  We are meeting our friend Jill, from Wheatland, at noon today.  We'll write to you later with an update.