Getting to Izumi City

I don’t think it matters how smoothly a trip goes, travelling nearly 7,000 miles in less than 24 hours is a disorientating experience. Becky and I left Chicago on Tuesday February 16 at 10:35 am central standard time and flew to Tokyo Japan arriving 12 hours later where it was mid afternoon. The hospitality onboard Japan Airlines was outstanding, nevertheless we were tired by the time we arrived. The final leg of our trip was a 1 hour flight to Kansai Airport in Osaka Japan. After clearing immigration and retrieving our baggage, we met officials from Izumi City, Ms. Miki Tamura and Mr. Shimizu Kazuo who then took us to meet our host family Mr. and Mrs. Arai. The drive from Kansai to Izumi City is about 40 minutes. At about 8:30 pm local time on Wednesday, February 17. Even though it was early morning to our bodies, our brains and enthusiasm for finally arriving kept us awake for nearly two more hours getting to know our terrific hosts Mr. and Mrs. Arai. We toured their lovely home and we learned about cultural norms of life in a Japanese home. We finished the evening with a light supper before finally collapsing to sleep nearly 24 hours after having left Chicago.