Sydney was born November 19, 1993 in Tokyo, Japan. We moved away from Japan when she was 1 1/2 years old. She is in her sixth year learning the Japanese language in school and has been wanting to visit her place of birth for quite a long time. When she learned that her school was going to offer a trip to go to Japan over spring break this year, she was ecstatic! As Spring Break approached, she could hardly contain her excitement - we bought her a new suitcase and she purchased a backpack which she filled with all the essentials for a wonderful two weeks in Japan! She left for Japan Friday, February 25 with a group of kids and two teachers from Waterford, Mr. Stout and Mr. Wade. This is their itinerary:
F 2/25 7:45 meet at Delta Desk - check in for 9:45 flight
Sa 2/26 this day is lost forever somewhere over the Pacific
Su 2/27 arrive 5:00 am, train to Koyasan - evening in Koyasan
M 2/28 am train to Nara, then on to Kyoto in evening
Tu 3/1 all day in Kyoto
W 3/2 am Kyoto, then to Tokyo
Th 3/3 school visit, etc
F 3/4 train to Miyajima, afternoon in Miyajima
Sa 3/5 am Miyajima, afternoon train to Nagasaki
Su 3/6 day trip to Unzen/Shimabara
M 3/7 all day Nagasaki - meet Atomic survivor
Tu 3/8 train all the way back to Tokyo
W 3/9 Tokyo all day
Th 3/10 Tokyo all day
F 3/11 Kyogen at ASIJ in evening and 1:00am flight back home, arriving just after midnight, an hour before we left.
Feeding the deer in Nara.
Having fun with Japanese calligraphy!
At the Koyasan Buddhist Temple
Visiting the hospital where she was born!
Of course she would.
Making friends. Konichiwa!
Sydney had a wonderful time! They went to ASIJ (American School in Japan) on their last scheduled day in Japan to see a play put on by the kids there. Just as they arrived, they felt the ground move beneath their feet - they were in an earthquake! Sydney said it felt like standing on Jello! It turns out that at the epicenter of the earthquake in Sendai, it registered as an 8.9 magnitude earthquake! At ASIJ, they felt it as about a 5.0 earthquake.
10-15 minutes after that, a huge tsunami hit along the coast near Sendai, destroying everything in it's wake up to 12 miles inland!
Luckily, Syd's group was nowhere near the tsunami and no one was hurt. The kids got on a bus to go back to their hotel and in route, they found out that their flight was cancelled. It took them eight hours to get back to their hotel. It normally would have taken 1 hour and 20 minutes. All trains were down, airports were closed and the group had checked out of their hotel in preparation for leaving Japan that evening. They were able to rent one room which the girls slept in while the guys camped out in the hotel lobby. The next day, they worked their way to a hotel near the airport where they waited until their flight out of Japan early Sunday morning. It was a frightening time for Sydney. She wondered if she would ever see home again.
She arrived in Salt Lake City this morning at 10:11am after a long, long flight! We were so excited to welcome her home!
It truly turned out to be a once in a lifetime kind of trip. One she will never forget.
