Konnichiwa

Wow. I can't believe I'm actually in Japan. I especially can't believe that my entire team is in Japan. When we got to briefing a few days ago, the team as a whole was down more than $15,000! The students hit the phones and raised the first half within 24 hours! As of dinner the night before we were set to leave, it looked likely that two of our students wouldn't be able to get on the plane the next morning because of support. In the next four hours, we managed to raise more than enough for all 17 of us to board a Singapore Airlines non-stop flight from LAX to Narita Airport. Of course, that was after one student's passport had to be rushed to the airport when it was left on a copy machine back in Orange County.

When we got here, STINTers Emily and Joe met us at the aiport and we literally RAN to catch the train (the next one left an hour later). We made the train...unfortunately, our passports did not. The people we've met in Tokyo are so nice! An employee boarded the next train to bring us our passports and actually came all the way to Koenji (where we live--several different train rides away)!

Tonight was dinner cooked by the STINT team at the Mitaka Center. That's where their offices are. It was great to hang out and get to hear more about Tokyo. Tomorrow is our first day on campus and there's definitely a mixture of anticipation and nervousness. Pray for our teams as we begin to "decode" three college campuses tomorrow!