They're There !

Well, here we are, ensconced at the Hotel Nikko in Nara after a somewhat shortened flight (thirty minutes early!) from Detroit to Kansai International Airport outside Osaka, Japan, a long but bearable journey. Local time: 9:00 p.m. on Monday, October 15, 2007; time at home: 8:00 a.m. the same day, thirteen hours earlier!

Rosewitha and Ingo Bodde met us at the top of the lobby escalator, having arrived (sans luggage) earlier in the day from Germany; rumor has it that the Coates and Hartts have already checked in as well. Only the Brights, flying in later this evening from Seattle, have yet to join us. [note: They arrived eventually, a little after midnight.]

Our Japanese guide (for the next ten days), who asked us to call her “Masae-san” (using her given name), met us at the airport, made sure our luggage was loaded on the truck to the hotel, then accompanied us on our bus to Nara – regaling us along the route with lots of “chatter” about what we were seeing out the bus window, current issues in Japan and a bit of personal history. Her garrulousness, she explained, is a typical Osaka area trait, especially among middle aged women!

Once Lee figures out how to get online, he’ll upload this “alert” for all those friends and relatives back home seeking assurances of our safe arrival. Our first day of sightseeing comes early tomorrow morning – and with it, undoubtedly, some of our first photographs of our surroundings …

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams ‘til then!