Coordinating the logistics for this trip was quite challenging. Some of our students were participating in training in Boston, Massachusetts, while the rest of the group remained on campus in Santa Fe. After hours of searching and planning, we successfully coordinated all departures, arrivals, and flights so that we could travel together to Tokyo.
Santiago, Sirrah, Kimora, Sierra, and Jesse arrived in Los Angeles on the evening of Friday, March 14, where they met Scott Mohan. They stayed overnight in a hotel before meeting the rest of the group at the airport the next day.
We braced ourselves for a very long journey. Our flight to Tokyo included a 12-hour leg to Seoul, South Korea, where we had a three-hour layover before our final flight. Many of us were not used to such a long flight—or having so much food on the plane! During our layover in Seoul, we grabbed some delicious Korean food for dinner before boarding our late-night flight to Tokyo. We finally arrived in Tokyo around 11 PM on Sunday, March 16. By that point, the students had been traveling for 23 to 27 hours—or even longer if they had woken up early to catch a flight from Albuquerque.
Traveling is about new experiences, and sometimes that includes unexpected challenges. Our students got a firsthand lesson in this when we encountered an issue with our scheduled transportation. We had booked two vans to pick us up and take us to our hotel, but one of the vans could only accommodate six people and four bags—while we had six people and six bags. Despite our reservation confirming space for nine passengers, the driver refused to take the second group. Scott quickly arranged last-minute taxis for the rest of the group, and we all finally made it to our hotel around 1 AM.
We are excited to share our adventures in Japan! Monday’s schedule is already packed, so there’s no sleeping in!
ABQ group early in the morning!
