We landed at Narita International Airport around 3:30pm and made our way through immigration and customs, then had to pick up our pocket wi-fi (which I had reserved online in advance so we could use our iPhones to text and Skype each other without using our cell phones which would have been expensive), and change some money before we could head out. Once we took care of that business, we bought bus tickets and headed to Tama Plaza, where my friend's mom was going to pick us up.
The bus ride from Narita into the Tokyo area takes about 1.5 hours, so it was a long ride after a long flight. But around 7:00pm (6:00am Cincinnati time) we got to Tama Plaza and Mitsuko (my girls call her Obaa-chan) and my friend's daughter Kaoru picked us up in her little VW. Unfortunately, the VW was waaaay to small to get all 5 of us -and most of all - all of our suitcases into it. So she had to make 2 trips, taking Ellie and Hannah to the condo while Kaoru and I waited for her to come back and pick us up.
When we got to the house, Wonder Woman (which is what I now call Obaa-chan!), had made us a fantastic nabe-style, one-pot dinner with chicken, sausages, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms. It was delicious!
But one-pot doesn't mean that's all there was! We also ate tofu with soy sauce, ginger, and onions, and some delicious black beans, as well as melon and a bunch of other things we didn't take pictures of! The girls were in heaven! They love Japanese food, so even though all of these dishes were new for them, they gobbled it up. I'm so lucky to have adventurous girls!
My friend Rie made it home toward the end of dinner. She is a flight attendant and had just flown in from Honolulu right behind us. She's amazing; I don't know how she travels like this all the time.
As is the custom in Japan, we took our baths (ofuro) that night and went to bed around 11:00 that night (10:00am Cincinnati time). Whew!