sayonara kyoto, konbanwa tokyo

 After the bento lunch at Kyoto Train Station, we headed to the shinkansen platform to catch the Nozomi train to Tokyo.  It was about a 2.5 hour train ride.

Got a family pic on the train (yay!).  Not many of these taken on the trip, unfortunately.







When we got to Tokyo Station, there was a really long walk to the coach bus loading area.  The pace was also really brisk, which was a huge strain for Darrell.  Even though we started off at the front of the pack, we wound up the last to board the buses.

It was about a half hour bus ride to our final hotel, the Hotel Metropolitan in Ikebukuro. 

It was so nice to be met at the hotel by Jan and Craig, who had just flown into Tokyo that day!

After checking in, we split up in groups;  all students needed to be with chaperones, though not necessarily with their chaperone groups.  L-R, Ashley, Anela, Pili, Lauren, Ka'ala, Joel, Ryan and Kylie came with us to the Metropolitan Plaza, above the Ikebukuro Train Station, a block away from the hotel.

Bob and Pam Vierra, whose daughter Natalie is in the band and who are friends with Craig, came with us to dinner.  The seventh floor of the Ikebukuro Plaza was all restaurants, so we split up since there wasn't one restaurant who could accomodate all of us.  The four girls went to eat Italian, Ryan, Kylie, Joel and Ka'ala went to another restaurant, and the adults went to eat noodles.  (Note:  only the non-chaperones had beer!)

My dinner was sooo good!  Udon, kamameshi rice, and anmitsu, the only Japanese dessert I had on the whole trip.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a chaperone meeting to discuss the plans for the next day.  Unfortunately, one female student had been inattentive and was left behind at the hotel by her group after they had thought she was going to be accompanying them to dinner.  Her chaperone was frantic, looking all through the dark streets around the hotel for her.  When we reached the Ikekuro Plaza I had heard on the radio that a girl was missing, but then I heard immediately after that she had been found so we didn't worry.  I didn't realize that her chaperone had not heard that she had been found and was so upset.  We had had a similar incident with two boys in our group during the Pasadena trip;  they were safe and enjoying the "Medieval Times" show while we were frantically looking for them.

The job of a chaperone holds a lot of responsibility, especially when you are looking after other people's children, and it is not something any of us took lightly.  This girl had apparently been inattentive a few times before on the trip, inconveniencing others.  My recommendation would have been to separate her from her friends and chaperone group and make her mother responsible for her.  Her mother was an accompanying traveler and had apparently been complaining about everything since she got off the plane in Japan, even saying that she felt like a "second class citizen."  What this woman didn't get is that the trip is for the students, and it is a privilege that accompanying travelers who are not working as chaperones or captains or staff were allowed to even come along.  These accompanying travelers were free to do whatever they wanted, although they did sign trip contracts indicating that they were willing to help whenever help was needed.  While this woman was out shopping and playing, other people were responsible for watching her irresponsible daughter.  We really did not need people like that on the trip.

But everyone was safe that night...Disney days coming up!