Departure

Today came the departure day. We began the day with preparation, busier than usual. Although we didn't finished the final packing and checking of the luggage, the time to leave the office soon approached. 3 pm was the time we had set to leave the office, and when it passed 3 o'clock, we jumped onto a tax and headed to Keisei Ueno Station.

In spite of bad weather, waiting for us at Keisei Ueno station were General Manager Mr. Koike and Deputy General Manager Mr. Tanaka of Nippon Express Aoyama Air Service Branch. After catching the Skyliner at Ueno station which departed at 15:20, we arrived at Narita Airport Terminal 2 Building exactly in one hour.

As we were approaching to the check-in counter of Air Canada, we were met by reporters from TV Tokyo, Nippon TV, TBS, Kyodo News Service, Mainichi Newspaper, Kahoku Newspaper, and also our parents who were waiting for our arrival. We checked in seven pieces of luggage and remaining seven pieces we had were carry-on luggage.

After the check-in, I went to exchange money for four-month stay in Canada. I was sweating heavily when the departure time came. Mr. Ueda Director of "The Human D" a program on TV Tokyo, who has been following us during our preparation phase, said jokingly "This might be the last sweat." And he continued joking "Maybe in Canada you have cold sweats instead??"

I said goodbye to Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyauchi the staff members at the office, who did the preparations everyday together up until now, and went to the departure gate. However, I spent long time at the baggage screening because the tools I threw into bags were caught at the inspection. So I removed pliers and cutters which were caught and returned to hand them over to Mr. Iwata.

Before going through the immigration, I declared cash worth 1,000,000 yen and 1,000,000 yen in Traveler's Check with a total of 2,000,000 yen which we were planning to take to Canada. We safely made it through the embarkation procedures and at last got onto Air Canada Flight 4 departing at 19:00.

It was an approx. eight hours' flight to Vancouver. We actually arrived in Vancouver at 11:00 on the same day as we left Japan, which was 16th. It was a strange feeling that we were back in time even though we spent eight hours on flight.

After the entry formalities, we had to pick up all the luggage and transferred to Air Canada Flight 238 departing at 12:30. However there was a long line at the immigration. I declared the large sum of money which we planned to take into Canada. Håvard was also carrying a lot of medicines, so he had to declare that. Håvard speaks good English, so he guided me to smoothly go through the immigration.

Mr. Ohba and Stepan made a smooth transfer. But Håvard and I, who had to declare money and medicine, were a bit behind. Håvard, 28 years old and 179cm tall, were running in big steps even though he was wearing a big backpack. I, 33 years old and 162cm tall, can't fall behind him. Again in Vancouver I was sweating heavily and got on to an airplane.

As I was rather thirsty, the juice which I drank aboard was quite delicious. After two and a half hours' flight, we arrived in Edmonton at 14:57 and went directly to Quality Inn Hotel, which we are staying tonight. We waited drinking coffee at a cafe until the rooms were cleaned and ready for use. Håvard was very lively, probably because he finally came to a country where he could communicate in English, and chatting cheerfully with waitress at the cafe.

We enjoyed free time for about two hours. I collected hot water in a bathtub and took a long bath. At 18:00 we gathered at the cafe again and had a meeting while having dinner. Tomorrow we have one concern. The flight we take tomorrow from Cambrige Bay to Resolute Bay was serviced by Kenn Borek Air's eight-person aircraft called Beechcraft 99. But this has baggage allowance of 20kg per person. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that we can check in our luggage even if we pay excess luggage fees, simply because there might be no more space left! And even worse, we have, including the tents and sleeping bags which arrived the day before the departure and personal computers and various batteries, about twice as much luggage as allowed on board.

We ended the meeting with everyone saying we could somehow manage tomorrow. The rooms we reserved while in Japan were supposed to be single rooms. But each one of us was allocated a room with two double beds. So we spent the first night in Canada rather luxuriously.