By Jordan Delp

Jordan Delp is a men’s basketball player at Augustana. He is blogging about the team’s trip to China.

Greetings from Tokyo, Japan. Or should I say, “konichiwa.”

We just stepped off the first leg of our journey, a 13-hour, 6,200-mile flight from Chicago to Tokyo. It was definitely an experience, from the movies (lots of movies) to the food, and definitely the people we met. My junior teammate Alex Washington and I did our part early in the trip by switching seats with parents of two young children in our row so that the family could sit together. Little did we know that we would be switching with an employee at the American Embassy in Tokyo, whose mother just happened to graduate from Augustana College years ago. I guess it is a small world after all.

You know you’re pretty far away from home when you exit the plane and the stewardesses say “sayonara” as you pass them by. However, never on the flight did we feel neglected or unwanted, as the service was top notch and even the passengers were friendly. The trip could not have been more accommodating, with American movies like Spiderman 3, Next and Fracture, and meals that included chicken and chocolate pudding.

We took an interesting route out of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago by heading North on a route called the “great arc” that lead us into Canada, west through Alaska and then across the Pacific Ocean. There was much to see out of the airplane windows on the trip with great picture opportunities for all of us. Two of the more interesting sights on this first leg were the mountains as we passed through Alaska, and the “Ring of Fire” (a series of volcanic islands) over the Pacific Ocean.

The first stop as we got into the airport as a team was the Avion Cafe and Bar, a place where, surprisingly and thankfully, they took American dollars. We treated ourselves to our first tastes of East Asian culture and a good start to our trip. We all remain light-hearted and eager to experience all this trip has to offer, even as we get ready for another four hour flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong.

Take care in the QCA and sayonara!