Day 1 ... Which is actually Day 2, since I left on Day 1 and during the trip passed over the International dateline. The 13-hour trip from Detroit to Japan apparently involved no night at all, we just kept following the daylight, left at 3:30pm Wed, arrived around 5pm Thursday, with a short, prop flight to catch to Matsuyama. When I arrived at the gate in Detroit and looked for my sister Sue, whose son and Japanese wife and new 3-month old baby we were going to visit, the vast majority of the waiting passengers were Asian, presumably mostly Japanese. It was already interesting! The Nagoya airport was surprisingly quiet and unsurprisingly efficient. We had to collect and recheck our bags, and at the baggage claim, 5 young uniformed staff lined up and announced (presumably since it was in Japanese) the bags were arriving. And then they politely bowed at the bleary-eyed travel-weary passengers. I am grateful that all my planes were on time, that I survived the trip, and that no bags were lost! After the final leg, awaiting us in the small airport in Matsuyama were a broadly smiling Nagi and a sleeping Minoto in his stroller. She drove us to our hotel to check-in. We knew we were now in non-American tourist territory as the hotel has no English signage, not even its name outside on the street. The room is spare but inexpensive, clean, and comfortable. The hotel has 24-hr quick mart, at least one restaurant, a coffee machine downstairs for $1 a cup (and it is good!), and its own oncen, a spring-fed bath, which we are looking forward to using. The hotel seems to cater to businessmen, my room had complimentary men's pajamas and a trouser-pressing machine - although they did give us women's pajamas down at the front desk - however, so far we are the only women I've seen. But it feels quite safe and friendly.