Welcome to Japan! Please don't bring your swine flu

The morning before I was set to depart for Tokyo, swine flu hysteria hit a high. I received an email from my company saying that if anyone on our plane was found to have a fever or flu-like symptoms, we were all subject to be quarantined for 10 days. NOT the way I imagined the beginning of my journey. But highly unlikely. I cracked a few jokes to my mom, and didn't worry too much about it.

After nearly 15 hours of flying, we finally arrived in Narita Airport. We were told that we would have to remain in our seats, as Japanese health officials were going to board the plane to use some type of mass temperature scanning device to make sure none of us passengers was attempting to spread the swine flu to Japan. Eager to stretch my legs, I was mildly annoyed at the prospect of waiting even a little bit longer to get out of my seat.

During the wait, I attempted to distract myself with on-flight magazines. Then I heard the gasps from other passengers and the clicking of cameras. I looked up to see two Japanese men coming down the aisles looking straight out of E.T. (the scary part at the end, where the movie stops being cute for a few minutes). They were equipped with heat-senstive video cameras and were scanning each row. I wanted to badly to take a photo, but I was frozen in astonishment - and I was worried that MY camera would somehow offset theirs, and I would be arrested and deported. (It had been a long day, my imagination was running wild). One of the passengers must have had a small fever, because they kept running back and forth to her, and took her temperature with an actual thermometer. At that moment I really thought I was set to get ushered away in a plastic bubble.

About 2 hours after landing, we were finally informed that we were all welcome in the country. Surreal. I met a few other Americans who were more brave than I, and managed to grab photos, so I will try to post them soon.

Other than that, first day was great! One biru and and amazing plate of gyoza later, I was ready to pass out in my surprisingly comfortable bed. I love Japan.