The youth hostel in Sendai is really special. It gives you a taste of how life in Japan used to be. The traditional building with classic interior is a must for everyone who goes up North. The part with the slippers for the different rooms is interesting; you can’t wear your shoes inside and you have to wear slippers but when you go to the toilet you have to change slippers and again in the bedroom: no slippers on the matting. It is confusing at times and especially challenging if you’re wearing size 13.

On arrival at Matsushima it was obvious the (weekend) training was on, as the first RF-4’s were in the take off while we were closing in on the field. Taking shots in the pouring rain of your first F-4EJ is different to what we had expected, but still nice. After take off we went to the landing side along with all the local spotters. The steps we bought in Atsugi came in handy. It became obvious that our 400 MMs were amongst the smallest lenses in the field. At the end of the runway there where some nice possibilities to take pictures of the returning aircraft. After all the locals left it was time to head North for Misawa, our next goal.

A thing to look out for on the freeway are truck drivers, although their trucks are always nice and shiny they drive like crazy. Changing lanes the instant they want it, not even looking if it is possible, makes you doubly aware.

We had booked a youth hostel in the Misawa area and this one was easy to find and even well signposted. After a relaxing hot tub we treated our self to a big steak in the restaurant. At all the youth hostels they have Internet so it is easy to stay in contact with the home front. We plugged in our battery packs and emptied our day’s catch onto the memory tanks and after one more beer it was off to bed. After three days the jet leg was finally getting to us. The next day we had promised ourselves to be at Misawa at 08:00 for the changing of the QRA.