First day in Japan: Quarantined?

Yuka, Hannah, and I arrived in Japan yesterday. Right when our plane landed in Tokyo, a team of government officials dressed in full-body suits, face masks, goggles, rubber shoes, and latex gloves boarded our plane (try to picture the last scene in ET). We were told that they were screening all passengers for swine flu, and that it should not take too long. All passengers were also asked to put on face masks during the screening. They quickly collected some questionairres that were handed out during the flight. They had asked for some simple information like: do you have a fever? a cough? where will you be staying in Japan? etc. Everything was going smoothly until they came and grabbed a couple of people that were sitting about 2 seats away from us. They escorted them out of our seating area and about 20 minutes later started excusing the seating area in front of us. After another 15 minutes they told us and about 7 or 8 other people sitting in our area to please remain seated. The government workers and flight attendants kept rushing back and forth through our area. Then they let all of the people behind us leave the plane. At this point, some tension started building in our area: the man next to me kept saying `I wish I could leave – I need a smoke!` while another man was saying `Why are they keeping us here? How long will this take?` Yuka, Hannah, and I were not in a huge rush, so we just sat quietly watching. Finally the stuardess came and told us that someone in our area had `flu-like symptoms` and they were testing that person for swine flu. We waited.. and waited. After another 30 minutes, they finally came and told us that he did not have swine flu and we were free to leave. You can probably imagine the relief we all felt.. We were the last 3 people to leave the plane – the stuardess even carried Hannah out for us. All in all, it was a good flight and our trip thus far has been quite relaxing. Keep checking back because I plan to post stories and pictures almost every day that we`re here.. For now I`ll just leave you with this: