Spokane Teachers Found Safe

The mission: Find Spokane teachers in an earthquake-ravaged metropolitan area of more than 2 million.

When editors gave SpokesmanReview staff writer Emi Endo that assignment, they knew she faced long odds. But with persistence - and a little luck - she succeeded.

Endo was in Tokyo covering the arrival of Washington apples in Japan when the earthquake hit the Kobe area almost 300 miles to the west.

Her biggest challenge was finding a way to get from Tokyo to Nishinomiya, where the teachers were part of an exchange program. Major rail lines and highways were damaged in the quake and airports were jammed with passengers.

Flying stand-by, Endo boarded a plane bound for Itami Airport near Osaka. From there, she had to take a bus and two trains to get to Nishinomiya.

After waiting in a long line for a phone that was working, she called the Nishinomiya school district office and asked if officials could help her reach the exchange teachers from Spokane.

Teachers Marilyn Reiman and Marilyn Brennan just happened to be in the office, checking for information about their supervisor, who had been missing since the earthquake.

Reiman and Brennan rode to the train station on their bikes, and invited Endo to eat with them and spend the night.

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