The children carried clean clothes, some snacks, textbooks and video games -- all hastily packed under the shadow of an 8,000-meter pillar of smoke rising above Mount Oyama on Miyake Island.
After a 22-hour journey, the students, who had bade farewell to their homes and parents following a volcanic eruption Tuesday, looked stiff and tired when they reached Akikawa High School in Akiruno, western Tokyo. Including the students who joined the group later, they numbered 150 as of Thursday noon.
But after a few hours of rest, during which television camera crews dispersed, some emerged from their dormitories to do what they haven't been able to do in weeks -- take long, deep breaths of clean air.