Groups of Canadians, including a group of high school students and members of the national sledge hockey team continued to return from Japan, to the relief of parents and friends gathered at Toronto's Pearson Airport Tuesday night.
Twenty-three students and five teachers from East Northumberland Secondary School in Brighton, Ont., landed safely after spending four days in disaster-ravaged Japan, among the relative safety of capital Tokyo.
Vivienne and Kate Jaehn-Kreibaum were on a tour bus with their classmates when the quake struck last Friday, sending the country into panic.
"We are looking outside and everyone is totally reacting, and we were like, "something's not great,'" Kate said.
The school group had originally been planning to visit Egypt, before political unrest forced them to change their destination to Japan. The group spend days holed up at their hotel before they could return home.
Kate and Vivienne's father Christian said the students' parents were all relieved the class escaped injury in the initial shock, but concern grew as the country plunged into an atomic crisis.
"After we learned about the problems at the nuclear power station, then we were concerned," he said, showing signs of relief on Tuesday.
Exchange student Stephanie Krulicki, 17, was also greeted at the airport by emotional family members late Tuesday night.
"I was very scared," Krulicki said after a long embrace with her father. "I was about two hours away from where the power plant was. It was a very scary time and I'm glad I'm back and I'm glad to see my family."
Canada's national sledge hockey team was playing in a tournament in Nagano, Japan when the quake struck. Billy Bridges said they were on the ice on when the benches started to shake.
"We really didn't know what was going on until we looked up and could see the big speaker system swaying on the roof. The referee called everyone to get off," Bridges told CTV Toronto.
