Osaka, japan » Goodbye China, hello rest of the world.

After stepping off the plane and arriving in Tokyo from Beijing on Friday, the Hawaii men’s basketball team wasted little time in reconnecting with friends and family back home.

Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter are blocked as part of a strict national firewall in China. The team essentially went two weeks without communication aside from the occasional email.

Players tore into their laptops and phones in the Narita airport lobby like wrapped gifts as they waited for their connecting flight to Osaka.

"Once I heard we could check Facebook, I was on it. That and Twitter," sophomore point guard Bobby Miles said. "It was kind of like … Christmas."

Miles said the longest he’d previously gone without full online access was a week. His predicament was echoed by his backcourt mate on the Warriors to Asia tour.

"I had to check it immediately. ASAP," freshman guard Shaquille Stokes said. "Check and see how my peoples were looking. It was real tough, not having a phone, not being able to talk to your family."

Media-savvy shooting guard Zane Johnson figured out how to get Skype working at times on the China trip. It was far from enough to tide him over.

"Within like 2 minutes I was on the Internet, doing what I call the real-world stuff," Johnson said of his arrival. "I was able to email on my phone if I had Wi-Fi (in China), but it’s tough."

For as many technological advances as China has made in recent years, some rules of the Communist society proved frustrating.

"That was a huge thing in China, no connection to anybody. It feels like you’re not connected to the world," Johnson said. "You’re limited to where and when you can get on. Only in the hotel lobbies, really. The scary thing about it is, you go somewhere outside the hotel, you might not be able to get back or call anybody if the phones don’t work."

That problem has been nonexistent during the team’s brief stay in Japan. Media, Internet access and Wi-Fi are everywhere.

Team greeted by earthquake

A minor earthquake rocked the Narita airport while the team waited for its next flight. Players described benches rattling and gate signs swaying back and forth for several seconds. The 6.8 magnitiude quake made the news a few seconds later.

"It was a little scary. For me it kind of reminded me of turbulence on a plane, except it was on the ground," freshman forward Tyler Brown said. "After about the first 10 seconds of being, ‘Oh, gosh,’ it was, ‘Ok, the ground’s just shaking, nothing major.’ "

UH far removed from destruction

The Rainbow Warriors haven’t been near any of the hard-hit areas of the devastating 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan in March.

Osaka, in the southern part of Japan, was relatively unscathed by the damage that ravaged Sendai to the north. However, UH’s opponent Friday, the Panasonic Trians, had their season stopped short by the catastrophe. The exhibition was just their second game since their abbreviated Japan Basketball League season.