Long hugs and tears of relief filled the arrival hall at Vancouver International Airport Saturday as the first Japanese flights since the country's devastating earthquake arrived.

For Leellie Kharazmi, making it home safe and sound on Canadian soil was bittersweet. She was forced to leave her husband and father-in-law behind in Sendai, the epicentre of the quake.

"It was hard to come without them but I've got two little ones," she said. "We texted back and forth, so they're okay. Hopefully they'll get out."

Mike Pidlisecky had been away from home more than a week when he felt the floor begin violently shaking beneath him at a Tokyo trade show – but it wasn't until the aftershocks began that he became truly frightened.

"It is honestly the scariest thing I've lived through in my life and I don't wish it upon anyone," he told CTV News.

He arrived at YVR Saturday afternoon to find his parents, wife and two sons waiting to embrace him. Since the quake, Pidlisecky's been able to keep regular contact with his family using an international phone – but not everyone has been so lucky.

Casey Spence and her family heard from her 16-year-old brother Chayse just moments after the quake hit. He is without power in a dormitory in the heart of the damage, visiting Sendai as part of an exchange program.

"It was maybe 30 seconds we were able to talk to him," Casey said. "He said, ‘I have to go, we have to conserve our power.' But we haven't heard from him since."

Now his family clings to hope that he's okay. They know he's cold, stuck in a city reduced to rubble, and may be without adult supervision.

And there are some still awaiting first contact. More than 24 hours after the quake, Trevor Jones says he is still on pins and needles waiting to hear from his son Jonathan, a 32-year-old English teacher from Nanaimo, B.C., who was also in Sendai.

"I'm just really concerned about the fact that we can't get any information," Jones told CTV News Friday.

Canadians in need of emergency consular assistance in Japan should contact the embassy in Tokyo at 011-81-3-5412-6200, or can call the department's emergency operations centre collect to 613-944-2471 or 613-943-1055. Emails can also be sent to sos@international.gc.ca.

Anyone seeking information about Canadian friends of family now in Japan is asked to call DFAIT at 613-943-1055, or toll free within Canada at 1-800-606-5499 or 1-800-387-3124.

With reports from CTV British Columbia's Norma Reid and St. John Alexander