Monday, January 5, 2009
Friday, January 2, 2009
Wow! Hello Japan.
Well, today is the end of day 5 in Japan and what an amazing adventure we have already had! We left my parents house at 5 am on Sunday with a wonderful sendoff from Stephanie & Cam who both spent the night before. We were with my parents in 2 cars with 8 gigantic suitcases and 5 carry-ons! Two flights and twenty four hours of travel later, we arrived at Narita airport in Tokyo Japan...and it was 5pm on Monday in Tokyo. The boys were amazing and everything went smoothly...thanks Steph W for the St. Christopher pendant, I know it was protecting us the whole way! I haven't taken it off yet.
We were greeted at the airport by Andy Berner(our sponsor family) with lots of snacks and sandwichs and a big van to drive us home to the base. I was falling asleep with the boys in the backseat, but I did manage to catch a glimpse of Disneyland and lots of HUGE ferris wheels, and LOTS of bright lights and big city! Tokyo is huge and amazing. But I was too tired to notice anything else, except that we were on the wrong side of the road...and the wrong side of the car...and there was NO ENGLISH signs anywhere! Andy delivered us safely to our hotel rooms on base which they had also stocked with lots of food and goodies for us.
We woke up at 3am (jetlag) and spent the next day taking care of paperwork around the base and getting oriented around the base settled into our hotel rooms, and taking a seriously long nap. then we had a nice dinner at the Berner's house that evening. They have been amazing and we are so appreciative for all of their help. They are showing us the ropes of base life and Japan, so that we can pay it forward when we have to sponsor a family who is new to Japan in the future. Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly and helpful!
Weds was our next day...which was also new years eve. We were too tired and jetlagged(which Marc says is all in my head although he is feeling it too, but calls it being sick :) )to do much. Medical, housing, and preschool check-in paperwork and then a commissary run, because the base shuts down for NY day. Japan celebrates New Years as one of the biggest holidays of the year. Thanks so much to the Wards for the commissary run. The "Reward" family as Logan and Andrew call them have also been amazing. Marc went to flight school with Ken Ward in Jacksonville in 2002. They have 4 great kids which our kids adore AND this is their 2nd tour in Japan (built in natives, although they were on a different base, SASEBO before, near OKINAWA). We also went to Disney in Orlando with them in October. We will be mentioning LOTS about the "Reward" family.
We were asleep by 9 on NY eve and of course awake by 4 on Thursday, NY day. We relaxed all morning and then got a call at 1pm from Ken..."Let's go to Kamakura today and see The Great Buddha" Ummm, "YES! YES! YES!" We piled 6 kids and 4 adults into 2 cars and then headed for the train station. We followed Ken and Tammy as they navigated us thru 4 train stations, lots of ticket booths, narrow sidewalks, and using yen for the first time. What an adventure, we had a blast and truly this was the best New Years day of my life! I bought a big shiny gold buddha for my collection at The Great Buddha and was thrilled to spend my afternoon soaking up Japan and just being in awe. This place is undescribable. People, people and more people. Buildings, buildings, and more buildings. Silence, silence and more silence. It is so quiet here.
Friday morning we woke up at 3 again (jetlag still) and took care of more medical and childcare paperwork. Logan got a Hep A shot and we got the kids signed up for basketball, creative dance, preschool from 2-5, and parents night out at the CDC...all before 930am. Wow, this is so much more than we are used to! Lee B, our amazing sponsor, called and invited to take us to the 100 yen store off base (like the dollar store, but Japanese goodies) and then to a great red slide park for the kids. We said yes and were very excited! We stopped by the "Reward family's" house to say hello and they invited us to go to see the Emporer's Palace in Tokyo today. The Imperial palace is only open TWO days of the year, Dec 23rd and Jan 2nd. So of course, count us in! We invited Lee, Andy, Zack and Abby to join us...but Andy had to work, so it was just us and the Wards. And off we go on another adventure. Truly an amazing day, Tokyo is unbelievable. Again, tons and tons of people...yet so quiet. Everything is so clean and pretty. We even let the kids sit on the floor of the subway train...that's how clean it is. High rise buildings everywhere! And still no English signs! I'm definitely going to learn to read japanese, even if I can't speak it. We have been able to deal with Logan's egg and peanut allergy by pointing to the phrase "I'm allergic" and then the word "egg" and "peanut" in our little Japan book. (THanks CAm! awesome book, we will call it our new bible)
Then after our awesome trip to the Imperial Palace, which I carried Andrew and Marc carried Logan as they slept...jetlag...we headed back to the train/subway. We decided to have lunch in Tokyo station which is underground train station. It has a dining court and was so much fun! We ate lots of fun foods and couldn't figure out anything...need to learn some Japanese! Then we head on to Yokahama station, another train station underground on our way home and walk thru the most sheik and fancy mall....underground, in a subway. With the crazy loud techno music playing! Oakley, the Wards 3 yr old and youngest daughter was startled by an old snaggle- tooth Japanese man who was giving her candy. Apparenty the Japanese love kids and give them things all the time. Oakley was also given a box of chocolates as a gift from a random lady at the Imperial Palace.
We returned from our adventure and got baths and into bed quickly by 8pm. Then we recieved a call from the Keithley's inviting us to a small cookout tomorrow night with 2 other family's we haven't met yet. We are buying the Keithley's cars from them because they are leaving and moving back to the states next week...$2500 total for both cars...a Honda Odyssey van and a honda integra car, both with less than 50,000 miles. Welcome to base life! This is an instant family and community. Everything is within walking distance, and everyone is taking care of everyone else. I am so overjoyed and excited for these next few years! Wow! oh, and i really do miss all of you at home. I want to pick up my phone constantly to call you and tell you about all of this, but I don't have a phone yet :) so you'll have to deal with a long winded blog instead. Pictures will come tomorrow, I wanted to get down everything I could, while I can remember...still VERY jetlagged.
We were greeted at the airport by Andy Berner(our sponsor family) with lots of snacks and sandwichs and a big van to drive us home to the base. I was falling asleep with the boys in the backseat, but I did manage to catch a glimpse of Disneyland and lots of HUGE ferris wheels, and LOTS of bright lights and big city! Tokyo is huge and amazing. But I was too tired to notice anything else, except that we were on the wrong side of the road...and the wrong side of the car...and there was NO ENGLISH signs anywhere! Andy delivered us safely to our hotel rooms on base which they had also stocked with lots of food and goodies for us.
We woke up at 3am (jetlag) and spent the next day taking care of paperwork around the base and getting oriented around the base settled into our hotel rooms, and taking a seriously long nap. then we had a nice dinner at the Berner's house that evening. They have been amazing and we are so appreciative for all of their help. They are showing us the ropes of base life and Japan, so that we can pay it forward when we have to sponsor a family who is new to Japan in the future. Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly and helpful!
Weds was our next day...which was also new years eve. We were too tired and jetlagged(which Marc says is all in my head although he is feeling it too, but calls it being sick :) )to do much. Medical, housing, and preschool check-in paperwork and then a commissary run, because the base shuts down for NY day. Japan celebrates New Years as one of the biggest holidays of the year. Thanks so much to the Wards for the commissary run. The "Reward" family as Logan and Andrew call them have also been amazing. Marc went to flight school with Ken Ward in Jacksonville in 2002. They have 4 great kids which our kids adore AND this is their 2nd tour in Japan (built in natives, although they were on a different base, SASEBO before, near OKINAWA). We also went to Disney in Orlando with them in October. We will be mentioning LOTS about the "Reward" family.
We were asleep by 9 on NY eve and of course awake by 4 on Thursday, NY day. We relaxed all morning and then got a call at 1pm from Ken..."Let's go to Kamakura today and see The Great Buddha" Ummm, "YES! YES! YES!" We piled 6 kids and 4 adults into 2 cars and then headed for the train station. We followed Ken and Tammy as they navigated us thru 4 train stations, lots of ticket booths, narrow sidewalks, and using yen for the first time. What an adventure, we had a blast and truly this was the best New Years day of my life! I bought a big shiny gold buddha for my collection at The Great Buddha and was thrilled to spend my afternoon soaking up Japan and just being in awe. This place is undescribable. People, people and more people. Buildings, buildings, and more buildings. Silence, silence and more silence. It is so quiet here.
Friday morning we woke up at 3 again (jetlag still) and took care of more medical and childcare paperwork. Logan got a Hep A shot and we got the kids signed up for basketball, creative dance, preschool from 2-5, and parents night out at the CDC...all before 930am. Wow, this is so much more than we are used to! Lee B, our amazing sponsor, called and invited to take us to the 100 yen store off base (like the dollar store, but Japanese goodies) and then to a great red slide park for the kids. We said yes and were very excited! We stopped by the "Reward family's" house to say hello and they invited us to go to see the Emporer's Palace in Tokyo today. The Imperial palace is only open TWO days of the year, Dec 23rd and Jan 2nd. So of course, count us in! We invited Lee, Andy, Zack and Abby to join us...but Andy had to work, so it was just us and the Wards. And off we go on another adventure. Truly an amazing day, Tokyo is unbelievable. Again, tons and tons of people...yet so quiet. Everything is so clean and pretty. We even let the kids sit on the floor of the subway train...that's how clean it is. High rise buildings everywhere! And still no English signs! I'm definitely going to learn to read japanese, even if I can't speak it. We have been able to deal with Logan's egg and peanut allergy by pointing to the phrase "I'm allergic" and then the word "egg" and "peanut" in our little Japan book. (THanks CAm! awesome book, we will call it our new bible)
Then after our awesome trip to the Imperial Palace, which I carried Andrew and Marc carried Logan as they slept...jetlag...we headed back to the train/subway. We decided to have lunch in Tokyo station which is underground train station. It has a dining court and was so much fun! We ate lots of fun foods and couldn't figure out anything...need to learn some Japanese! Then we head on to Yokahama station, another train station underground on our way home and walk thru the most sheik and fancy mall....underground, in a subway. With the crazy loud techno music playing! Oakley, the Wards 3 yr old and youngest daughter was startled by an old snaggle- tooth Japanese man who was giving her candy. Apparenty the Japanese love kids and give them things all the time. Oakley was also given a box of chocolates as a gift from a random lady at the Imperial Palace.
We returned from our adventure and got baths and into bed quickly by 8pm. Then we recieved a call from the Keithley's inviting us to a small cookout tomorrow night with 2 other family's we haven't met yet. We are buying the Keithley's cars from them because they are leaving and moving back to the states next week...$2500 total for both cars...a Honda Odyssey van and a honda integra car, both with less than 50,000 miles. Welcome to base life! This is an instant family and community. Everything is within walking distance, and everyone is taking care of everyone else. I am so overjoyed and excited for these next few years! Wow! oh, and i really do miss all of you at home. I want to pick up my phone constantly to call you and tell you about all of this, but I don't have a phone yet :) so you'll have to deal with a long winded blog instead. Pictures will come tomorrow, I wanted to get down everything I could, while I can remember...still VERY jetlagged.
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