No time spent with your family is ever wasted.-- Don Donahoo

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

I think we're turning Japanese... I really think so!

We are officially American tourists in Japan. Let me tell you how the journey began...

Jan. 3rd 6:00am- I wake up to shower and get ready to finish packing the last of our bags before we head out to the airport.
             7:30am- I wake up the kiddos and get them dressed and fed and ready for the plane ride. by 8:30 we are all ready and waiting for our dear Marcie to come and pick us to take us to the airport.
             9:00ish- we are off to the airport which takes approx. an hour to get there. We enjoy good company and chit chat as we drive.
             10:30am- Arrive at the airport and check in at the desk. One of our bags was 65 lbs. so we had to move some things around a bit to get everything to the weight limit of 50 lbs. (i brought an extra, small bag just in case... good thing!)
             11:30ish-We make it through security with minimal damage and head to the gate. we got to ride the subway train thing because the gate was so far away! We have Burger King for lunch as we wait for the plane to board.
             1:45pm- We are on the plane! Relaxation from here on out..... NOT!  But seriously, the trip over to Japan was not too bad. Lucy watched Aladdin and Cinderella alot and didn't sleep a wink! Jack slept on and off, but never got fussy. He just liked that we were constantly holding him. I got to watch some movies that I had really wanted to see- Easy A, which was pretty funny, and Life As We Know It, which was funny and cute and I would recommend it. The food on the plane wasn't bad either. Lucy had some vegetarian pasta, which was surprisingly good and Ben and I had roast beef and mashed potatoes. It was alright, MOM-yours is SOOOO much better! ;) They also served us some lunch right before we got off the plane in Tokyo. We had turkey and cheese hot sandwiches. Also, quite tasty. Man, airline food is just getting better, or maybe I was just really hungry. Anyways...
        Jan 4th 4:30ish pm(japan time)- We deboard the plane and head to immigration and customs which was a breeze because we didn't have to wait in the hour long line, thanks to the kids! We are all tired and grouchy by this time.
            5:30pm- We meet some people holding PSNS signs and they tell us we are waiting for all the 150ish shipyard workers to come and then they will put us on a bus or train depending on where we were headed.
           6:30pm-We are finally herded to the buses where they take everyone's luggage and put in on this mini semi and we get on the bus and are headed to the shipyard, where we will take a taxi to our apartment.
          8:00pm- We arrive at the shipyard and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our luggage, which doesn't come for about half an hour. We all stand around and wait for off base taxis to come and get us. And once again we don't have to wait in line for the taxis because we had kids and it was chilly outside.
         9:00pm- We arrive at our apartment and scope things out. Much better than we had anticipated, which is always a great thing. We find Jammies for the kids and ourselves and crash for the night. After over 24 hours of being awake we are exhausted! and Ben had to work the next day... what a trooper, sure do love that guy!
           

2 comments:

  1. Elise, i must have missed the part of you going to Japan. I'm guessing you went to Japan for Ben's work?? What an adverture though, that's so exciting!! Eat lots of sushi!

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  2. You are one strong woman my friend! I'm so glad that you guys made it to Japan safely and I hope that you have a wonderful time there. What a great learning experience!

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"No time spent with your family is ever wasted."
Don Donahoo