Hello From Japan

Thought I would give a quick update of things since my last post, but that's impossible, so I'll give a very detailed update instead.

Our last week in Sacramento, USA was very eventful. We went to Apple Hill with Nicki's mom, which is on the outskirts of Sacramento, where (not surprisingly) apples are grown, harvested, and made into fun things like cider, juice, pies, and various other treats. Josh was able to ride his first horse... actually it was more of a pony. We also all ate more apple products than I care to mention.

In Sacramento, we also spent as much time as we could with Nicki's family, but still found a way not to see as many people as we would have liked. Nicki was able to go to a baby shower for her friend Melissa (aka Jade), who is due next month.

I also got good news from my buddy, Danny, in Raleigh, NC. He and his wife, Yvonne, are the proud parents of a baby girl, Riley. Apparently, she's beautiful and has a full head of hair. I can't wait to see the pictures when I'm on a computer that will allow me to see them.

Now.... we're in Japan. Here's the details:

The Flight to the Land of the Rising Sun

If I could give one piece of advise about flying from the USA to Japan, it would be to have a layover in Hawaii, for about 2 or 3 days, just to get used to the time change and to minimize jetlag.

We were surprising lucky, especially since we were traveling with a toddler. As if I needed more reason to brag about Josh being the greatest kid ever, he was about 1,000 times better tempered on the plane than I could ever imagine he'd be...

We flew from Sacramento to LAX on an "express" sized small plane and hit every bit of turbulence (sp?) we could find along the way. Josh's reaction: "Whoa". No cries, no screams, just a "Whoa" or two. The flight attendant was very excited about our Japan trip and tried to calm our anxieties a little, but needless to say, Nicki and I weren't looking forward to the following flight.

During our two hour layover in Los Angeles, we let Josh run around as much as possible to wear him out. It worked pretty well. Within an hour of boarding our flight to Japan, Josh was out like a light. He slept a good two hours and woke up happy and hungry, but still didn't fuss. In fact, he became an instant hit with some of the Asian ladies aboard our flight. We had been advised that Josh might attract some attention in Japan, because American babies are such a rarity and considered a thing of beauty, but I never expected what I saw on the plane. We had random women walking over to ask us all about him, his name, age, etc. Some wanted to hold him, some wanted to talk to him or hold his hand. But every 5 or 10 minutes, someone new would come up and give him attention. One lady leaned over to me and said that he was like a celebrity, because he had about 5 or 6 fans trying to talk to him at one point. Very amusing. Through it all, Josh was a trooper and never complained, fussed, or even talked loud.

We landed in Tokyo's Narita Airport around 4:00pm local time on October 17th. It's a very strange thing, by the way, to wake up early on Oct 16th for a flight, then land in the evening a day later. I'm still trying to figure out what day and time it is now.... anyway, back to the story. After moving quickly through immigrations, we went to the baggage area, only to find all of our luggage sitting on the ground together next to the baggage carousel - what luck, no waiting! Then we went through customs and out into the main terminal to find our ground transportation (bus) to Yokosuka. The only negative was that we noticed it was raining outside, no big deal - we thought (keep reading).

The Infamous Bus Ride To Yokosuka

We got on the 5:30pm bus and I started making small-talk with some of the guys onboard. They mentioned that the ride would take about 1.5 hours, great news considering we had heard it would be 2-3 hours. About an hour into the ride, I figured something was wrong when those guys started making calls on cell phones saying that we were nowhere near base. Turns out that a vehicle had caught fire on the road an hour or so ahead of us, and rush hour got backed up along the main route. Luck finally started getting bad for us. A little over 3.5 hours after getting onto the bus, we finally arrived in Yokosuka and we were met by my office sponsor, who had been waiting for us for about 2 hours. He followed us to the hotel and helped us unload our baggage and helped me check in, good considering I didn't get a wink of sleep on the plane and was now up for about my 23rd hour. But I was very grateful considering he had spent 2 hours in the rain waiting and then was as nice as could be about helping out with the luggage and all.

Jetlag's No Fun

After putting Josh down to bed and calling our immediate family to let them know we got in safely, Nicki and I both hit the hay. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, around 10pm local time. Unfortunately, Josh woke up around 2:30am with a dirty diaper and consequently woke me up as well. He was able to fall back to sleep after I changed him, but I wasn't as lucky. I ended up staying up the rest of the early morning. After breakfast with Nicki and Josh, I called my sponsor for a lift and went over to my new office to meet all of my coworkers and to get some paperwork rolling. I got done with work around 4pm yesterday, had dinner by 6pm, and was starting to fall asleep standing up around 8pm. Nicki had to laugh because I usually have trouble falling asleep at all hours, but she witnessed me falling asleep at the dinner table. I've been told that it could take a week or two to adjust to the jetlag and I'm starting to believe it.

Welcome to Japan From Mother Nature

Turns out that the rainstorm that we saw in Tokyo followed us down to Yokosuka. Also, it was no small storm. It was the front end of a typhoon. What a welcome to Japan... our first typhoon in less than 24 hours! Typhoon Kirogi, as she was so affectionately named, didn't actually hit us - thank goodness - but she got within about 100 km or so away, which was close enough for me to watch some major wind and rain hitting our hotel last night and early this morning when I woke up again at 2:30am... this time I was able to get back to sleep. But poor Nicki and Josh were up by 4am, so we're all screwed up right now.

The Job

I haven't actually spent much time at all in my new office yet, but I've been told it'll be two weeks or more before I actually can because of all the paperwork and intercultural relations classes I need to take in the meantime. However, I did learn that the man who recruited and hired me, Tom, took a new position recently back in the USA. One of my coworkers is filling his position for now, but I think it's pretty amusing that I may never meet the guy who selected me for the job.