David enjoying a ride on the Super Ferry!
Chris is Merman in Maui!!
Copied from a mass e-mail sent to family and friends on 9 August 2008
Dear Friends and Friends - sorry about the mass e-mail, but I'm still foggy from jet lag, and wanted to let you all know that the boys and I arrived safely in Tokyo yesterday afternoon (August 8th).
We had a fabulous week on our "Hawaii layover", and am so glad that we did so. We spent 4 days on Oahu and 2 days in Maui. Wish we would have stayed in Maui longer, I'm hooked. We packed in a lot of tourist traps - luau, magic show, "surfing", superferry ride, pineapple plantation, sea life park, hilo hatties runby, etc. The adventure I'm most proud of is our climb to the top of the Diamond Head Crater observatory! It's 1.5 miles up, a fairly steep walk. I didn't think we'd get much further than the first half, so didn't even bother to bring the camera - sadly :-( Both boys wanted to continue on, and although I carried David the last 1/2 mile, we all made it to the top and were rewarded with a most amazing view of an extremely clear and beautiful day in Waikiki. Christopher had a few slips on the way down, scraped up his back, legs, and arms a bit. After a few drama filled screams, Chris proclaimed, "Ohhhh, this is the WORST thing that has EVER happened to me!" I told the boys we'd have to do it again on one of our trips back to the states, just so I can get some pictures!
The flight from Honolulu to Tokyo was 7 plus hours, the drive from the airport to where we're staying was 2 hours! Traffic was horrible, and the boys were at their "good behavior" break point. Fortunately, we were met at the airport gate by the asst Army attache, and the current Marine attache. They got us through customs and immigration quickly, tolerated the painful 2 hr car ride, and got us settled in to the furnished embassy temporary quarters where we'll be staying until I can get us moved in to our "condo" out in town - probably around 16 August. We had beer, juice and pizza for dinner, and I couldn't have been happier - except for the $60 price tag on the equivalent of three personal size pizzas!!
Out of the three of us, Chris has tolerated the jet lag the best - he fell asleep around 8pm and woke up at 6am. David crashed at 7pm, but has been up since 1am. I got up with him for a bit, and tried to got back to sleep unsuccessfully. It's going to be a long day -
The next few days will be filled with all of the things to help us truly get settled - meeting with the realtor, checking in to Camp Fuji, getting a cell phone, bank account, international driver's license, register the car, grocery shopping, etc. Our realtor has hooked us up already, though - cable tv, internet service, utilities, parking spot, etc are all included in my monthly rent, and are already set up in the new place! Joseph, our "manny" gets here toward the end of the month - I'll definitely need the extra set of eyes and hands!
Ok, enough blabbing from me. Thanks for hanging in this long. We're all happy and healthy - David has already heard about Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Thomas and Friends, and apparently a BIG Toys R Us, and has been asking non-stop when we're going to visit each of those places - I'm pretty sure Toys R Us is first.
Dear Friends and Friends - sorry about the mass e-mail, but I'm still foggy from jet lag, and wanted to let you all know that the boys and I arrived safely in Tokyo yesterday afternoon (August 8th).
We had a fabulous week on our "Hawaii layover", and am so glad that we did so. We spent 4 days on Oahu and 2 days in Maui. Wish we would have stayed in Maui longer, I'm hooked. We packed in a lot of tourist traps - luau, magic show, "surfing", superferry ride, pineapple plantation, sea life park, hilo hatties runby, etc. The adventure I'm most proud of is our climb to the top of the Diamond Head Crater observatory! It's 1.5 miles up, a fairly steep walk. I didn't think we'd get much further than the first half, so didn't even bother to bring the camera - sadly :-( Both boys wanted to continue on, and although I carried David the last 1/2 mile, we all made it to the top and were rewarded with a most amazing view of an extremely clear and beautiful day in Waikiki. Christopher had a few slips on the way down, scraped up his back, legs, and arms a bit. After a few drama filled screams, Chris proclaimed, "Ohhhh, this is the WORST thing that has EVER happened to me!" I told the boys we'd have to do it again on one of our trips back to the states, just so I can get some pictures!
The flight from Honolulu to Tokyo was 7 plus hours, the drive from the airport to where we're staying was 2 hours! Traffic was horrible, and the boys were at their "good behavior" break point. Fortunately, we were met at the airport gate by the asst Army attache, and the current Marine attache. They got us through customs and immigration quickly, tolerated the painful 2 hr car ride, and got us settled in to the furnished embassy temporary quarters where we'll be staying until I can get us moved in to our "condo" out in town - probably around 16 August. We had beer, juice and pizza for dinner, and I couldn't have been happier - except for the $60 price tag on the equivalent of three personal size pizzas!!
Out of the three of us, Chris has tolerated the jet lag the best - he fell asleep around 8pm and woke up at 6am. David crashed at 7pm, but has been up since 1am. I got up with him for a bit, and tried to got back to sleep unsuccessfully. It's going to be a long day -
The next few days will be filled with all of the things to help us truly get settled - meeting with the realtor, checking in to Camp Fuji, getting a cell phone, bank account, international driver's license, register the car, grocery shopping, etc. Our realtor has hooked us up already, though - cable tv, internet service, utilities, parking spot, etc are all included in my monthly rent, and are already set up in the new place! Joseph, our "manny" gets here toward the end of the month - I'll definitely need the extra set of eyes and hands!
Ok, enough blabbing from me. Thanks for hanging in this long. We're all happy and healthy - David has already heard about Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo Thomas and Friends, and apparently a BIG Toys R Us, and has been asking non-stop when we're going to visit each of those places - I'm pretty sure Toys R Us is first.
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