First trip to Yokohama

Well after a couple of frustrating days of trying to check-in while everyone is on holiday routine, we decided to take advantage of a sunny day and venture a little further out along the train line.  We left Yokosuka and traveled to Yokohama, the second largest city in all of Japan located just south of Tokyo.  Once again we were led by some phenomenal tour guides, Michele and Carl Netzler!

Yokohama is far too big a city to take in one afternoon, but we started with some of the basics; Landmark Tower and a small amusement park in the center of the city for the kids.

This picture Amie took shows the park starting right at the base of Landmark Tower and extending to the right with a huge ferris wheel.  The ferris wheel takes an hour to ride one full rotation!  Next time we'll dump the kids on the wheel and go across the street to the Yokohama Bath House (On-sen).

The kids had a fun time at the park.  They paid way too much to find out that a haunted house doesn't necessarily mean it is scary.  Amie and Lila went into an Adventure Maze!  It was so amazing that once they found out that Amie didn't speak or read Japanese they assigned a tour guide of sorts to make sure they eventually made their way out!

The boys and I decided to ride something called the Super Planet or Planet Whirl, something like that.  It started off a simple fast merry go-round, then tilted near vertical.  At one point someone shouted "Oh Kelly Clarkson" so it was definitely a fun ride.  Here's a shot from Amie's phone while she and Lila rode the traditional Merry Go-Round.

The bottom of Landmark tower is actually a large mall including L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Godiva to name a few.  I am beginning to think that the primary commodity in Japan is food.  Every where you look is another restaurant, food counter, or shop.  We ate at Garlic Jo's, no Vampire attacks in our house that night, and then stopped by an ice cream shop and another great French Bakery.  The French Bakery's are awesome mostly because they have excellent food without the French attitude!

Finished the day off with a simple train ride home, where the boys and I got to witness some drunk Japanese guys try to stay on their feet on the train.  The annoying thing was trying to avoid getting our feet stepped on as they tried to stay upright.

Allow me to introduce...'Chu-Hi'

As with many Naval Installations, immediately outside the front gate is an area of ill repute.  The area outside of Yokosuka is known as the "Honch".  The Honch is known for its massage parlors, seedy bars and tattoo joints along with restaurants and shops.  A key component are the homemade "Chu-Hi" stands.

"Wow, that drink tasted pretty good and now I'm blind."

"Oh, you just had Chu-Hi."

The best part of the night, wasn't the Chu-Hi itself, but the stand it was in.  First, to properly find a great Chu-Hi stand you need to find one with 3 or 4 Shore Patrol sailors located outside.  Second the stand can't be more than a 15x15 foot space, but must be full of 20 patrons, 3-5 employees, 1 wooden bar and 1 wooden table located in the middle of the space.

This particular space had everything a successful stand needs.  Three employees behind the bar; one making the Chu-hi, one cleaning glasses in the sink, and a third making Vienna sausages with mustard to go with the jar of saltines.  It also had two obvious regulars, the American Ex-Pat who spent 20 plus years in Yokosuka and stayed after retirement and the Japanese business man, who just left the bank and is tying one on before heading home and all he said was "Hai, Merry Christmas!, you look like James Coburn."

When I met these guys I thought I was replaying a scene from Star Wars!  You know the bar scene when two guys go up to Luke Skywalker, the first guy says something unintelligible and the second guy says, "He doesn't like, and I don't like you either!"

Actually, the locals were awesome.  We had a great time.  Thankfully the shore patrol scared away all the young sailors.  I don't know if it was the Chu-Hi or the clothes smelling of smoke causing the college flash backs.

If you find yourself in a Chu-Hi stand, try to follow these basics rules:
1) One's enough.
2) If you have more than one, make sure the person you are drinking with can physically carry you home.

Patience, Patience, Patience

A requirement of a Navy move to Japan is the Area Orientation Brief/Inter-Cultural Relations (AOB/ICR).  Five days long, it is supposed to prepare newly arrived individuals for living in Japan.  I would say that the first two days are a myriad of briefs that are no different than any brief a sailor would get in the states.  I mean they were all helpful in pointing out the location of their offices on Yokosuka but beyond that they were relatively little value.  The briefs are generic and tailored for the brand new sailor; new to the Navy, new to Japan.  I was especially fond of the preaching lecture I received from the DAPA (Drug and alcohol guy).  I was surprised he could see us meager alcoholics from his pulpit!  After his 45 minutes, he was allotted 20, I Googled Betty Ford to see if they had any openings, but then I figured that would be quitting.  

The next three days, were great.  The class was taught by Mr Aoki.  A Japanese citizen who works for Fleet Family Services.  I'm not sure of his complete history, but he went to college at the University of Alabama and has been teaching ICR for about 10 years.  He taught us many things Japanese from Sumo, to money, to religion etc.  It was excellent.  The final exercise was a field trip to Kamakura, a city that used to be the capital of Japan in the Shogun era, approximately 1100 to 1350.  Amie and I saw some Shinto Shrines, did some shopping and ate just a little bit.  The most important part was us finding our way home on our own using the trains!

The final event of the AOB was the driving test.  Today was a safety brief and written exam to which I am happy to report that both Amie and I passed.  We now have a practical test Monday morning and then we'll be let loose on the roads of Japan.  I don't think we'll leave the base too soon in a car.  Driving in Japan is a bit intimidating, while the speed limits are less, the roads are narrow and the signs are, not surprisingly, a little difficult to decipher.  The one great piece of advice about driving was given by Mike, the local driving registration guy who's been driving here about 10 years, which was to be "Patient, Patient, Patient".

The one thing needed in excess, that can not be stocked up on but you pray you have enough...patience!  Navy Lodge living requires an inordinate amount.   Fortunately, the other good news we got this week was the housing situation.  Well, sort of good news.  We will be able to move into a house January 15th.  Unfortunately, that will be a temporary house until one becomes available on base Yokosuka.  Until then we are living in the Lodge.  At least we have two rooms, I just hope I have enough patience to last!

"That family" has arrived

I forgot to mention earlier about our arrival.  I wasn't going to bring it up but Amie mentioned that I should so now it is far game.

Remember when I told you how Liam said "I don't think I can survive the flight!"  Well when I heard that, as the extremely tired stressed out parent, I patiently and quietly told him he "better toughen up, because he really can't get off the plane!"  I know, not my best work, I hope the academy doesn't hold it against me for this year's Dad of the Year award.  Anyways, now Liam is still half asleep and starts to complain that his stomach hurts.  Of course it does, what else would happen after you've been up way too long and didn't eat anything and the plane is on its final descent into the airport.

This time Amie jumps in and tells him he'll be fine and just relax.  I tell Amie to give him the barf bag.  You know the little bags they put on planes with the twist tie top to hold it all in.  Amie said "No, let's not give him any ideas."  Well after we land, and he continues to complain, Amie finally gives him the bag and says "if you don't feel good use this".  Nothing like a good solid dare!

Now if one adult male gave a barf bag to another adult male, it would come with the implied "here you go Sally, I'm sorry your tummy hurts...wuss!"  To which the queazy adult male would do everything in his power to not throw up.  Well when you give a 10 year old a barf bag, that is not necessarily how it goes.

To Liam's credit, he did a fine job.  He held out until the customs room was completely full and had started to form into two lines at the customs agent's desk.  He then stepped to the side of the front of the line and began to fill the bag.  Not quietly by the way.  It was quite impressive with plenty of heaves and coughs and spits.  As I was standing in the front of the line about 10 feet away, I had a dilemma...go help him or keep our place in line?  I am sure every dad out there would look at it from this point of view.

Thankfully Amie stepped over and helped him out.  My new dilemma at this point was whether to claim the bag or not.  I couldn't remember if he ate any fruit on the flight and if it would still need to be claimed at this point.

It's amazing how much space a crowd gives a kid who has thrown up and is holding a bag of puke.  He was able to casually walk over to the garbage can past the agent's desk without anyone saying a thing.  I noticed he had a 10 foot 'buffer' zone around him the rest of the time in customs.

After customs, when we boarded the bus with just minutes before it starts the 2 hour trek to the base, we continued our "That family" status as we had another Liam incident.  The acoustics on the bus were much better for his encore performance.  This was accompanied by Lila desperately needing water and Harrison forgetting to carry the one bag Amie asked him to carry.  Can you imagine the look on my face as this all went down?  I am sure it was a cross between angry gorilla and raving lunatic.  Even Amie's definition of 'The Face' wouldn't capture the moment.

The remainder of the bus crowd, all young sailors, ages 19 to 24 at the most, where entertained to say the least.  The Brock performance was truly eye watering.

I don't think I can survive the flight!

How can you make a 10 hour flight from the US to Japan longer?  Simple, put a 6 hour prior to takeoff showtime and then after the customs brief put on a 2.5 hour bus ride!  Nothing says easy transit like an 19 hour evolution.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, our flight out of Pensacola was relatively easy.  The flight from Dallas to Seattle, not so much.  Who knew that 35 minutes between flights wouldn't be enough time.  Thankfully the airline was extremely slow and inefficient and we were able to make the flight.  The other surprise of the flight was that if you are in the last row you are pretty much guaranteed ZERO Food options.  Perfect!

Seattle was great.  We took the day and went into the city to see the standard tourist areas...Original Starbucks, Space Needle and Pike's Place.  It was cold and rainy so we spent the afternoon in the pool at the hotel, with an early dinner and a couple of hours of sleep before our "Oh dark thirty" showtime.

I will say that the process went along with very few problems.  Unfortunately, the kids, especially the little ones, had a really long day with very little sleep.  I think poor Liam was so excited about the flight and getting to Japan he didn't really fall asleep until very late in the flight.  We made the mistake of waking him up to eat because we didn't know when he'd get another chance.  He spent the last hour and a half being absolutely miserable.  The little guy, in a half sleep state, finally pronounced, "Dad...I don't think I can survive this flight!"

I am happy to announce that he did survive the flight and is doing quite well acclimating to the new time zones, even-though we are living in a Navy Lodge room for the foreseeable future!

The mind is an amazing thing...

Slightly delayed due to limited access...

There are a number of needed items to complete a successful move overseas.  One of the most important is great friends who although don't want you to move away, move heaven and earth to help you out.  I can't thank our neighbors Dana and Michele enough for all the help the gave us, laundry, open home, a ride etc.  Thank you!

One aspect of support I wasn't expecting was the pseudo-marriage counseling!  At the summit of stress, I went over to Dana's house to ask for a power drill.  As I approach I made a small joke about Amie's priority list.  Dana's reply was simply, "You know, the mind is an amazing thing.  It will forget the bad stuff over time."  The funny part is that Dana gave the same advice to Amie five minutes prior when she said, "I hope to make it to Japan with my marriage in tack!"

Needless to say, we made it out of the house with all of our stuff and left it in great shape for our renters.  We owe Dana and Michele a huge thank you for the help they provided.  We look forward to them coming out to visit.

Goodbyes are never easy

Having moved every 2-3 years, changing locations is just another thing we do.  With texts, email, Skype, Facebook...now blogs etc, it is easier now to stay in touch than ever before.  Of course, I still have to write the emails, which is something I'll need to work on.  Amie is much better at it.

None-the-less, goodbyes are not easy.  I feel bad for my mom.  It is easy to forget that there is another side to our goodbyes.  While we are excited to have completed our tour here and are very excited about the adventures that lie ahead our goodbyes are said with anticipation.  My mom's are said with knowing there will be long bouts of separation and increased difficulty with keeping in touch.  All the assurances of visits and Skypes sessions to come won't help the initial sadness with goodbye.

Bitter Sweet

Somehow we've jumped to Sunday!  The last time I looked at my watch it was Friday morning and I was waiting around my office (which I no longer own) for the change of command ceremony to start.  I won't dwell on it too much but it was great.  All the folks who helped put it together did a great job.  Aaron Dimmock did a phenomenal job with the National Anthem, as I knew he would.  ADM Buck was very gracious in his speech, and I was especially appreciative of the kind words he said about Amie.  Split and the squadron presented me with an amazing Wing Flash, the size of a deployment plaque, with all their names on it!  It is great.  I actually got through my speech without choking up, until the very end.  I had 5 lines about family, I got through the first 2!  I purposely didn't look at Amie and boys to try to help me get through the speech, but it didn't work.  I had to pause and then read really fast.  The ceremony rolled into a great night at Blackwater Bistro!  Thanks to Glen, Pam and Paul for hosting us.

I would be remiss if I didn't give a special shout out to my JOs.  They did a great job trying to screw things up!  I thought I was prepared.  I carried my own speech, and I didn't drink the water which was conveniently put beside my chair.  Unfortunately the other three primary participates took a healthy swig of "water" and then immediately warned my not to drink it.  No kidding, you never drink the water!  You avoid it like you would avoid water from the tap in a third world country.

They did succeed in getting me with the chair.  How they knew which chair I would be sitting in, I don't know, but they pulled it off.  I didn't even think of the chair as I sat down in it and sank just about to the floor!  They had remove the support board underneath so my elbows were up by my shoulders as a sat there looking like a little kid in a far too big chair.  Fortunately my chair was right behind the podium so I wasn't that visible, or at least that's what I'm telling myself.

No one claimed responsibility for removing the script from the book, so I had to ad-lib my orders.  Special thanks to Ms. Sue who told me my orders number the day before.  It went something like this:
Sue - "Hey Peanut, your orders number is 1752."
Me - "Sue, why do I need to know that?'
Sue - "Just in case.  Just remember them."
Me - "Really!?, that's what the script is for."

Jokes on me.

Go sell crazy some place else...

A kid came to the door today selling crazy, I politely told him to go some place else, we're all stocked up!

We got home last night from my final T-6 flight and walked right into a punch in the nose!  The realization that the storage movers were coming the next morning drove home just how far behind we were!  We'd been putting stuff out for weeks, but that ended up being only about 25% of what needed to be put out.  The biggest pain in the butt is the washer and dryer leaving!  So it was a mad dash to do all the laundry before the morning!  I know that last statement sounded like I helped with the laundry, but we all know that it was mostly Amie, I helped fold and said I was sorry multiple times and promised her that everything would be alright.

So the late night turned into an early morning as I woke up at 4:30, mind racing because I still haven't written my CoC speech!  Yes I know it is in a couple of days!  The good news is that I got it done!  Amie even likes it.  Evidently when everyone else is still sleeping, except Harrison, he was at swim practice, it is possible to get some work done.  

The packers are here, rapidly getting our stuff into boxes and onto the truck.  The day so far has turned into a cold rainy day of running errands, dealing with emails from my sponsor and watching Amie get through on-line anti-terrorism training.  The email from the sponsor listed all the stuff I'll be doing over the next few months.  I guess I won't be able to hang in the Navy Lodge while we wait for a house, I'll have to work...darn the luck.  Amie was pretty funny with the training.  Once she got over the idea that Common Sense is not a common virtue, she rolled right through it.  She is definitely the type that will look to counter-attack.  During the hostage scenario, she looked for the "shoot the hostage" option! 

Final Flight

Yesterday was relatively easy, helo fam flight in the morning with the CO of HT-18.  It was a ton of fun...Thanks Rob White!  Then I flew my final flight in the T-6B as the CO of VT-3.  Kind of a bummer, but it was a great flight, definitely made the most of it, with one of the new IPs in the squadron.  Amie and the kids met me at the plane along with a bunch of the IPs for the obligatory dousing of champagne and toss in the pool, followed by a couple of beers in the bar.  Not the kids of course, they had soda and candy bars in my office, yah, I'm a great dad!

Like I said, it was a fun flight.  Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  I think Lila has the best opinion...

"This S*&% just got real!"

Well I think we've been avoiding the daunting challenge that lies ahead by hiding behind near term vacations, trips and projects.  Now that the Disney trip is over, and it was great, and we've spent Thanksgiving with family in Greenville South Carolina, another great trip, all that remains is the process of getting out of town.  Of course with a little Change of Command ceremony in the middle of it!

A conversation with Amie sums it up...
Amie: "We're moving to Japan!"
Phil: "Uh, yes we are."
Amie: "This shit just got real!"

For those who don't know, Amie is...let's call it, much better off if things are specifically planned out.  I wouldn't use the phrase 'control freak' because she doesn't have to be in control so to speak, she just has to know that things are laid out with specific detail as to how they are going to go.  Oh, and I would never call her a freak.  So amid the various piles of our stuff laid around the house, and the ever growing lists of lists, we are riding the fine line between just about all ready and chaos.

Here's our timeline for the next couple of weeks:
Monday, 26 Nov - Express shipment/Final Flight for me in the T-6.
Tuesday, 27 Nov - Storage shipment, more shots at the hospital.
Wednesday, 28 Nov - Family starts to arrive.  Need to buy booze. (Completely unrelated, just need to buy booze for the weekend...I swear.)
Thursday, 29 Nov - More family arrives, guest speaker arrives, rehearsal, final selectors ceremony.  Still gotta figure out where we'll feed our guests.  Either at a restaurant or in our half empty house.  Did I mention that half our stuff will be gone because of the storage move?  Remember we are moving from 2600 sq feet to about 1500 sq feet.
Friday, 30 Nov - Change of Command.
Saturday to Tuesday - Family guests, final preps or house to rent.
Wednesday 5, Dec - Final movers, we start hotel living!

Then the flights begin!  I am sure there will be a separate post about those...how couldn't there be?  The Brock's getting on a flight from Pensacola to Japan with a stop in Seattle for just about 24 hours.  Everything will be just fine.

Travel details and prepping the house

Well we finally received our details for travel to Japan.  After multiple phone calls and emails we got exactly what we were hoping NOT to get.  Oh well.  On the up side, we'll still get to Japan it'll just be on the rotator via Seattle vice a small lay over in Hawaii.  Almost as frustrating was the folks at PSD who continued to screw up the paperwork...leaving someone off the message, or misspelling a name, or getting a name wrong all together.  I didn't expect much better, that is the nature of PSD.  Unfortunately, now-a-days, it has to be done via the phone with extremely rude, impersonal contractors who I believe don't care about the customer, only completing paper, no matter how inaccurate it is.  I actually had one lady, I use that term begrudgingly, tell me that I shouldn't be calling her.  The preferred method was to speak to a different person and then have to run to this witches desk with the questions...ultimate efficiency.  Evidently customer satisfaction isn't a consideration at PSD.  A fine example of when you are the only business in town you can treat your customers like crap.

Thankfully, the people I have working the VT-3 Admin shop are true experts and got us through the ordeal.  Thank you Sue and Tina!  You truly are the best.

On the home front, the house is roughly divided into three piles...storage, going and trash/goodwill/recycling.  If you are a burglar, go for the middle room, it is the storage stuff, things I am certain will be lost over the next three years, so I have resigned myself to losing them.

Of course, now is the time that all the little things in the house need to be fixed.  I didn't remember the cabinet in the kitchen being broken and this week was the perfect time for the boys to break their closet door.  I actually had a couple of seconds of free time, thankfully they filled that void with a trip to Lowes.

Overall it is coming along.  We had a great trip to Disney World last week so the chores ahead of us seem daunting after having a carefree trip.  Eye on the prize, we'll eventually get to Japan...I just hope we all still like each other by then.

Where to begin?

(Actually wrote this a week ago, but didn't post it correctly.)

Well about 3 months ago we were notified of our pending PCS move to Japan.  We probably should have started this blog then to account for all the hurdles you have to jump through to get everything in order. We are glad we didn't, that would have been a boring bunch of posts expressing at times frustration and doubt.  Now we have most of those hurdles behind us and are in the final countdown to Change of Command and heading overseas and are very excited!  The one big lesson to pass on all the prep work is...start early, if you can.

As we enter the final weeks we still have to sort out the travel.  The mighty efficient (Italics for sarcasm) bureaucracy of PSD takes weeks to decide what I could have done on Expedia in an hour.  Needless to say we are still waiting on our final plans.

The good news is we are heading to Disney World one last time, not because of the Mayans, stupid calendar, but for one last trip prior to Japan.  What's funny is how everyone I tell, who knows Amie, that we are going to Japan, feels the need to remind me that there is a Tokyo Disney!  Following Disney, there's the Change of Command Party, then a short week for Thanksgiving, then the CoC.  Holy crap that's fast.