Okay, as Rebecca pointed out it’s been a looong time since I’ve posted, but we’ve been really busy. Jeff came home
Of course, leave it to Catie to ask Jeff if he was her Daddy.
Soon after Jeff got back, school started


Hurray for having 2 kids in the same school, but getting everyone’s backpacks and change bags ready everyday can sometimes be a challenge. (As a note for those concerned, we got Sean a bigger uniform so he doesn’t look quite so long and skinny anymore.)
Three days after school started, we caught a hop on a C-130 up to Tokyo. Thank goodness it was only a 3 hr flight… you fly in back with the cargo, in net seats, and there is no toilet, only a bucket, surrounded by a circle of parachute material. Needless to say, Catie was absolutely thrilled about the ride.
By the time we landed, made it to lodging and found some grub for the kids, it was after 11pm. The next day was Friday and a recovery day, we just played at the park on base, had Catie take a nap, and explored out in town and found an Indian restaurant for dinner. Both Sean and Catie enjoyed the tandoori chicken, so we need to investigate the Indian restaurants around Okinawa.
Saturday we went to the coolest park, only about a 1/2 hr train ride away. We also caught the last good day of Cherry Blossoms and the beginning of the flower festival there.



As you can see it was a big picnic day, there was hardly space to walk under those cherry trees. And they had the coolest play areas!
There were these huge “clouds?” to jump on, and then a whole series of stone and mosaic dragons to climb all over, with built in slides and tunnels. Adjacent to that was a little stone valley to walk and climb your way through. Just a totally awesome park, Sean and Catie loved it!
The next day was Easter Sunday, we checked out of lodging at Yokota, hopped on a bus and went to the New Sanno in Tokyo. We had Easter brunch and Sean got his picture with the Easter bunny. Catie was terrified of him…I don’t know why, he was pink!
From the New Sanno, we caught a taxi to Hardy Barracks. If we didn’t have kids, it would be a totally cool place to be, right at the edge of the Roppongi area where there is a ton of night life, but with two little ones, you only get to dream about it. Monday, according to Sean and Catie, we made it to Tokyo. For them, you haven’t made it to Tokyo until you are at Disney.
We timed our vacation right, so neither the Japanese or Americans were on school vacation. The longest lines were 30 minutes, and for It’s a Small World, the Teacups and the carousel, you just walked right on. The nice thing with Catie getting a little older, we were able to skip her nap and stay until 6pm. After that we went one train station back, hopped on a bus, and went to the sushi go round that we frequented on our last trip to Disney.
Tuesday was another recovery day, just an almost quick trip (if I hadn’t gotten us on a train headed in the wrong direction) to the Tokyo tower.
Somehow I never got a picture of the outside of the tower, it was pouring rain as we were ready to leave.
Wednesday was another fun day. We took the train to the Ueno zoo, Rebecca will have to remind me how to pronounce it correctly.
The first half of the zoo looks like it has been recently remodeled, with small but natural enclosures. The other half of the zoo still has the small concrete and bar enclosures. Catie sure did take advantage of some of the up closeness those new enclosures provided.
The next day it was back to Yokota, and the following morning a flight back to Okinawa on the Patriot Express. Hopefully we won’t have to use that again, as it’s alot of hurry up and wait, much worse than the regular Space-A hops. Since then we’ve been busy every weekend with soccer, a trip to the aquarium,
and multiple trips to the zoo (we have enough pictures from there to last a lifetime).
Hope this makes you happy Rebecca!