Enroute

We made it out of Kitsap County in the nick of time.  Our airporter had to take a different route because of all of the flooding, but we still got to Seatac 2+ hours before our flight was scheduled to leave.  Once at the airport, the check-in process was slow, but going through security was quick.  My oldest son and husband went through the body scan, while the rest of us went through the regular metal detector.  On our way to the terminal, we saw an older gentleman fall backwards down a few steps on the escalator.  He ended up trying to walk back up the escalator.  It looked so strange because he wasn't progressing up the stairs.  Almost like he was walking in slow motion.  You had to be there, but it was quite the sight.

Anyway, the flight to Tokyo/Narita was about 10 hours long.  The boys sat directly in the row behind us.  They were occupied by the movies, eating, or resting.  Overall, out first flight overseas was uneventful.  Customs and Immigration went quickly.  We were told that Immigration in Japan does a temperature reading, a fingerprint scan, and an eye scan.  We didn't have any of those done.  We had our sponsor waiting for us when we exited Customs.  He rented a mini-van which barely fit our luggage.  The average mini-vans in Japan are considerably smaller than the ones back in the states.  The drive to Yokosuka took over an hour.  There are a lot of tolls booths and it was during rush hour traffic.  Once in Yokosuka, we got settled in The Navy Lodge in an adjoining suite (kids in one room, adults in the other).  We had a welcome package from the Lodge, and another large laundry basket filled with goodies, laundry soap, bandaids, etc assembled by the Spouses Club on base.  Justin had to report to work the following morning so the kids and I planned to acquaint ourselves with the base.