How to say goodbye?

As many of you have been reading, we finally have orders, and we are heading home to Peoria. I have been absent from my home town since 1992 except for a summer here and there and of course vacations. Unfortuneately our arrival home will be 15 days too late. We received news last week that my Grandma was not doing well. She had been in the hospital for a minor surgery, but when you are 90 nothing is ever minor. She did well and recovered and was even going to start to receive real food when she started not feeling well. Needless to say she didn't do well after that and joined my grandpa in heaven at 0225 Friday May 29th. I am at peace with her death and though I wish I could have been there to hear the stories that everyone tells at funerals and see all the family, the trip would have been a difficult one for me since we are leaving Japan on June 12th. So I was left with the difficult decision of what would help me get through this difficult time. I was also left with the idea that leaving for the funeral wouldn't allow me to say a proper goodbye to my friends here in Japan and all the experiences we have had here as a family. I would have missed coffee after church with our friends, going to Tokyo for the day and just enjoying the roller slides with the girls. Then Sunday at Mass, it came to me. Grandma needed to go to heaven so she could see where I have lived, given birth to Julia, worshipped and grown so much as a person. I couldn't be happier for her to see our house(though it is a disaster),see the girls with all their friends and know we have been truly happy here. So now that I must say goodbye I will remember all the good conversations we have had, the advice she has given and the love she has shared. I know it was your time and I have no choice in this but it gives me peace to think you finally got to see Japan.

Let the wild ride start!!

We are so happy that we received Orders on May 14th! Harry had them sitting at his desk when he arrived at work, and we couldn't be happier. We have sent a special thank you to Congressman Schock and his office for there help. The orders say Harry has to be separated from the Navy no later than June 30th. We couldn't be happier to finally have a date. We immediately went to Personal Property on base to set up our move. They needed 12 business days so we did just that. Our move is scheduled for June 4th and 5th. We are then moving into the Navy Lodge, cleaning our house and checking out of it, then turning over the keys to our car. We are so happy to be going home but it is definitely bittersweet. We will miss all our good friends here in Japan and just life in general in Japan. We will not miss mayo on our pizza though. Luckily for me my good friend Diane has been planning on leaving for the past couple of months, so I have been doing things with her for our last time. We went to Tokyo Disney, the Anpanman Museum again, the beach and shopping in Kamakura. I feel like we have done a lot in Japan and will really miss living in this wonderful country! Thank you Japan for being an excellent host to our family for 3 years but we can't wait to be home!!!

Limbo Sucks!

Well, if you're leaving things up to the Navy, better plan for the worst while you're hoping for the best. We were planning on leaving Japan in May, but due to a mistake that took place with Harry's orders to be discharged from the Navy, we are stuck in limbo. We don't know when we will get orders or once we get orders how long it will take to leave Japan. As you know, traveling 5000 miles does take some preparation. This is giving us much stress but we are doing the best we can. Sydney asks Harry every day, "Daddy when will the hospital let you go work in the United States?" It is hard to not be able to give her an answer. Julia has relied on taking things into her own hands as in this picture. She figures 2 pacifiers are better than one!

Sanrio Puroland

We dropped Julia off at the CDC and boarded a bus to take us to Sanrio Puroland! I decided this would be a better trip if I didn't drag Julia along, there are no strollers allowed inside the park and it is mostly shows. I am glad I made this decision because it was an enjoyable day having a child who mostly listened to me. Many of our friends went with us, so Sydney had plenty of friends to play and watch the shows. I never knew Hello Kitty had such a big family and a boyfriend, it was a learning experience for everyone. We saw several shows that were enjoyable though they were in Japanese, watched a parade that of course had Hello Kitty in a beautiful princess dress and of course bought some Hello Kitty souviners.

Tokyo Disney

We finally made it to Tokyo Disney! We have tried to go a couple of times since we arrived here but the weather always seemed to put a damper on things. The Norwood family minus Brian(who is IA in the Phillipines) joined us for our day with the Mouse! The girls were excited for the day and Sydney enjoyed all the rides that we went on. We all really like the Buzz Lightyear ride, but we also did the Teacups, Small World, Dumbo, Space ship thing, and Race car! Julia's favorite part was the big tub of caramel corn that I bought and kept refilling to keep her happy! She enjoyed the rides she could go on but mostly enjoyed the popcorn and riding in the stroller next to her good friend Miranda! This was the first day for the opening of the Monsters Inc. ride but we skipped those long lines but bought a tub of popcorn that has the date on it for a good souvenior! We have a great picture of all of us in front of the castle but I can't get it to load! I will try to put it in the photo gallery!

The Family in Kimono!

We scheduled a day to take our family photo in Kimono. This adventure took all day with driving up to Camp Zama, following the photographer to her house and then getting dressed in Kimono. I was nervous about Julia and weather or not she would get dressed up and smile for pictures but I was pleasantly surprised. She had no problems letting Meiko dress her in the kimono and then smiled well for the camera. We will receive the professional pictures next week and the bonus is we will get a CD with all the pictures on it to do what we want. It was an experience that I was aprehensive about doing but am so glad we did. The girls looked adorable and Harry was able to wear swords! Here are some preview pictures that we took!

Last day at Seika!

Sydney has completed her Japanese preschool education. The Japanese school year ends in March and starts in April so this year we didn't restart Sydney in the new school year. She has really enjoyed Japanese school and has made some really good friends. Here are some pictures from her last day at school and her last time saying sayonara to her Sensei!

Happy 35th in Tokyo!

I was once again fortunate to spend my Birthday in Tokyo. We did this last year when my parents were here and with the beautiful Cherry Blossoms this time of year it was perfect again. This year with the help of a very good friend, Harry and I were able to go to Tokyo overnight alone! That is the greatest birthday present one could ask for but to be in one of the most interesting cities in the world added its own charm. Harry and I enjoyed a quiet Italian lunch in Ginza and did some window shopping on the first day. The weather then turned rainy and cold so after another great haircut at the New Sanno we stayed at the hotel and went to the Wellington's for another great 5 course meal! The following day we slept in til 0630 and then enjoyed some coffee and pastries. We stopped by the Pearl lady for a birthday treat and the took in the sights of Roppongi! It was a great birthday!

Tokyo Marathon....not!

Well we did go and watch the Tokyo Marathon and some of us ran some of it this year but only 10k of the 42k. I signed up last fall for the 10k race that is in conjunction with the Tokyo Marathon. With 50,000 people in the race I thought for sure this would be on for the record books and I was right. It was a mad house and I couldn't believe all the people. The Japanese in general are quiet, you don't honk your horn, talk on the phone in train or restaurant and never have your ringer on in public. I was quite surprised by the cheering that they did on the race course, I am sure it is nothing compared to a marathon in the US but for this country I was impressed. The race was good for me and no hills which made it even better. I enjoyed the challenge of a 10k, since a year ago I could barely run a mile, and think that distance is perfect for me. I hope to do more races soon and looking forward to running with Stephanie, Sarah and Angie when I return home. You gals pick the races and I will be there!

Yokohama St. Patrick's Day Parade

We enjoyed the St. Patricks day parade again this year and dragged along our very Irish friends the O'Connors! We have seen this parade every year since we arrived in Japan and it hasn't changed much but is always a crowd pleaser! The parade itself lasts only 20 minutes or so but it does circle back around so you get to see it twice. Julia really got into it this year and enjoyed every minute of it. The other kids had a great time also. It was a beautiful day and another fun parade! We hope that the Peoria parade can compare next year to Yokohama's!

Ice skating

This past weekend we were invited with one of Sydney's friends from Seika, Mila to go ice skating! There are 3 girls Sydney, Mila and Lani who are best friends at school and also the only English speaking girls in their class. It was going to be Sydney's first time and she was really excited once I told her we were going. I waited until the day before to tell her because you know how many time kids can ask the same question! Sydney and I headed off to meet our friends at the train station. Daddy and Julia stayed home and enjoyed the day together. Sydney and I joined in on a free lesson in the morning that of course was in Japanese but who can't just follow what the others did. Then we tried it out on the ice. She was pretty wobbly at first but after some practice and watching her friends she got the hang of it. This was definitely something that was much more fun with fiends there. If it would have been just us she would have gotten discouraged fast but with her friends there she saw they were falling also and really didn't get too frustrated. The girls all skated for a lot longer than we expected and we started heading home when the meltdowns developed. That was one other nice thing was to see several 4 year olds and know that mine was not the only one melting down! I found this vending machine with gloves. Here in Japan they have vending machines for everything you would ever need at that location! Quite unique to us Americans!

Sapporo Snow Festival

We finally made it to the Sapporo and I am finally getting around to blogging about it. It certainly was a memorable vacation but not for good reasons. Julia threw up before the plane landed in Sapporo and was sick the rest of that day. We still managed to go to the Sapporo Beer Brewery and enjoy a nice lunch and beer. Then we checked into the Sapporo Grand hotel that was 2 blocks from the snow sculptures. That night Sydney and I went out to see some of the sculptures lit up and that was great. Syd even got to go down an ice slide many times. On Friday we went to the Tso-Dome which was another site for the snow festival. It had more ice slides, tube slides, snowman building area and boat ride behind a snowmobile. I grew up with the experience of riding on a sled or taboggen behind the 4 wheeler at the farm so it was interesting to pay for this experience but it was a great time. Harry and Sydney then went down the tubing hill with our good friends the O'Connors and they all had a great time on the tubes. Unfortunately that night Sydney started throwing up and continued to do so all night long. The next morning we extended our stay at the hotel as long as possible. We let the tour group leave us behind and we headed to the airport by train so that Sydney could just sleep on the chairs. We arrived at the airport at 2pm, the tour arrived at 7pm and by then Sydney was feeling better. We boarded our plane a little after 9pm but with the deicing and snow coming down really hard we sat by the gate for a while. Then a little after 10 we were told to deplane and take all your belongings with you. That is never good to hear. Luckily for us both girls had fallen alseep so we just carried them out to the airport and layed them down on the ground with some blankets under them. We had never spend the night at the airport before so we make the most of it! We made it home the next day and were really happy this vacation was over. We will try the next one to Tokyo next weekend, wish us luck!