Massive update!

Ok, so we have been a bit lax in updating (it's really hard to post when you forget the password and the password reminder link is in Japanese- yeesh, what a headache.) Anyway, I'll start this with a tale of our flight out of Fresno. After getting our flight info (which was difficult enough), we finally got on a late flight from Fresno to Seattle (we got a hotel room for about 8 hours since our flight from Seattle to Japan needed us to be there at 6:30 am). By some mystical means, our seats were in World Business Class (i.e. 1st class seats). Now, I had only flown Southwest up to this point and this was a huge (and grateful) surprise. We not only had loads of leg space, but our seats reclined, had a place for headphones, a personal movie/entertainment screen, and a remote for each chair.

But I digress......

Our flight was going pretty well for about 4 hours when the Pilot came over the loudspeaker and mentioned that due to wind and the weight balance, we were heading to Anchorage to refuel. Of course, after landing and sitting for 3 hours in the jet, they let us know that the plane was not taking fuel and they were going to put us up for the night. Wonderful. Elaine was smart and packed some clothing in her carry-on (I did not and had to purchase some). Anyway, since we had never been to Alaska before, we tried to make the best of it.

Some Eskimo Ornaments

These stuffed bears were in the hotel lobby.















My head was cold.













This is the sunset view as we were flying out of Anchorage.













After we got in the new jet(pictured) they flew up, we were in for a long and (thankfully) uneventful flight to Yokota Air Base. Thankfully, the VFA-102 SDO was there to give us a ride back to base. It was good to be off the plane and finally in a room. Updates of our first week to follow.