Surviving the first month at Yokosuka Naval Base - Getting There

It is amazing that we arrived here at Yokosuka only one month ago. There are lots of adjectives to describe our time here to this point - interesting, tiring,
confusing, frustrating, exciting, challenging, fascinating. In a way, it was like taking baby steps on the way to learning how to walk.

First steps - Getting to Japan

1) The flight from the United States consisted of two flights totaling 17 hours - with a short break (about an hour and half) at Honolulu. It doesn't sound like that big of a deal but it really does take a lot out of you. So much so, we have decided that, in the future, we are going to try to stay a couple of days in Honolulu. But more on that later.

2) Culture shock set in for the first time as we tried to enter the waiting room in Honolulu for Japan Airlines. The security guard - who only spoke a couple of words of English - kept saying that this was for Japan. We said "yes, Japan" several times - he finally let us in when we showed him that our tickets were, indeed, taking us to Japan. We thought that was a little strange until we turned the corner and saw only Japanese passengers in the room and heard only Japanese being spoken. Even though there wasn't a lot of time left before the plane was supposed to leave, I decided to go find a bathroom. When I got back, Mona was crying a little - stressed because she thought I was going to miss the flight and stressed because the realization had set in that our world was definitely changing.

3) The culture shock continued on the plane ride. The stewardesses were so nice and polite, very cool gadgets that I hadn't seen on other flights - like our own t.v. screens and on-demand videos and games. And everything was Japanese - the voice on the intercom, the signs, the safety cards, magazines and the in-flight dinner was distinctly Japanese. It was a very surreal experience.

4) Once we arrived at Haneda Airport, we had a lot of difficulty getting past customs. We had our no-fee passports and travel orders, but they also wanted to see our military i.d.'s - which we were not supposed to get until we arrived at the base. Like a scene from the movies, they even took us to a separate room. After much discussion, a gentleman came out looking exasperated and proceeded to stamp our passports like he was taking out his frustrations of having to deal with people who had no idea what they were doing.

5) We had a ride pre-arranged from the airport to the base. It was another surreal moment seeing the stunning skyline as we traveled at night from Tokyo through Yokohama to Yokosuka.

6) At the main gate, we again had a little trouble with our paperwork - it ended being just enough to get us past security. But we did finally make it to what would become our home for the next 3 weeks - Navy Lodge Yokosuka.