Traveling in Japan

Lately, I've been feeling a bit more adventurous and branching out a bit more. For example, I took the kids to the beach and we've been exploring Iwakuni a bit more. Well, I was recently given the opportunity to really test my desire for adventure.

It began with the fact that Charlie has to travel to Yokosuka, which is a Naval base, to get the surgery to repair his torn ACL. After much deliberation, we decided I would stay home with the kids since I was till teaching summer school and he took a medical attendant with him. He left July 19th and was scheduled to return July 30th. As the kids and I ran around the day before getting everything ready for his return, he called to let us know that the x-ray revealed a problem with the screw. It looked like it had come loose and would require an additional surgery which had already been scheduled for August 5th. We did some talking and decided the kids and I would join him. The medical attendant's wife initially planned to go as well but she wasn't planning to go until after the surgery so I decided to go up on Tuesday, August 3rd. I went to ITT (Information, Tours & Travel) and asked them to handle my ticket purchase and arrange for a taxi to pick us up. They did everything but told me that I'd have to buy tickets for us on the local train once we got up there. Our trip was layed out to go like this:

The taxi would pick us up at the apartment and take us to Shin-Iwakuni where we would get on the Shinkansen (bullet train) and ride it to Hiroshima. There we would get off that train and get on the next one that would take us to Shinigawa which is one stop before getting to Tokyo. Once getting off the Shin at Shinagawa we would purchase tickets on the local train to the Shiori station, then catch a taxi to the place Charlie was staying on base.

Well, it went pretty well although it was super hot and it was tough dragging a big suitcase and hauling Zach's carseat plus toting him on my back. Clara Grace was a real trooper and carried the backpack we used for his diaper bag and snacks. Luckily we made it all the way to Shinigawa before I ran into a complication. Purchasing tickets for the local train turned out to be difficult. Although ITT had written out my request in Kanji, it was proving to be a tough question to answer. I made my way to a track that I thought would take me there, but could find no way to make my purchase. I learned later on, on the return trip where I should have gone, but was completely getting a bit frazzled. I went to several kiosks as the ITT guy told me to use it but none appeared to be what I needed. As I was nearly at the end of my rope, I looked at saw two college-aged Japanese girls and approached them to see if they could help...and they spoke English!!! I have no doubt God was answering prayers because these girls had to be angels sent to look out for us. They said they were going near my destination, got on the train with us (without us paying anything so I was a bit confused but decided to trust them) and took us to another station where we went through a booth, they talked to the guy, I supplied the fare and tried to pay for them too but they wouldn't let me. They then took me to a kiosk and helped me purchase tickets for us to our final destination. They pointed the way and told me where to go before leaving us. And it took us exactly where we needed to go. I didn't have too difficult a time finding a taxi to take me to the base and found Charlie.

Once I got to his room, he said we might have made the trip for nothing because his appointment that day called for a CT scan that revealed the issue was a bit more involved and his surgeon was going to look into sending him to Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii for the surgery. Luckily, after consulting that surgeon they decided to go ahead and have the surgery on Thursday. Charlie said he was very grateful to have us up there and the kids did really well. I took them out every morning for playground time and to run errands, and again in the afternoon which I thinking helped a lot. We just made sure Charlie had everything he needed before leaving. It was very hot though so we made sure we were equipped with sunscreen and plenty of water. One day was Navy Friendship day and the kids had a lot of fun with that.

The second surgery really was rough on Charlie but he is hanging in there. We went ahead and returned August 10th and he and his attendant were close behind on the 13th.

Luckily the return trip was rather smooth as I had learned the ropes so to speak. There were no travel glitches, but I did still have my share of help as there were places where there was no elevator or escalator and people helped me by carrying the carseat. At the station in Iwakuni this was one of those places and of course as I'm carrying my huge suitcase down the stairs, my purse strap broke, but a kind lady picked it up and carried it for me all the way to a taxi and another lady carried the carseat for me. We were very blessed all around!

Oh, and I'll post a lot of the pictures from our travels in the next day or two.