4:47 a.m. in MCAS Iwakuni's temporary lodging...

... and the kids and I are wide awake. They are eating Honey Nut Cheerios and I am soothing the Internet withdrawals I was suffering from. For whatever reason, the internet in our "temporary lodging" room on base was not working last night, which rationally, I knew was not the end of the world, but emotionally, I felt completely cut off from the world as I knew it. I had a small panic attack and fell in to an exhausted slumber at around 11:30 p.m. Only to wake up at 3:37 a.m. to the sound of my two children watching Brazil and Egypt playing soccer for the Olympics on TV. I kindly explained that they could watch TV for a little while but then they must turn it off and go back to sleep. I had a failed attempt at going to back to sleep and decided that, if you can't beat them, join them.So, I, too, am watching an Olympic soccer game I couldn't care less about as I type this.

I don't have too many pictures to show off here, yet. It was dark was we drove from the Hiroshima airport to the base. I have learned that planes and airports pretty much look the same where ever you go. San Francico, Tokyo Narita and Hiroshima all had a familiarity to them. Japanese customs was a breeze - they didn't even look through any of our bags. However, the flight attendants only gave us one immigration form for the whole family, which was apparently wrong. We needed one for each family member, so there was a delay while we filled those out. But the customer service at the Japanese airports was amazing. They actually went above and beyond to make sure our entire family was able to sit together - something American Airlines didn't bother with when we flew to California (my kids sat with another adult while Rodney and I got center seats in other rows nearby.) We were never charged anything for our eight VERY HEAVY bags. And Rodney's friend and fellow Marine was kind enough to pick us up at the airport in a rented van so we didn't have to navigate the Hiroshima train and bus system after being up for nearly 24 hours. We were upgraded to Economy Plus seats so we had more leg room and the flight to Tokyo was not full, so we had plenty of room. Overall, the trip was as good as we could have hoped for.

Here are the few pictures I have from my iPhone:

A huge touch-screen memory game kept the kids busy for awhile at SFO.

On the flight from SFO to Tokyo Narita you had an option for a hot ham sandwich or noodles. I chose noodles.

Blurry but proof we made to to Tokyo.

My first purchase with Japanese yen... three bottles of nasty iced tea. 450 yen is about $5.75 USD.

Waiting for our ride in Hiroshima - the kids are tired and a bit like zombies.

So, now I am going to try to head back to bed for an hour or two. I know I am feeling OK now, but I am sure it will hot me about 3 p.m., this afternoon, right when i am trying to memorize the way to the grocery store or something.