Summer of Fun, Part I

If you are reading this, you already know we completely failed in our attempt to get to the States this summer.  Well, it wasn't a total failure (from a certain perspective, anyway).  We did manage to find an alternative vacation.  What follows is a description of events and images from our journey.

23 June--Go to Osan AMC terminal to try and get on the Patriot Express.  Access denied.

24 June--Original arrival date for the C-5.

26 June--Actual arrival date of the C-5.  Depart Osan for Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan.  Stay the night in a tiny room at the Shogun Inn at Kadena.

27 June--Leave Kadena for... well, we were supposed to go to Elmendorf, in Anchorage, Alaska.  After two hours of delays on the deck, we finally took off.  Only problem was that the plane had burned so much fuel on the deck that they no longer had enough fuel to make it to a divert field (Eilson, in Fairbanks), so we dropped into Yokota for fuel.  The original intent was to stay long enough to fill up the tanks, about an hour or so.  After two hours of sitting on the deck, the plane officially broke down, so we filed off the thing and into the passenger terminal to find a place to sleep for the night.  Unfortunately, the Kanto Lodge on base was full.  Off base billeting was limited at best, and difficult to access.  The AMC terminal graciously decided to allow us to sleep in the terminal.  Until, that is, 15 minutes before their normal closing time (when half of us were at the BX securing dinner).  At 1945 they decided they could not stay open, and gave us 15 minutes to clear out.  It was pretty obvious that this was not going to happen, and eventually the AMC head shed decided to allow us to remain overnight.  Did I mention there were over 50 passengers looking for a place to sleep?  So, we crowded into the more comfortable areas of the terminal and set up camp.  Our little homestead was in the children's play room.  It came complete with cushioned mat floor (infinitely more comfortable than the hard terminal floor).  We shared this room with five other families (and not small families, either).

In the belly of the beast!  On the C-5 from Kadena to Yokota.

Our accommodations.  The Lipskis slept where the play thing 

in the background is currently sitting.  

Another family was to the left of it.  

Another was to the right of the couches.

Another two families were on the couches and nearby floor.

Another family was off camera, to the right.

28 June--We woke the next morning under the assumption that we'd be leaving by 0900.  Wrong.  By noon the plane was still being worked on.  At 1400 the maintenance crew determined that the plane would not be fixed until the next day, at best.  So, we ran off to the Kanto looking for rooms again.  The AMC terminal was not going to let us sleep on the floor again, nor did we want to.  We secured a spacious three-bedroom pad in the TLF and then tried to figure out how to get 17 people and all their bags to the TLF (which happened to be on the other side of the base).  The local LRS (the guys who own the vehicles) came through for us and sent a bus to transport us to the other side of the base.  By 1900 we were settled in, and we also received word that the plane would definitely NOT be ready to fly the next day.  So we scheduled one more night at the TLF.  By this time we had begun to examine our trip and our plans.  The more we looked at the circumstances, the more we became convinced that God was clearly trying to tell us that this trip was not meant to be.

29 June--After much discussion we decided to pull ourselves from the C-5, then set about trying to prepare a shotgun 4th of July celebration in Japan.  We had one significant limitation--transportation, or lack thereof.  The TLF is on the east side of Yokota.  All major services are on the west side, to include off base access to the trains, etc...  The base has a shuttle that runs hourly, but it is often full and stops running at 2000 on weekdays, 1800 on weekends and holidays.  So, no matter what we did, we'd have to be back on base by 1630 in order to have a chance to catch the shuttle to the east side before it shut down.  We only missed that deadline once.

30 June--This was the day that the C-5 actually left Yokota.  We were sad not to be on the flight, but encouraged because we felt we had made the correct decision (albeit a painfully difficult one).  We very much wanted to see family, but couldn't let that disappointment get in the way of our new plans.  So, goal number one--get off this base and eat something Japanese.  We took the shuttle to main side and walked out the gate and onto Japanese soil.  We walked a few blocks looking for a Japanese restaurant for lunch, and settled on a Chinese restaurant.  The food was decent, but our goal was still not attained.

Owen walks to lunch in Fussa, Japan.

1 July--Today we had two goals: eat at a Japanese restaurant and go see Cars II on opening day.  Number one would be easy.  Just walk a bit further (about half a mile further) than the previous day.  Eventually we found the Fussa city center, and ate lunch at what I think was a type of Japanese fast food restaurant.  All the dishes were rice-based, with some sort of mystery meat.   Kind of a let-down for me, but the kids chowed down, and it was (by Japanese standards) inexpensive.  After lunch we headed back to base.  The movie showed at 1600, and tickets went on sale at 1500.  I wanted to make sure we got tickets, so Owen and I got in line at 1445.  We were the first ones there!  We bought six tickets and raced back to  the TLF to get everyone.  We walked the 200 meters from the TLF to the theater, bought some corn, then settled in for the movie.  I'm not going to ruin the movie for anyone, but the scenes in the movie where they were in Japan totally set the stage for one of our big events on 2 July.

To be continued...