Kon'nichiwa from Japan!

Well, we made it to Japan with an arguably flawless trip...exhale!

We've now "settled in" (our stuff is still in bags all over the floor) to the Navy Gateway Inn and Suites on the base in Atsugi, where we will stay for 1-2 months until we find housing. So far, our experience of Japan has been wonderful! The country seems very clean, and we have been greeted by countless friendly people, many of whom are military or civilian workers on the base. In fact, we've already been driven around on tours of the base and local area by more than one person, including tips on where to live and where to buy a car. We're still battling jet lag but have a very positive outlook about our time here. Here is a play-by-play account of our last 48 hours:

Step One: Tearful Goodbyes
Of course any new adventures requires some farewells, which was particularly difficult with Jennifer's family since they've always lived within 45 minutes of each other.  Sierra got lots of kisses and Lisa and Tim did pretty well at keeping it together (Jennifer was a mess). Mom and Dad Massoth were kind enough to drive us to the airport, help with our luggage, etc. More tears flowed at the airport, but soon we were off on the first leg of our journey from LAX to Seattle.

Step Two: Seattle and Continued Transit
Our first stop landed us in the Pacific Northwest where we made the most of our layover by meeting up with three of John's friends in the Seattle area (one from a high school Catholic work camp, one from the Naval Academy and one from San Diego). We took in amazing sights of the skyline from Alki Beach and dined on seafood at the Crab Pot before heading to a Newman Center event at the University of Washington. We got back to our hotel room just in time for about 3 hours of sleep before leaving for the airport at 3:30am. Since our transit to Japan was a military flight, we were required to check in early so that people attempting to fly "Space A" (military standby) could get on the flight if there was space. Jennifer was afraid of boarding some sort of cargo plane to cross the Pacific, but everything functioned as a standard commercial flight except there were A LOT more kids and babies than on a traditional overseas flight.  With minimal turbulence and fairly good success at sleeping on the flight, the 9.5 hours in the sky passed fairly quickly. Before we knew it, we were taking in breathtaking views of snow capped Japanese mountain ranges and after asking ourselves several times, "is that mount Fuji?", we unmistakably cast eyes on Japan's most iconic peak.

No, this is not Mount Fuji ;-).

Step Three: Arriving in Japan
Our arrival in our new home country was unique because we didn't fly into an international commercial airport, but rather landed at Yokota Air Force Base.  After exiting the plane onto the tarmac, receiving a briefing from someone in the Air Force about prohibited items and gathering our baggage, we were greeted by Justus, the Lieutenant who John is replacing as FEAD Officer, and loaded into a van for the drive to Atsugi with others from our flight who shared our final destination.  The drive "home" proved to be extremely informative, as we interrogated poor Justus about work, housing, cars, craft stores and bicycle riding (those last two were Jennifer's questions :-)).

Step Four: Dinner with New Friends
After checking into our new digs and getting a tour around the base, we headed out to dinner with Justus and another of John's coworkers and his wife. What did we eat? Sushi, of course! The outing was more than an experience for the taste buds, as we dined in a typical "sushi go round" at which the dinner choices came around on a conveyor belt or could be ordered from a touch screen at our table. The best part was when music played to let us know that the items we had ordered were passing our table. Simply quirky, simply amazing :-).

Yep, we were pretty tired at this point.

Step Five: Embark on Day 2
Day 2 in our new country was a Saturday, where we faced a unique situation: we had no plans for the weekend. That novel concept, combined with the aforementioned jet lag, led us to sleep in WITHOUT setting an alarm for the first time since our honeymoon. After chatting on Skype with Jennifer's parents we headed out for a walk around the base and further exploration of the available resources. Only a short time into our exploratory stroll, we ran into a civilian worker and his wife who we had met the previous day, and they were kind enough to offer us a ride to the local used car lot and insight into the process. After driving around town with them for a while longer, we returned to the base for Mass at 5pm. It was a great crowd with families, couples and individuals and there were many ways to get involved listed in the bulletin. Although we may find a different church once we move into our permanent home, this community seems to have a lot to offer.

What's Next?:
Starting on Monday, both of us are enrolled in a class that will introduce us to life in Japan over several days. We are looking forward to receiving more formal information about getting settled, culture, etc. Also on our list is to contact the housing office to begin our search for a home, get Japanese cell phones and purchase a car. Until all of these things are accomplished, we'll take it one day at a time and perhaps sleep in again tomorrow :-).