Arriving in Japan and Celebrating a 1-year -old

 Because of COVID travel plans were much different than normal.  We flew directly onto the base where we would be living and went directly into quarantine (or Restriction of Movement).  We luckily got place in a small appartment that was part of the on base hotel.  It was nice to have multiple rooms and not a single hotel room. 

It was interesting because we were in a foreign country, but it hardly felt different because we'd hardly been outside and we hadn't been off base (which is a bit like a pocket of America in Japan).  Therefore it didn't feel very foreign to us.  Besides seeing how cars look different here and some food and snacks people brought over for us.

I will say however that this was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever been through.  It was hard to not be able to do things for yourself like go shopping, pick up things you need, or even set up school and housing on our own for when we got out.  We were blessed with so many sweet people, that we didn't even know, willing to help us, get us information, lend us toys, bake us treats and even check out housing possibillities for us.  I am so thankful for how helpful people are here.  We honestly couldn't have survived without them.  Jake's sponser was wonderful and even made us dinner several times.  People from our church reached out to us and people that had no connection with us other than being stationed here at Yokota AB.

Ice cream waffles (at least that's what we call them)

A train set someone lent us...it was so great to have

Pokemon crackers

Yummy kit kat flavors

Animal crackers here are cool too

We spent our time doing "school", playing hide and go seek (again wonderful in new and empty spaces), doing kid yoga, eating pancakes A LOT, and doing movie afternoons (we tried to introduce our kids to a few classics like Jason and the Argonaughts, Princess Bride, and Ghost Busters).  It was a fun family time with no distractions.  We also caught kids being silly and original because they had to be inventive for their fun.

I will say I was a little stressed about getting the kids registered for school, finding a house, and learning how to get a car and liscence to drive her in Japan.  But that was just me being a worrier.

At the end of the two weeks we tested negative for COVID, and we got out of quarantine on Kai's first birthday.  Double celebration, and celebrate we did.