Titles. Always trying to think of titles for these things. Unfortunately I have nothing right now. The last 14 days have been a blur.
11MARCH2011
After visiting family in the states for 16 days, my family and I hop a flight back to Tokyo. Getting on the flight and the actual flight itself was pretty uneventful. Easy going. Kendall and I were separated on the plane, he sat up front with our son and I sat on the wing (as always) with my daughter. After trying to catch some sleep that never came, we decided to switch seats so that Kendall could get some rest. Sitting on an international flight, there are TV screens on the back of every seat, as well as two big screens at the beginning of the "coach" seats. It lists the miles you've traveled, how far until you land, time in the air, how fast you're going, etc. I was watching the miles go down, desperate to get off the plane and back to our normal lives.
"To Destination: 30mi"
Awesome! Almost home!
Pilot: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we were just informed that Narita Airport has been closed due to a small earthquake. We're being re-routed to Yokota...."
Awesome.
So, we land in Yokota and sat. And sat. And sat. For 5 hours. The Air Force wouldn't let us off the plane because they didn't want Japanese Nationals on their base, but it took them 5 hours to decide that.
Re-route to Nagoya Airport. 5 hours away from Yokosuka.
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12MARCH2011
We land in Nagoya. No trains are running. No room in any of the hotels. People are sleeping in airports. Kendall said that no, that wasn't about to happen to us, so we agreed to pay....are you ready??? 100,000Yen (1,234 USD) for a taxi ride from Nagoya to Yokosuka. We were able to talk the guy down to 80,000Yen...around 1,000 USD though.
So we're driving. The kids are sleeping. We're trying to sleep. Again, smooth sailing. 90 miles from home...traffic. Dead stop. The Tsunami had closed the Tomei Expressway. The taxi driver told us in extremely broken English that the train in Shizuoka was running.
0400, we paid the driver 60,000Yen since he didn't take us the whole way...and waited for a train that was running at 0513.
One thing you have to understand is that train stations in Japan (at least every one I've been to) are outside. There is no heat. It was 34 degrees outside. We had both our kids in just flimsy jackets, in 30 degree weather for over an hour, waiting on a train. Come to find out, the train wasn't running. All that for nothing.
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So we walk to the nearest hotel. No rooms. Luckily, the clerk spoke pretty good English and did everything he could to find us a way home. He brought the kids something to eat, along with Calpis to drink. A Japanese girl was making Origami birds for them too.
(It wasn't until we got here that we actually saw how bad the Earthquake and Tsunami were. All were told on the plane was that it was a "small" earthquake and that "a few" people had died. But no, it was much worse. )
After about an hour or two of sitting in the hotel, the guy finally found a running train. He called a taxi for us and we took off.
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We pay the driver over $50USD probably, and go inside to buy a ticket.
Our Passmo cards didn't work. Our bank cards didn't work. We had no Yen because we had to run to meet our flight before we left the states and had no time to get to the money exchange.
Teared up. Stressed out. Tired.
Kendall wouldn't stop until he knew we could get home. He stood in a line and THANKFULLY got a lady who spoke English, he told her what was going on and she helped us out big time. We spent $130USD, but she got us tickets on the bullet train to Yokohama, and tickets to get us from there to Yokosuka. I did cry then, I was so happy to be going HOME.
We get to our platform and make sure we were waiting for the right train...then we hear this...."weeeeeee" sound, and to our left came a bullet train. Fast as lightening. So of course, because I'm like a 5 year old sometimes, I start jumping and down because we were going to get to ride it!!
We get on the train, take off with speed like hell. Turn a corner and BOOM...there's the ever beautiful Mount Fuji. As close to her as I've ever been, and probably ever will be. Fuji-san is definitely a sight.
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We arrive in Shin-Yokohama, have to catch another train to the actual Yokohama (thanks to the help of a Japanese lady who told us we were on the wrong train and who helped get us to the right spot), only to find out when we get there that the stations to Yokosuka are not up and running. Cry some more. SO CLOSE TO HOME!
Screw it, we'll pay for ANOTHER taxi to get us from Yokohama to the base.
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$120 later...we see main gate! Turn to go in.
Security: "Uh, this taxi can't come on base, you'll have to turn around." And they wouldn't allow us to get out...we had to go back OFF BASE first.
ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME DUDE?!
So, after bitch-fest 2011 to the security dude...we just do it. We're too damn tired to do anything else, we just want to go home.
We find an on-base taxi..."Asagao Heights. PLEASE."
Driver: "Hai, Asagao"
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13MARCH2011
Uneventful.
14MARCH2011
We start hearing about the nuclear problems at Fukushima Dai-ichi.
15MARCH2011
Wake up, feeling pretty good finally. Kendall went back to work, la dee dah. At 1025, I see a post by CFAY saying that at 0700, the USS George Washington detected radiation.
FREAK. OUT. Why in the world would they wait THAT LONG before telling us we had radiation on our base????
I call Kendall, tell him he needs to come home at lunch so we can talk about getting the kids out of Japan. I mean, I'm thinking we have a ton of radiation all around us.
He comes home, says I don't need to leave because XO says I shouldn't. There's no reason to. XO calls me personally to assure me Yoko is SAFE. He said that GW picked up a spike in radiation above normal background levels, and hadn't picked it up again. I felt so much better.
16MARCH2011
I wake up, feeling safe in my home. Our ship was holding an FRG meeting later that night, so I was running around getting ready for that. XO talks to everyone, assures us everything is fine.
Good to hear.
17MARCH2011
Again, I wake up feeling great. I take the kids out to the commissary and NEX. When we got there...I heard numerous groups of Sailors saying, "We're getting the f*** out on Saturday, thank God."
Who in the hell ever WANTS to get underway you know?
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I go home and send Kendall a text to make sure everything was still ok. Yes, it was.
Later, we find out about an explosion or something at the plant, they were worried about the fuel rods leaking and that the containment chambers had been breached.
18MARCH2011
Nothing but a huge ball of stress. One minute its safe, the next it's not.
"Evacuation" "It's just a precaution."
Kendall calls.
"Get a plane ticket and get the kids out of here."
Naturally...when your husband says that, you freak.
A thousand questions end up in one answer: "I'm tired of being jerked around."
He wanted to get our kids out of Japan because no one knew if it was really safe or not. Evacuate or not? The base kept flip-flopping on what to do. He tells me that his ship, which was currently under maintenance, was going to be getting underway. But why?! Yokosuka is SAFE! At least that's what you people told us!! What do yall know that you're not telling us?!
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Bought the tickets for me and the kids. We were to fly out 20MARCH.
19MARCH2011
Pack. Cry. Pack some more. Knowing my family was about to be separated for an unknown amount of time was heartbreaking. I looked around our home at all the things I hoped we'd come back for. All those things that couldn't fit in a suitcase. I was seriously a blubbering idiot for most of the day.
20MARCH2011
The day we had to leave. I was both relieved and heartbroken at the same time. I wanted our kids to be safe...but I did not want to leave Kendall. At all. A friend of his drove us to the airport, and all I could do was hold his hand, wondering when I'd get to do that again. I so dreaded him walking away from us at the airport. What would the kids think? How would they react when they realized he wasn't coming with us?
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Not good. Hardest thing...ever.
But, no one will EVER tell us we didn't do the right thing. Only people who don't have kids would say that. When you look at your child, so innocent, and think of the things that are headed their way...your only thought is, "I have to keep my kids safe." So we flew back to the states. We decided to separate our family for the safety of our children. If you ask me, and maybe my husband would agree, I don't speak for him though...I think it makes us stronger to be able to do this. I hear people say, "Well I'm a strong military wife because I'm not leaving." Well...I'd rather be a strong MOTHER. I'd rather my husband be a strong FATHER. I don't want to worry if the food they're eating is contaminated with toxic materials. If the water we're drinking has unsafe levels of radiation in it.
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Japan is a gorgeous country. The Japanese people are beyond amazing. The devastation they faced, and are still facing, is enough to bring anyone down, and yet they are still overcoming. What we went through was nothing compared to what some went through. Thousands, upon thousands of people died, are still dying because they have no food, no water, no shelter, no heat. It's terrible.
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But - that's my story of the last couple of weeks. It's been a crazy roller coaster ride. <----Just got my title.
