Greetings from the land of the rising sun (that's Japan in case you were schooled in America).

After quite a series of international traveling ordeals, all members of the Spencer party, to include their 4000 pounds of personal luggage (an exaggeration but not by much), arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni around 11 PM local time Friday, Sept 11th, or 9 AM Friday, central time in the US. Everything went perfectly smooth and according to schedule during our first flight, from Kansas City to Denver. From this point on in our travels, however, this was not to be repeated. I will try to elaborate in excruciating detail the sequence of events for you in a (hopefully) entertaining manner.

Kansas City, the first leg of the trip.

1. Our connecting flight from Denver to Seattle was delayed over 2 hours making our arrival to Seattle around midnight. This was not a problem because we were not required, according to my military orders (a key piece of information to remember later in this sequence), to check in for our overseas military flight until 2 AM.
2. We were feeling a little bit proud of ourselves when we managed to drag our 2 tons of baggage up from the baggage claim to the military flight counter. We look like Gypsies with our caravan of suitcases, duffel bags, and double-stroller (which alone carried approximately 1200 pounds of our bags due to creative use of carrying straps, duct tape, and 5 shoe laces). OK, I'm exaggerating again, but not by much.
3. We arrive at the military flight counter around 1:30 AM which like the rest of the airport, is essentially deserted. "Hmmm, that's strange," we said to ourselves. We thought there would be personnel waiting for the flight just like us and ticket agents to get us checked in. As we drew closer we could read the marquis which read "Iwakuni: Check in at 2030"
4. This is the point of the story where that sinking feeling in your stomach happens right on cue... So we sat around for an hour or so; no one appeared at the ticket counter... We decided to head up to the USO and along the way passed an office with a very interesting sign on the door that started "Are you going to Japan?" and confirmed that we should have checked in at 8:30pm the previous night.
5. At around 4:30 am on Thursday morning, September 10th, I called back to my unit at the Pentagon and spoke with the travel office who wrote my orders. Sure enough, our travel times for the military flight were WRITTEN INCORRECTLY on my orders. So at that point the official, time-honored tradition of jumping through hoops began. There were two significant problems facing us and those now tasked with fixing their error and still providing us a means to get to Japan. The military flight leaves once a week. An extra week sightseeing in Seattle waiting for the next military flight sounded OK, but didn't minimize the frustration we felt at that point. Commercial flights do not land directly in Iwakuni. Although a city of over 100 thousand people, by Japanese standards it is out in the "sticks." Commercial travel to Iwakuni from the states involves a mind-numbing myriad of transportations modes, transfers, and connections, all of which were rendered essentially impossible to use due to our 2 tons of "very essential" baggage. This includes, yes, planes, trains, and automobiles, in various orders and transfer points, to get to Iwakuni.
6. I would like to take a moment at this time to explain our embarrassingly large entourage of baggage. Due to military orders we were essentially authorized 2 bags each person, up to 70 pounds each bag. There were 5 Spencers traveling so you can do the easy math. Because we were to be delivered directly to the air station via military transport there was no need for concern about lugging baggage through the gauntlet of commercial modes in Japan proper. Had we realized how our travel would have ACTUALLY turned out I have every bit of faith that our packing would have been slightly more efficient. Nonetheless, it was slightly embarrassing moving our mountain of luggage the size of Mt. Fuji everywhere we went, only furthering the spoiled American stereotype of needing to have a lot of "stuff." However to be perfectly fair, I do believe we had at least one bag full of odds and ends left over from the move that didn't get packed up with our household goods.

Lunch in Seattle outside the USO (almost late for the flight, unknown at the time)

7. I'd like to take another moment and just say that the USO in Seattle was truly a God-send to us. The people there were very helpful in trying to get us information, get us settled, and do anything they could to make our short stay with them as comfortable as it could be at 4 in the morning with 4000 pounds of luggage and 2 young boys with so little sleep in the last 24 hours they probably don't know which way is up. (In all fairness the boys did very well and I think enjoyed hearing their voices echoing through the deserted, cavernous halls of the airport in Seattle at 3 in the morning as they ran around together playing and yelling...while their mom and dad tried not to break down in laughing hysteria because it was 3 in the morning, 2000 miles away from our family of whom we just met, we're stuck lugging 4000 pounds of luggage, when are our boys going to get sleep and something to eat, and oh by the way we're pretty sure we just missed our only available flight to our new home in an Asian country 6000 miles away!) The USO gave us a place where we could make some phone calls to my units to update them on what was going on, a place for us to sleep for a few precious hours, breakfast food and sandwiches, and some MUCH NEEDED hygiene gear! I can't speak highly enough of them, what awesome volunteers!
8. After several phone calls back to my old unit's travel office it seemed as though a solution was found. A fairly painless flight to Tokyo with a connecting flight from the same terminal to Hiroshima was available later that day. Hiroshima is about 1.5 hours from Iwakuni. They were fairly certain that an old "buddy" of a Marine back in Iwakuni who worked at the motor pool would be able to check out a vehicle and come pick us up. However, because it was in the middle of the night in Japan the assurance of this plan with the "buddy" could not be confirmed until after we were already airborne on our way to Japan on the commercial flight. If the plan did work we would be stuck in Hiroshima for quite a period of time trying to figure out how exactly to catch a bus, train, taxi, canoe, donkey cart, in a foreign country where we have no money and no place to exchange dollars for yen. Regardless, we stepped out in faith and took the tickets and hoped that the "buddy" would be waiting with open arms, and a small caravan of vehicles and associated trailers, to haul our 4000 pounds of essential items back to Iwakuni.
9. We cleaned up at the USO, got some food, and then made our way back down to the ticket counter to get our tickets to Tokyo. As usual, I underestimated the time it would take to check all our luggage AND complete all the steps for checking in with an international flight, with the necessary passport information and all. All the bags got checked and we were now on our way to the security screening point. The line was longer than the ones at the theaters the night before the new Star Wars came out. Things were not looking so good for us actually making it to our flight in time considering all the steps we have to take just for our carry on luggage, taking Corban out of the stroller, carrying sleeping boys, taking off their shoes, opening up the computer bag, putting their shoes back on, setting the stroller and car seat back up. However I can assure you it was truly the Hand of God that opened up the line for us. A security worker saw us and told us we could go through the "family line." Sure enough, right next to the line longer than the one for the Hannah Montana tickets was ANOTHER lane marked with a generic picture of a family. Incidentally, there was NO ONE in this line so we scooted right past the poor 100 souls waiting patiently in line, like for their turn to get the latest iPhone release.
Whoosh, we made it right through an almost certain debacle without incident.
10. Our gate was about 2 floors down from the screening point so we proceeded past the escalators to our ever essential friend, the elevator. What's this? NO! Could not the hand of God have extended just slightly beyond the bounds of the security point to miracle the "out of order" elevator back to life? Even though our mountain of bags are packed, we still have a hefty load of carry on like 2 car seats, a stroller, diaper bag, computer bag, bag for the boys, you get the picture. We still had a cart with our stuff on it just to make the carrying easier AND the double stroller with two boys riding in it. Normally luggage carts and strollers on the escalator are a no-go, but today we must walk on water. (In reality, taking the stroller and cart down the escalators rocked back on two wheels wasn't a big deal, but you just must image the looks on our faces to have gone through all that we had since about 2 am that morning to find a broken elevator standing between us and our flight to Japan.)
11. We made it to the gate just as they were starting to board. God's timing is perfect, but one should not mess around with getting to that ticket counter in plenty of time. From here on the story becomes much less dramatic. The flight was essentially uneventful. Customs in Japan was essentially a non-event because I was military and they processed us through without delay and were very polite while checking passports, stamping visas, and welcoming us to their country. We did have to claim and re-check our luggage one more time for the connecting flight to Hiroshima, but we had loaded the luggage cart with the Spencer Mountain so many times by this point it wasn't really as traumatic as it had been the first time we were faced with moving this monstrosity by ourselves.
12. At the connecting flight ticket counter we were to experience our first taste of Japanese politeness and assistance. They were more than helpful in getting all our bags checked and also recommended checking some of our carry on as well, because the plane was pretty small and probably couldn't accommodate large items like Levi's car seat. While this was going on, Levi and Josiah (mostly Josiah) were entertaining no less than 4-5 Japanese women airline workers. They were simply enamored with the two of them and all parties involved had a pleasant time with each other. Josiah would ask them about 2 dozen questions a minute, of which about 10% made it past the language barrier. Josiah had no idea they couldn't really understand him (even though most of them did speak some English) and then just laughed and giggled at his entertaining antics. They also provided us a loaner stroller to help get us to the gate since the packed our 4X4 18-wheel long-haul double stroller as checked luggage.
13. The flight to Hiroshima was uneventful and both boys slept most of the 1.5 hour flight. We even think we caught a glimpse of Mt. Fuji from the plane leaving Tokyo air space. Welcome to Japan! Arriving at Hiroshima (strange to think about us nuking it only 60 years ago) we were greeted at the plane with TWO loaner strollers to help us get our sleeping boys back to the terminal because the plane was unloaded on the tarmac. We were then ushered through a side door into the lobby of the airport while to airline workers went into the baggage claim area and loaded up all of our stuff for us from the conveyor belts. It only took them 3 luggage carts to get it all! At this point, the embarrassment factor of all our "American stuff" so blatantly displayed before the countrymen of Japan, our gracious hosts for the next 3 years, was almost just too much. I guess we couldn’t just say it wasn't ours, could we...
14. Waiting in the airport, which was very small, was a young Marine in her service uniform. I approached her and asked her if she was from Iwakuni and sent to pick up Capt Spencer and family. Her answers were "yes, no." She personally did not know of my coming, but she was, incidentally, there in order to insure us a shuttle back to the base. As suspected, the "buddy" in Iwakuni could not provide the vehicle support promised by the people back at my unit in the Pentagon. It was a promise they were simply not able to make. However, I notified my sponsor, via email right before we left Seattle, the whole plan of transportation. When it became normal business hours in Iwakuni and he followed up with this "buddy" it soon became apparent this plan would not work. However, alternative transportation solutions from the base were made and the Spencers arrived in Iwakuni shortly before 11 pm on Friday, 11 Sept.
15. Our sponsor had reserved us a room at the temporary lodging facility of which with the help of an industrial-sized shoe horn we were able squeeze ourselves and our Ringling Brothers circus train into our room. Now enters the sand man with some much needed sleep.

A couple shots of the base from our lodging facility after raining most of the day Saturday. The base sits right on an inlet sea and is essentially surrounded by mountains. We haven't seen much, but so far it looks pretty beautiful.

A couple happy customers after two trips to the bouncy castle on base near the exchange. What a great base! (Sunday afternoon)