Hi from Tokyo

We arrived last night at our mission's guest home 16 hours after leaving our holiday apartment on the Gold Coast. That included a five minute taxi ride, one eight and a half hour plane ride, and over an hour on two trains. And, obviously, several hours at both the Gold Coast and Narita (Tokyo International) airports.

The sky as we flew into Japan last night. Photo
taken by our 10 y.o. from his seat.

I'm happy to report that we had a fairly smooth journey. We weren't overweight in our luggage. And we were barely looked at by customs as we came into Japan (they are two of our big concerns as we travel between countries).

This morning after breakfast we went for a wander to the shops to pick up some important or not so important bits and pieces. We also enjoyed some day-to-day Japanese food/experiences we've missed. The boys particularly had many moments of recognition of things that they'd forgotten, and enjoyed re-experiencing.

Tomorrow we head off on some more travel (work-related), so I'll be off the radar for about a week. But next Tuesday is the red-letter day as we'll be headed "home" early in the morning.

"Home" meaning the same home we lived in Tokyo from July 2010 to June last year. Yes, it still has all our stuff in it and we'll enjoy reacquainting ourselves with life there. 

School doesn't start until August 25th, so we're at the start of our long summer holidays.

I'd like to say that hopefully things will start to settle down a bit from next Tuesday when we're "home", but July still holds even more travel: but this time for holidays and camping. So realistically "settling down" to a more usual home-based routine,and that includes blogging, won't be happening for another four weeks. But it is something to look forward to.