Faster Than I Look

We took the 14-hour plane ride (non-stop) from D/FW to Narita.  On the plane we met another set of parents heading to Yokosuka – they were from central Louisiana and we ran into them several times during the trip.  Unfortunately my son was not as easy to find.  His ship pulled into port the same day we arrived and he did not have a working cell phone.  On arrival we hoped to meet him at the airport but could not find him so we decided to take the train.  Narita Airport is several miles east of Tokyo and our destination (Yokosuka) is a ways south of Tokyo, so we had a long train ride in store.  We chose the slower local train rather than the Narita Express since it was cheaper and did not require a change of trains at Yokohama, which we were scared to death of at that point.  Most signs in Japan are in both English and Japanese, but the train maps are an exception.  The train was not too crowded since we got on before rush hour and this train went more around Tokyo than through it. Read the rest of this entry »

We are sleeping off our jet lag and organizing all the photos and video we got in Japan.  What a fantastic trip!  Click on the photos below to view the slideshows.  Once the slideshow starts, click the “i” in the middle of the screen for full captions.  We are still working on the full blog entries; check back soon!

Just about ready to head to Japan to visit CJ.  We’ll be flying into Tokyo Narita airport and staying in Yokosuka for a little over a week.  We’ll get to check out CJ’s ship on Family Day and have several days afterwards to see the sights.  I may not be able to blog or post photos until we get back unless we can do it from CJ’s laptop.  But I’ll definitely post them and all our adventures.

I shipped my new march to the band in Wisconsin today.  I finally chose the title “Heartland Journey” after getting feedback from many friends and family, only to have my benefactors reject it.  The preferred “The Midwesterner” which is a pretty good title as well.  Click here to listen to a computerized playback.  This playback uses the Garritan Concert and Marching Band sample library, which is amazing especially considering its very reasonable price.  I’m a huge fan of their products.  More on this later.