We Knew Him When...

Yesterday Neal was flying an earthquake relief mission to Sendei and the AP news people went along for the ride.  Next thing we know Neal's picture has been on MSNBC and Wall Street Journal Asia today.

Poppapalooza

Almost everything is cancelled on base due to lack of people with the voluntary evacuations. Quinn is on break from yochien so we are getting creative with our activities. Quinn and Scarlett are always good for a laugh.

Life Just Isn't "Normal" Anymore ...

Since the 9.0 earthquake hit north of us on March 11th, life as we once knew it, is no longer the same.

Yokota is the hub for rescue and relief efforts which means there are lots of international people walking around the base.

There is the constant noise of aircraft taking off and landing 24/7 (no more quiet hours). Which means Neal's schedule is totally irratic and calls come at anytime of the day or night.

Rolling black-outs are scheduled throughout the week for off and on base. Luckily for us the base black-outs are often cancelled. The problem with black-outs off-base is it becomes dangerous driving without street lights, trains stop running, and many of our favorite stores and restaurants close at odd hours due to no electricity.

I feel guilty buying products off base because many of the shelves are empty, and I mean empty! Convenience stores and grocery stores are without onigiri, cup o'

noodles, bread, diapers, water and bottles of tea, etc.. It's just shocking to see. And the worst is the lines of traffic waiting for gas off base. It often creates a traffic jam getting out of the base.

Ouch!!

Scarlett tripped and fell on my bicycle. Any guesses to what part of the bike she landed on?

This picture is 5 days after the run-in with the bike.

KIDZANIA

Today Quinn and I headed to Kidzania in Tokyo. Kidzania is a kid sized world in which they can choose to try 60 different jobs, earn money, open a bank account with an ATM card, go to class for a a driver's license and then rent a car. You literally walk into a mini town with buildings and streets with lights and traffic signs. The town is supposed to be during the night time so many of my pictures are not so great. Each job has 2-3 Zupervisors/adults and usually lasts 20-30 minutes. Once they complete the job, the Zupervisors pay them money (Kidzania dollars). Kids must enter into the work zone by themselves (parents are not allowed in; you watch from the outside).

Quinn wanted nothing to do with food service jobs (which is a good sign) or the medical jobs (which is a bad sign). It was amazing how authentic everything was including uniforms in kid sizes. Real companies sponsor each job ... Coco-cola has a bottling plant, ANA has a plane with multiple jobs, food includes MOS Burger and Pizza-La . The list goes on and on.

First Quinn worked for Obayashi Construction and built a bridge leading to the new "Sky Tree" Tower (built to be taller than Tokyo Tower). In the pictures you can see Quinn not paying attention to the building plans with the rest of his team. But he was the only kid that could quickly identify the letters on the blocks to build the bridge.

Next we waited for an hour to be a firefighter. He rode in a mini version of a fire truck and used a real water hose to spray out a house on fire. Then Quinn got to ride in the front seat and do announcements over the siren to ask people to move out of the streets for the fire truck. Third on Quinn's must do list was Yamato Kuroneko (Japanese version of Fed Ex).

Next Quinn headed over to the Autobacs and tried his hand at being a mechanic. He got to help change a tire, check the battery, etc.

His two final jobs included a professional soccer player and a photojournalist (with a really nice Sony camera). Quinn had a great time and didn't want to leave but our time was up. On the train ride home his eyes were getting heavy as he said, "Mommy next time I'm going to be a vet and drive a car."