Linda & Rip Take on Japan! Day 1: Arrival & Yokosuka

So happy!  (SMS Photo)

SMS and I continue to have action-packed lives because this past week, we've been enjoying the company of his parents here in Japan!  We were so excited that they were coming to visit and the entire trip was amazing.  I'm going to space out my recaps since we did a lot.

Rip and Linda arrived on Friday afternoon.  SMS had a model audition so I drove to Narita Airport to pick them up.  Every bus trip I've taken has taken between 1 3/4- 2 hours.  This time, it took me a little over 3 due to a terrible traffic accident where a little Japanese zoom-zoom car decided to make out with the median barrier.  That did not go so well for the car, since the front hood was crumpled all the way into the front seats.  The wall appeared relatively unscathed.

In addition, my best friend Siri (not!), took me on a 15 minute detour because despite the presence of a map app, she has a terrible sense of direction and she can't read Kanji.  So, yeah, borderline worthless.

Anyway, I whine about all this to tell you why I was 45 minutes late picking up Linda and Rip, which was really 75 minutes late since they arrived early.  Gah!  Fortunately, they were the picture of equinimity (I was, to put it mildly, not) when I found them in Terminal 1.  This was especially impressive after their long flight.  We went downstairs to the JR ticket office to exchange their JR vouchers for actual passes.  As a FYI, you can exchange the vouchers at the airport but pick a different day to have the passes actually activate.

We piled in the car, people and luggage to head back to Yokosuka.  SMS met us there after his model audition which sounds like it went well although no final word has come back yet.  It's pretty funny that my Southern California husband might be adding actor/model on his resume thanks to Japan, rather than LA!  We went out to Hamakura for dinner and had sushi, tofu (me), tuna bowl (SMS) and salad for the table.  It was delicious and we pushed Linda and Rip to their jet lag limits.  We got home and everyone slept through the night.  Hooray for avoiding the 3-5 a.m. wide-awake thanks to jet lag!