First Japan Experiences.

The picture is my passport photo.
Flying into Japan was a very new experience for me being I had only been out of the state of CA. once and that was only to the Oregon Caves. I was pretty scared to fly over all that water, and before I left my Brother would come in the house humming the tune to the High and Mighty Movie all the time, which depicted plane problems, just to rattle me. The trip over was good though and actually quite pretty with the high puffy clouds and down below the bluest water. By the time we arrived David was not a happy little guy and wouldn't stop crying after the 32 hour flight. Thank goodness that Gayl was there to meet me, but he couldn't help me with David until after I went through customs which took a while. Getting off the plane there was a red carpet for some reason so I got to walk it which made it even more special. I guess some big wig came in on that flight, but who really cared as it made me feel even better. Then we hailed a cab and were off to the hotel. My first experience in a taxi in Japan was really, really scarey and I tried not to look to much. We were in and out of traffic and people, and they had their hand on the horn and foot on the gas, No breaking. I thought I had come all this way to die in a cab.LOL
The hotel was nice and real close to the Imperial Palace, so the next day we went out to see the sights and take pictures. We did have pic's of the Palace with the moot around it, but they were lost in one of our moves, much to our disapointment. In the hotel David was the center of attention with all the gals and they thought I was a movie star. That puffed me up to say the least.
We didn't stay there more than a couple days, as Gayl had to get back to the base which was many miles away from Tokyo. We had to take a train and taking a train in Japan at that time was yet another very different experence. It was only 423 mile but it stopped at every little hole in the wall, and it was only there for a very short time, so the vendors had to be fast to sell meals, etc. to the passengers. The windows were able to be opened, and buisness was brisk. They didn't come into the train. It took us a good 24 hours to get to Iwakuni. The seats were nothing but wood benches with a wood back and trying to sleep was pretty difficult with no padding on the seats, but it got us to our destination.
We were both glad to get off that train. In Japan getting on and off a train was quite somethig, as you had to push with the mob to get on or off, or the train left with or without you.
We stayed in another hotel that night, and first thing I had to do was get in and bathe both David and myself from that long train ride, so went down to where the baths were, and much to my dismay I discovered they weren't private and a GI and his girl walked in on us. Needless to say that was the fastest bath I ever had. The GI was a little taken a back also, as he didn't expect an american girl to be there.
The next day we went to a friends place and stayed until we could get a place to live in town, which was the same day. We couldn't live on the base because Dad was only a seamen then and you had to be 3rd class to get that housing. I was glad about that anyway as we saw how the people lived and got to know more of their customs.