I'm too old to stay up 36 hours straight!!

Emma getting her rest before the flight
She wanted to make sure her Limited Too
blinders would work. She and Ellie did look
more fashionable than the rest of us with our Delta-
issued eye masks.

We all popped up at 4:00 a.m. I wonder if the girls will be so easily aroused two weeks from now when it's time to go to school?

Papa was here to take us to the airport, a quite amazing thing in itself. Who would have ever thought we'd see the day that he was well enough to not only drive down to Jackson, but to get up at 4 and take us to the airport.

Everything was on time.

Here's the girls and Woody getting on the plane.



The Delta staff was very nice to them.







Boarding the plane at 5:45 a.m in Jackson, MS














We were delighted to hear upon boarding the plane in Atlanta that our flight was only 12 hours, not the 17 I had been told in the beginning. It must have been 17 total from Jackson. We passed the time by reading, watching movies - which they had individual selections on the monitor in front of each seat - and napping. The food was not bad, but Emma had a bag of the essential snacks just in case - Doritos, Crackerjacks and Sour Gummy Worms. They were the envy of the whole plane, I'm sure. NOT!!

We arrived in Tokyo at 1:10 p.m. on Sunday. We were amazed at how quiet the airport is. Everyone is going about their business, but they are not yapping while doing it. We all commented that even at the luggage carousel you could almost hear a pin drop.

We made our way to the counter and bought bus tickets to our hotel. The airport is 60 km from downtown. We had about a 30-minute wait for the bus. Emma and Woody went exploring. They came back with a flyer that looked like this:






Flyer for the new Harry Potter book, written in Japanese.
I didn't know JK Rowling knew Japanese. She must be one smart lady!!












We waited for the bus. Thank goodness all the signs are translated and have pictures.







The bus arrived and it was very nice - and the people were most helpful. It was about an hour ride to the hotel.






We made it here, got unpacked, and the girls found the Starbucks. After showers, we went to the restaurant in the hotel where we had shashimi appetizer of tune, yellowtail and salmon and shrimp tempura appetizer with a bowl of miso soup. Emma opted for just a bowl of soup and ordered a pizza to take up to the room. Just enough to get our bellies full for a long night's sleep.

It is now 7:55 a.m. on Monday. Woody is downstairs reading the paper and eating a muffin and the girls and I are slowing getting up and moving. We had planned to get up at 5 this morning and go to the fish market but decided to do that later in the week, once we are more rested.

Our plans today include going to the Imperial Palace and the garden surrounding it.

Stay tuned for a later update.