I can hardly believe it, I’ve been in Japan for a little over a week now, and it has been one crazy week! I’ll do my best to recap it for you, forgive me if my thoughts come out scattered!

Last Friday night was one of the worst nights of my life. Tamberly(my wife) and I agreed to not go to sleep, since we had to wake up around 4 in the morning to go to the airport anyways. Unfortunately we had both gotten up fairly early, so we could enjoy a full day with each other, we were both extremely sleepy. Sometime after midnight, Tamberly fell asleep. I felt myself lose it immediately. Up to that point I had done a pretty good staying strong, the only time I had cried all week was earlier in the evening when we were sitting in the car trying to decide where to eat. Like usual neither one of us could make up our minds, and kept telling each other to choose. It hit me how much I was going to miss having that conversation. This time it hit me that I only had a little over 5 hours left with my wife. I held her close, and fell asleep too.

The drive to the airport was hard. I have a bad habit of becoming very quiet right before having to say goodbye. We pulled into the airport parking lot. Those final hours with my wife quickly became minutes. I checked my luggage and received my tickets to Japan. I grabbed Tamberly’s hand and we slowly walked over to the bench where her mom and Caleb(my son) were sitting. Minutes were about to become seconds. I first hugged Caleb, then Tammy, then finally Tamberly. Just thinking about that moment makes me choke up. It took every fiber of my existence to be strong for my wife at that moment. I squeezed her tighter and tighter as she cried harder and harder. The hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life was let her go. I was in a haze, I could hardly concentrate on taking my belt off for the security line, it was almost a numb feeling. I couldn’t actually believe that I just said goodbye.

I had the very last seat on a small Delta plane to Atlanta. I tried to sleep, and though I was extremely tired, I just couldn’t. When we landed in Atlanta I made my way to my departing gate and laid down on some chairs, I had a 5 hour layover and I had a broken heart that I wanted to sleep away. I slept for maybe 2 hours. I got up and bought some headphones and a sandwich that I never ended up eating. I called my parents. I called my wife. I boarded a plane labeled Korean Airlines and said goodbye to America.

It was the biggest plane I’ve ever been on. The first class section was truly something to be envious of, as their chairs laid out to be full-size beds. My seat was good enough though. I had the window seat and the most leg-room that I’ve ever had on a plane before. The flight was a crazy experience, full of mostly Asians, it was my first feeling of being the minority. All the announcements were spoken in another language before being spoken in English. The food and drinks were Korean. My world was shrinking faster and faster. The realization of leaving everything I was comfortable with and the fact that the plane had no wifi like I was expecting it to hit, and for one last time, I started to tear up. I pulled out my phone and started to look at pictures from my honeymoon. How I longed to have that time back again. I took a deep breath and regained my composure.

Fortunately each seat had its own TV with tons of movies to watch. I watched movies I normally never would, such as Stupid, Crazy Love, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Zoo Keeper and the newest Harry Potter movie, which thankfully put me to sleep. Surprisingly my favorite was Mr. Popper’s Penguins, I would actually probably watch it again. This was a great way to soak up the 15-hour flight, but did little to distract me from the fact that my leg-room felt increasingly less and less. And I really couldn’t get any good sleep either. So instead I stared out my window, and watched it fade from daylight to darkness, only for it to go back to daylight again. There wasn’t much scenery during the flight, mostly clouds, until we flew over Russia. What a beautiful sight that was. Just tons and tons of snow covered mountains, I had never seen anything like it. For the first time that day, I was excited about what I was embarking on. After what felt like forever, we finally touched done in Korea.

I only had a short layover until my final flight, but I was determined to try to call Tamberly. I was so excited that the airport had free wifi, that meant I could call her using Viber on my phone! Well, the connection was weak, and I only heard her voice for a few seconds before it cut off. I wanted to find another way to call her, but I didn’t know how and I didn’t have much time. So unwillingly I made my way to my gate, which at first was quite confusing on how to get there, but I somehow managed to get there.

Once again, it was a huge Korean Airlines plane, but this time the flight was only going to last an hour and contained nothing worthy of talking about. After landing I quickly made my way through customs and on to baggage claim, which I was surprised that my bags actually came out quite quickly. I was a little worried about figuring out which bus I was suppose to take to get to Sasebo, but by the time I got to the front of the airport my worries were quickly squashed, a chief was there to greet me and give me the 2-hour ride back to base. This was the first sign of an extremely kind and thoughtful crew. He asked me if I was hungry, I was starving. So after being awake for well over 24 hours, being in the air for over 18 hours, and not only being outside of the US for the first time, but actually on the other side of the world, this chief took me to eat at KFC. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. But before that, I managed to find a good wifi connection and was finally able to talk to Tamberly via Viber for a few minutes. It was the first time I had smiled in a while.

I slept the whole way back to base, which only felt like a couple seconds, but it was more like a couple hours. Once we reached the ship and got to the entrance of the ship, I was greeted by a couple friendly sailors that were on duty. One of them helped me take my bags up to my new temporary home. I didn’t anticipate going up so many stairs! Four flights of them, I really wish I had packed a little lighter. After I unloaded my gear my chief took me back down the stairs and into his office. He gave me a phonecard and let me use the phone so I could call Tamberly, to let her know I made it to the ship safely. I couldn’t believe how friendly everyone was! And it was great being able to talk to Tamberly for a few more minutes. When I finally got to sleep it was around 11 or 1130 and I had to be at muster in the morning by 7:15.

At muster I met everyone else in the Admin department and my new chaplain. Once again I couldn’t believe how nice everyone was. And that’s a trend that continued throughout the day, everyone I met was super nice and already had an idea of who I was and what my family situation was. The Command Master Chief actually walked by me and knew who I was instantly and the first thing out of his mouth wasn’t the typical “Welcome aboard” or “How are you?” it was “When is your wife and son coming?” It’s such a blessing being surrounded by such supportive people.

As far as day to day work, it’s nothing too exciting right now, just checking in, cleaning, paperwork and from the sounds of things it’ll be pretty laid back like that until we actually go out to sea, which won’t be for a few more months.

The base is small, but everything on is is really nice, especially the gym. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a nicer one before. There’s also plenty of places to get a taste of home like Chilis, Taco Bell, Subway and McDonalds. Sasebo itself is a beautiful city, and for being so busy, it doesn’t feel overly crowded. The locals are extremely friendly and hard working. Anywhere I go, if they don’t understand English, they try their hardest to figure out what you’re saying. Definitely something to take with me when I go back to the states.

Sasebo is surrounded by mountains, though they look like baby mountains compared to what I’m used to, they offer amazing viewing points of the entire city and the coast, which plays host to the “99 islands” which is just incredible.

There are so many places to go and explore, and lots of new foods to eat and I can’t wait for Tamberly and Caleb to get here, so we can all experience them together. I have a good feeling that that day isn’t too far away. Thank you everyone for reading and for your support. I ask that you please pray for me and my family as we go through this together. And please feel free to ask any and all questions! I’ll try to keep everyone updated on anything cool that I do!

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