こんにちは 日本 (Hello Japan!)

After choosing and ranking our list of 20 Air Force bases out of 74, we have been assigned to Misawa, Japan for the next 2-3 years! Misawa was in our top 10 (most of which were overseas: Germany, Italy, Japan)so we are super excited! We really wanted our kids to be exposed to different cultures, places, languages, etc and since we ourselves like adventure, this is a great fit. Misawa is about a 3 hour bullet train ride north of Tokyo, it has beach areas, but also gets snow. The rumor is that it's a great place for families. We haven't decided if we will send Spencercito to an elementary school on base or let him try a Japanese public school. Lily, Emma, and Samuel will probably be sent to preschool and Japanese public school which will be great, they can be trilingual. Spencercito's reaction to the news was "do they have stuff to make quesadillas there?" and "but I don't know their language" after I explained that he would learn, and reminded him of mochi (yummy Japanese-type marshmallows) that he likes, he got excited. Lily and Spencercito ran around the room singing and shouting "Japan, Japan! We're going to Japan!" over and over again. Emma just watched them, said "Japan" a few times and smiled, Samuel slept through it all. So far, living in NYC in a Dominican neighborhood, attending a Spanish branch, then moving to Los Angeles where his friends and neighbors were Indian, Russian, African American, Korean, Japanese, and Ethiopian has been a great experience. Spencercito even asked me awhile ago why he had white skin, and told me how he wished he had brown skin like his friends. They all have been exposed to different foods, traditions, customs, and religions which I hope will enable them to have a love, respect and understanding of all people and cultures. We leave sometime late July, now to run around getting passports for 4 kids, immunizations, etc. So, こんにちは 日本 (Hello Japan!) here we come!