Dear Readers,

Edward did not get to come on this adventure, but there will be a lot to report to Elliot, Emmala and Eliza in the next three weeks. Since Edward is hibernating in the camper, his blog will be a series of reports to the children about what their grandparents are doing.

Today we are staying in a hotel in Ueno, Japan. It is a city that is near Tokyo and not too far from the big international airport. We got up early in the morning and took a bus from Burlington, Wa to SeaTac Airport. We flew from there to Narita Airport in Japan. That flight took about 10 hours. We had lots of good food on our flight, including Ben and Jerry's ice cream. When we got to Narita, we took a train to Ueno. There are two trains from Narita to Ueno: a slow one and a fast one. We took the slow one and saw lots of people and interesting places.

The picture is taken from a bridge over a wide street. The cars drive on the other side of the street in Japan. There are also lots of narrow streets a well. Our hotel is on a small street not far from this wide street.

Tomorrow we are going to go for a walk in a park where there are lots of museums. There is also a lake where you can paddle boats. There is so much to see here. Then we are going to take a very fast train called Shinkansen. That means "bullet train." We will go in that train to a city called Hachinohe and change trains for a short ride to Misawa, which is where Rachel and Mike live. We are so excited to see them!