There's No Such Thing as A Free Flight

Don't let anyone tell you that a military "mac" flight is free. (And don't let this sweet face fool you either.) Take it from me, you will pay a price. It may not be dollars, per se--more like your sanity, if you're like me anyway, traveling with two small children. But even if you're not like me, the minimum price you will likely pay is convenience.

We got to Okinawa and back eventually without life-threatening incident, so I can't complain too much. We had a very typical "mac" experience. Nevertheless, it was quite a difficult experience for me, mostly in getting home. And I grossly underestimated the amount of people who would be trying to get off the island of Okinawa on any given weekday.

I tried to catch a flight home the same day Brian left on his commercial flight (he was down there for work), but the girls and I were "3" of about 30 people in line for 6 seats to Atsugi base (where my car was).

So, we missed that flight and paid $40 in taxi fare to and from the military lodge--only to find Sydney had left my video mp3 player in the taxi, which was playing Dora as a bribe. In all my juggling, most times we arrived somewhere I considered myself lucky if I ended up with both kids and both bags, since I was continually trying to leave my suitcase behind. But luckily, after many phone calls and the help of the hotel staff, and because we are in the honorable country of Japan, the driver returned my mp3 player to the lodge.

Rather than risk repeating this scenario again for another small flight to Atsugi, I decided to try to get on the Patriot Express flight from Okinawa to Yokota, which leaves every Thursday. Well, you can imagine my horror upon arrival when I found that there was no shuttle to Atsugi that day, since the Yokota terminal staff had told me over the phone that whenever there's a Patriot Express flight arrival, there is a shuttle bus to Atsugi. They neglected to say it's only when that flight is from Seattle. And more importantly, I neglected to ask three military people for the best two out of three answers...the real lesson learned is this.

So, after a brief meltdown and with the help of some strangers, we took a 2.5 hour, $200 dollar taxi ride from Yokota base to Atsugi base, during which I navigated with a simple FFSC map in English and hand motions for the driver who spoke absolutely no English. (That poor taxi driver accepted my tip even though there's no tipping in Japan!) We were finally reunited with our Prairie Joy to make the 1-hour drive home.

I remember hearing myself say that day, "I'll never do this again," right after which I grabbed the November schedule of flights leaving from Yokota and stuffed it into my bag. Apparently my subconscious thought I didn't have enough to carry already.

Three weeks have passed and I just came across the flight schedule again. Korea, Singapore, Guam. Crazy how my sentiment has morphed into: "I'll never do this again by myself with the kids." That's my loophole for going to Korea by myself with friends for some shopping one of these weekends. Or maybe, if you catch me on a good day, I might even say, "I'll never do this again without Brian." That way we could go to Singapore or Guam for one last family vacation before we leave Japan. Ever the idealist.

So, maybe just one more mac.

If only the taxi driver could have returned my sanity with my mp3 player.