Flat Stanley Evacuates

A friend of William's in Washington sent a Flat Stanley to us in Japan. For those of you not in the know, Flat Stanley comes from a book about a paper doll that gets mailed somewhere and has wonderfully new and exotic experiences. Our living in Japan seemed like a great choice. We had plans to visit shrines, temples, trains...

Well, with the earthquake and tsunami, mail was even slower than normal and we started to assume Flat Stanley got lost in the mail or washed out to sea. Then, a little bit of fallout occurred in Yokosuka from the Fukuchima Daiichi nuclear disaster and with the situation highly in question, the Navy called out a voluntary evacuation. We'd already bought tickets for Caroline and William the day before it was official and we were on our way to send them out on the bus that would take them to the airport. As we drove in, we were a bit surprised at the long lines at the grocery stores. Japanese are the best at disasters. They are prepared, patient, polite, and help themselves rather than waiting for someone to help them.

As we were waiting for the bus, we checked the mail one last time and guess what we found!
Flat Stanley! Here he is with William and the wonderful Japanese mail room employees that are always so polite and helpful. Everywhere we went, we said hasty goodbyes and farewells. It's tough when you are leaving at such short notice and with no real idea if you will be back.

Flat Stanley with the American and Japanese flags in front of the FISC building where our office is.

Flat Stanley with a couple of sailors from the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON

Flat Stanley watching the Japanese yard birds bicycling by.

Flat Stanley with a friendly technical service man in his uniform.

and Flat Stanley crossing the street Japanese style (hand up in the air. OK Flat Stanley really got into it and was fully in the air...)

Little video of saying goodbye. Obviously, William is pretty excited to be going...