1975: Konnichiwa from 70 Mameguchi-dai, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Japan

I can hardly believe it myself, but here we are residents of the Orient. Dick started working for Japan Air Lines february first, beginning with a training program which lasted six months. When this training was over, Dick returned to Walnut Creek to help pack and get us moved.

We left Walnut Creek early in September, spent about four days at Stanford Court in San Francisco doing last minute shopping, sightseeing, and gourmet dining. We left on Flight 1 for Tokyo on September sixth.

Our first assignment was to find a house and get the children squared away in school. We found a "western-style" house on a bluff overlooking Tokyo Bay in Yokohama. It's a far cry from our Walnut Creek "digs", but it's not bad - 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room with a balcony, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and a small Japanese garden.

Dick is flying as a Captain on the "silk route" and loving it. He gets to Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Karachi, Tehran, and Ceylon. He finds it exciting and enjoys the sightseeing and shopping as well. We all look forward to getting to see all these places. He's away about half the month, and the rest of the time he's free. We are still trying to get settled - having drapes made here, woven hades made in Manila, rattan furniture made in Hong Kong - and I have a list yards long of things for Dick to make, extra shelves, etc.

The children are going to the Yokohama International School, which is a member of the Geneva International School Association, and are finding it a bit rigid. There are only about 350 children in 12 grades. They're in with a really competitive bright group and hopefully they'll inspire our gang. Our Beth is back in the States going to the University of the Pacific. We miss her a lot, but she'll be here for Christmas, and we should like to have a get-together in Hawaii at Eastertime.

We had a sad time in September shortly after we arrived here. (We had been in the house two days.) My mother died. She had been ill for some time, but it still was a shock. We all returned to Nevada for the funeral and returned here October first to start our residence in Japan.

Each day is an adventure. You never know what might occur. It certainly is proving to be an education for us all, and I'm certain there are many more...