Posted 8:56 AM by Anne Wilhoit
I wrote the following a few weeks ago (see below). A lot has changed since. We are now moving on to Tokyo on Dec. 21. David will be here in Singapore for the second week of December but the rest of the time he will be in Tokyo. This means I fly to Tokyo from Singapore alone with the girls when we officially “move” from Singapore to Tokyo. I told David that I will be a wreck…crying, etc. He joked that that is why he does not want to be with me! (Ha-ha) Logistically, it works out for David to stay in Tokyo the week before Christmas because our shipment will arrive and he will need to be there to have them unload at our new digs. The reason plans have changed so much (I move to Fraser Suites in 2 weeks rather than in 5 weeks) is because customs closes down in Japan for 2 weeks over the Christmas/New Year holiday. That means we need to get our container there and cleared through customs before Christmas or else it will be late January (things get backlogged after the closure) until we see our things. Does this sound confusing to you? It is confusing to us too but we are optimistic it will all work out. We don’t have our residence picked out yet but there is a fair amount on the market to choose from so we look forward to making that decision over Thanksgiving while we all meet up in Tokyo. We think we will be able to enjoy Thanksgiving buffet at the American Club in Tokyo. That will be a nice little touch of “home” among all the craziness. Oh yea, and amidst all this, Donna is coming to visit for 10 days. She now gets to see our apartment and then move over with me to Fraser Suites. Her trip here is definitely not going to be boring.

More to come….

(written a few weeks ago 2 days after the Bali bombing)
When the U.S. state department issues a warning the decision becomes a little clearer. We are canceling our Christmas trip to Bali. Obviously, we are extremely disappointed about our planned trip but moreover, are so angry that these fanatics are taking away so much from so many people. It is such a huge shame for the Balinese who are really peaceful people and their livelihood depends on tourism especially in the Nov/Dec time-frame which is the height of the tourist season there. God Bless everyone who was involved this past weekend.

David’s co-worker flew home from Bali Sunday night. He said there were numerous bandaged people on the flight. We are looking at alternate plans including a quiet Christmas at Fraser Suites followed by a couple of nights at the Shangri-La Resort on Sentosa Island here in Singapore. Or, we might just fly to Tokyo a few days earlier and maybe treat the girls to Tokyo Disneyland.

For anyone out there who has not heard, we are moving to Tokyo on Jan 1. We will be moving out of our apartment here the first week of December and back to our old digs, Fraser Suites, so our things can be shipped off to Tokyo. David will be reporting to his new position in Tokyo in mid November. He will be there a month before returning back to Singapore for the last 2 weeks of December to join the girls and I. The girls and I will be joining David in Tokyo over Thanksgiving to apartment hunt and attend school interviews with Katie. It certainly is a quick turn-around in terms of moving. Of course it is a little bittersweet as we are settled in here and have adapted to life in Singapore. Among many things, we will miss the American School here tremendously. But I keep saying…we are getting closer to the U.S. Only one airplane flight from Tokyo and presto!...we are in San Francsico. More to come…