med clearances close to completion; lockdown lifted...

All four of us, the kids and I, had to get vaccinations today. I was convinced that the clinic was missing records, I just know I had all of the kids vaccinated on time. Turns out there are new regulations put in place since Chas and Mia had their's done, and I still have no explanation as to why Simon was missing some - he was just in for a well child visit, with shots, last month.
It took them a while to get it all set up, they wanted to be damn sure they had every shot ready to go and lined up in the trays, etc. It was like an assembly line. Mia volunteered to go first, while Simon was frantically shaking his head no, no, no, and trying to get away, and Chas broke down in tears before anyone even touched them. Mia screamed, of course, well, she laughed first, I guess it tickled when they swiped the site with alcohol. The looks on their faces are priceless, hers was disbelief that such a pain could ever exist, or maybe it was disbelief that I would allow anyone to ever hurt her that much. Simon's expression was more of resolution of futility, although he fought us the whole time, kicked the tech at least five times, and when he finally surfaced, was missing a shoe! The techs commented that he was the strongest five year old they had ever seen. Chas, I held between my legs wrapping my arms around him; he's old enough to get shot in the arm now. Needless to say I am so glad that it's over. And of course, we treated them all to 7-11 slurpees, as promised. This nearly completes a big to-do list item for us. We are counting the days, something like 4 weeks till we vacate our rental house, and 40 days till our flight out.

In other news, the lock down on Okinawa has been lifted. The only restriction in place now is for servicemembers, not civilians and family, and it is a simple curfew from 10pm to 5am, with an additional 'no alcohol off base except in private homes'. The government is still not convinced that the Americans have learned anything, and they are, of course, calling the lockdown a 'show'. JapanUpdate has some brief articles reporting the local sentiments.