August 15 - We're home!

Today we'll fly out of Narita into Chicago O'Hare then connect there to a flight to BWI.

We take the Airport Limousine bus to the airport.

On the plane it already feels like America. There are a number of U.S. military and their families travelling on this flight. I'm tickled by the discipline that these military kids have on the long flight.

At O'Hare we have an "incident" that wouldn't have happened in Thailand. To change from the international to domestic terminals we need to catch the tram/train/whatever. It's not the longest of layovers and G's concerned about us missing our flight... but even more, he's determined we're going to make it. So we SQUEEZE on to the tram. More people SQUEEEEZE in behind us and Felicia's getting smashed into other people, luggage and the pole. She's yelling and starting to cry. So, Geoff shoves back. There's more shoving...
There's words flying in our end of the car among a variety of people:
"Stop pushing!"
"You're crushing my daughter!"
"You think that just because you're a big man you can do this!"
"You're just trying to protect you child..."
"I'll call the police"
"Yeah, go ahead."
"You're stupid"
"You think that just becasue you're a big man you can do this!"
"You don't have to push her."
"You're stupid!"
it goes on...

Ahhhh... welcome to America.

So, we taxi it back home and we're greeted by the most welcoming presence of my in-laws who've started the AC and stocked us up with food and diapers :o)

We made it... we're glad... and sad...

OK... now we need to relearn where we keep everything in the house. Man! we need to relearn where we live! We almost didn't remember what to tell the taxi driver :o)

Amen! What a blessing and a privilege it was for us :o)

Now it's time to get the kids ready for school in less than 2 weeks!

August 14 - 1 day of Japan

Today we're lucky to get to do one day in Japan.

We start the day with the hotel's breakfast buffet and then take a taxi to the Imperial Palace . Geoff's been there before and he has a plan. We'll taxi to a particular gate; walk a particular route on the palace grounds and end up over at the science museum. I suppose it's just OUR luck that on this freakishly HOT day that particular gate is closed and we'll have to walk a WAYS to get to an open gate. It's all a good time :o) I never thought I'd get to see where samurai stayed!




After exploring the palace grounds and the science museum, we have a mini happy hour at the hotel's Manhattan Lounge up at the top of the hotel. Nice views :o) While we're there Geoff gets a noodle restaurant recommendation. Now we know what we're doing for dinner.


Now a side note: Tokyo has the coolest taxi action ever! (Not that I've had tons of taxi experience) They drive the Toyota Crown which is LOTS more roomy than the Toyota Corollas of Thailand. (Actually, they also drove the Crowns in Singapore) The neat thing about the Crown is that it has an automatic door. The driver can remotely open/close the rear passenger side door. The taxi drivers in Tokyo are also very presentable. They wear WHITE GLOVES. If they weren't wearing a suit, they at least had on a vest over their button down and tie. Every taxi we rode had a GPS/navigation system. Just cool.

OK, now back to dinner... We'll go to Tsurutontang in Roppongi. The concierge helps us get a reservation and we catch a taxi out front with the help of the doorman/porter/taxi-guy. The taxi drops us off at the streetcorner and points toward the restaurant. Cool! Pay driver... climb out of taxi... okaaaaaay.... which restaurant was he pointing to? Geoff asks a random nice person which restaurant goes with the name on our restaurant-info-print-out provided by the concierge. Cool... we're good now. We're now IN the restaurant and OFF the street where the pimps are trying to drum up business for their "staff". (It really wasn't that bad, if Geoff hadn't pointed them out I don't know that I would've noticed) We enjoyed a deeeeeelicious dinner in our own private room.



Just needed to ring the bell for service :o)


This is not very "American"... it's raw horsemeat.


Yummy, yummy curry udon in my tummy!


After a wonderful meal we taxi over to Ginza and take a few photos among all the big lights.... It's closed by the time we get there. Just perfect... seriously! That way we aren't even tempted to spend the money we don't have :o)

August 13 - Airport farewells...

It's a sad and glad day. Peter will take us to the airport and we'll stay in Japan for 2 nights.

We get to the airport and I'm shocked to see that Jack and Ying are there to see us off! Will the hospitality EVER end? Or maybe Jack just wants to be sure that we get on the plane so that after 4 1/2 months he can finally get a break :o) (Just kidding Jack!) Well, I feel bad... there, of course, was some morning airport chaos and we needed to get over to check-in a 1/2 dozen aisles away and I didn't give a proper "thank you" and "farewell" to our exceptional hosts. I thought they would be walking with us.... OOPS!

So, we fly ANA to Japan. The kids get to enjoy airplane toys and don't really give us any trouble. I'm a blob of emotion. Sad to leave a beautiful place with a less "American" pace of life. Although more logistically complicated... life was more simple for us in Thailand. There's been something good for the soul by stepping outside of our American life and getting a sample of a different way... of living, of thinking, of appreciating.

Once we get to Narita we bus shuttle over to the ANA Intercontinental in Tokyo. There's SMOKING INDOORS! Like in the lobby! I feel like I'm back in the 80s. I half expect to see those ashtrays with built in fans and "filters". Don't you remember them from office buildings and holiday-season-infommercials?

There's pretty lights to look at from our connecting hotel rooms.




To make it easy on ourselves we eat at the hotel sushi restaurant. The kids like tuna rolls! OH YEEAHHHHH! Should they EVER be left alone with chopsticks? OH NOOO!

April 5 - Oh Cr-p!

Kids are up at 3am local. It’s a sh—ty morning. I’ll elaborate…

1- Cam does his usual poop and bounce on his bottom. It can’t be too messy for him. Thank goodness for the handheld sprayer in the tub.

2- We’re in Japan. They’ve got these fantastic high tech toilets. They’re so high-tech that toilets have warning pictures. One of them is a caricature of a little boy sitting on the toilet leaning back on the lid with an “X” next to it, warning not to lean back on the lid or you may break the toilet structure. Turner’s interpretation: Little boys may not sit on the toilet. Yep, he had to poop. So where is a little boy to poop if NOT on the toilet? Where else but in his underwear while on the white, white, white bed linens… of course. So that’s mess number 2.

3- Felicia’s excited to take a bath in the fabulous, high-walled tub. So I help get the bath drawn and get her IN the tub. While she’s in there she gets her urge to poop and goes to the toilet to poop. Well, she didn’t quite make it… Did I mention that the tub was deep? She calls me to help her get back in the tub….. THAT’s when I see what’s happened to the white, white, bathroom. There’s now brown, brown: in the bath water, on the tub where she eventually climbed out in a trail connecting tub to toilet, and toilet to the door to call me. Oh, and then there’s Felicia.

Geoff was sleeping since he stayed up late with them while I passed out as soon as I hit the mattress… airplane clothes and all.

We hit the buffet breakfast at 6am and all is well :o) It’s the first of many occasions where I attempt to communicate that I can’t communicate in “fill in language here”.

So we squeeze on to the 7am bus to Narita Airport. We need to unfold seats that fill in the aisle. Fun for the kids. Not so fun to get through passport/ID check to the airport.

At check-in we try to convince the airline to let us bring Cam’s car seat on to the plane… nope. Looks like we won’t be able to strap Cam into a seat to keep from losing him… that’s going to hurt. Turner’s asthma kicks into full gear on the flight. By the end of the flight we could tell it was FINALLY improving. Phew! Nanay was scared. I’m also VERY sick of pacing the aisles with Totoy(Cam). So I’m in tears by the end of the flight between Turner’s asthma scare and the Cam challenge. So glad that Ronan sleeps the whole flight and Felicia is self entertaining for the 6 ½ hours.

WE’RE IN THAILAND!

Where’s the stroller? Waiting…. Waiting…. Waiting… “So sorry for the inconvenience the stroller is at baggage claim.” No biggie. Trip to bathroom… go through customs and make our way to baggage claim… we’re thinking we’re sooo not going to see the car seat or stroller. But hey! There they are! Got the blue Samsonite (which I’ve grown to loath… I swear it refuses to close for ME)… But there’s no black bag or silver bag. Geoff finds our black bag on someone else’s cart. We find a bag that soooo looks like ours. But soooooo is not. Thai Aiways rep is very helpful in filing paperwork to find bag. Hmmmm what was in the bag? Over $1000 of meds! 4 months of Singulair and inhalers, Tamiflu, Z-packs, malaria, etc… Gifts for Thai folks and our family toiletry bag! Maybe it wasn’t a mistake…. Maybe someone hit the pharmaceutical jackpot?

An angel with driver is at the airport to pick us up. Jack and Peter-the-driver (from Delta… company in Thailand) drive us to our temporary home. It’s over 90 degrees F and humid. It feels like 4th of July. We’re so happy to ride in an air conditioned van with bottles of water.

We get to the house and meet our very nice landlady and her husband. We get a ton of keys and a very nice looking bottle of wine. Jack and Peter take Geoff to the store so we can get toothbrushes, food, etc.

WE MADE IT!

Quote by Jack while shopping with Geoff at the Carrefour store, “Ahhhh, garlic! Very important.” Some things are universal, aren’t they?

April 3 - Economy Plus some phlegm...

Geoff’s parents drive us to airport at 4am.

Jules has been awake since April 2nd at 6am-ish.

Turner discovers his love of 7-Up thanks to the beverage cart. This blog is beginning as a day by day account… but that WILL change.

Somewhere along the way it turns into April 4.

We’re soooo happy to get economy plus seating from SFO to NRT, the 11 hour flight. Those few extra inches make a huge difference. We only need to do half of the “don’t kick the seat in front of you” patrol. Geoff and the kids are taking up the 5-seat center section with Geoff sitting on the end. I get to sit next to Bill. He’s 89, traveling with his step-son Geoffrey(who’s sitting in regular economy). Bill’s a nice guy to talk to… As long as you can ignore the monster phlegm globs he’s spitting out and leaving on his tray table on tiny airline cocktail napkins. Then, once we were in the final 3 hours he turned into grumpy man. But not too grumpy.

Arrive Japan’s Narita Airport. Go through customs… All our bags make it!

We take a shuttle over to the Airport Hilton and are very happy to have some room to move. But we’re in Japan, this won’t last long.