The Beginning

Here's the beginning of our adventure in Japan! Can't wait to keep you updated!

December 31^st seems like a blurr! We woke up early at Matt’s parent's house! Matt drove to Pullman to have our last box shipped to Yokosuka.  While Lily was entertained by her grandparents I showered and stuffed the last of our belongings in these duffle bags. The trick is keeping the bags under  50 pounds. We brought four and strategically with the help of my fancy scale we thought we were in the clear. By 10:30am we arrived at my parents, and grabbed the last few things we needed. By 11:15 we were headed to Spokane. We stopped at Chaps and had a nice lunch with both of our families. It was kind of surreal sitting there thinking that I wouldn’t see them for 3 months or so. It doesn’t sound like that long but in our families, a month is way too long without seeing each other. If you haven’t been to Chaps, I highly recommend it, super cute, delicious food, with a vintage/coffeehouse feel.  

At Chaps for Lunch

From there we said our goodbyes to my parents who were off the Coug game, and Matt’s folks drove us to the airport. Ohhh goodbyes are so hard. I don’t think it’s the length of time that is the hardest for everyone, but the thought of how far away  we are that makes its harder. Anyway, I think we made it away without too many tears. We checked 4 huge bags, and they weighed in at 50.0, 50.5, 49.5, and 49.0 I think. We only had to move one thing from one suitcase to the other to keep the weights within range of not being charged. Then we had to keep track of the stroller, diaper bag, food bag, toy bag, 2 lap tops, the camera, 3 big winter coats, the baby, and not forget our heads. I was very worried about Lily’s ears on this flight from Spokane to Seattle just getting an idea of how the 12 hour flight would be. But she did great. No problems and she giggled during take off and landing. When we arrived in Seattle the carosel with all of our luggage busted so I took Lily and all the carry on bags in a shuttle to the Double Tree Hotel in Seatac. Thankfully, Matt wasn’t too far behind. At the hotel we were met my Brynn her fiancé, Dan. We went to the room and freshened up, then headed down to the hotel restaurant for a New Year’s Eve dinner, and to celebrate with our dear friends on their engagement.

 Brynn & Dan

New Year's Eve Dinner

 After dinner Matt, Lily and I headed back to the room. Lily passed out in the bed, and Matt and I watched a movie. We started it at about 10:30pm, and I thought I’d be awake to welcome in the new year, but I drifted off to never never land beside Lily sometime after 11. Matt finished the movie on his own, then off to sleep. Happy New Year Everyone!!!

New Years Eve at the Double Tree

January 1^st was a busy day! We woke up, repacked our bulging suitcases, and got ready. We had a nice New Year’s morning breakfast at the hotel. It was uneventful other than extracting some green crayon Lily tried to injest along with her fruit and eggs. She’s a fast little bugger!

New Year's Day Breakfast!

When we were finished,  I walked down the hall of the hotel towards the shuttle singing…..

 God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Of course Matt giggled at me,  soooo dramatic yes I know, and yes I do have a song for everything  lol.  But really this small town farm girl hasn’t been much further past the Canadian border. The thought of across the world was a little crazy. So the shuttle dropped us of, we checked in with United Airlines, and made our way through security, customs, and were ready to board. We were greeted by several other families that we knew from Port Orchard, and made some new friends headed that way too.  Soon we were on the plane and off we went.

Now the flight……

Yes the flight. It actually wasn’t that bad. We got on the plane, ate some lunch they served us, and Lily drifted off to sleep for a couple hours while I watched a movie. Then she woke up, we had snacks, played with toys, walked up and down the isle, and visited with some of our friends on the flight. After 6 hours though, I was seriously ready to get off!! Oh well we survived, and really Lily was a pretty happy girl! She took another nap, ate some more food, and watched some Toy Story. What was weird was that it was 11pm Washington time when we arrived in Tokyo, but it never got dark. It was a very strange feeling, but the light did help me not feel so tired.

On the Flight to Tokyo!

We walked off the plane and, “Dorthy we’re not in Kansas anymore!” Thankfully, Matt had done this before as had some of our friends, so we had an idea where we were going. We saw a group of Japanese stewardesses who were cute and giggled as they smiled looking at Lily. It reminded me of that show PANAM  but Japanese style. When we got to customs the Japanese people were very helpful. They were talking so fast, but herding us and pointing us in the correct direction. I felt like one of those little toys with a ball in a maze trying to get to the finish line, feeling like I was still moving from the plane ride. Our stroller was too big so they took us around a different way. The man looks at Lily and says “hai! Hapee Nu Yeur.” At least that’s what it sounded like to me. He was very friendly. Finally we were approved to leave and go get our bags. Matt pushed the cart of 4 bags and I pushed the stroller loaded up with all our carry ons piled high on it with Lily asleep in my arms. At that point I wished the front wheel of my jogging stroller turned lol. It seemed like a LONG walk to the bus but we made it. From here we loaded up and had a 1.5 hour ride to Yokosuka. Once again, Lily was just a trooper, such an answered prayer. She typically is a piece of work when over tired! On the bus she was hyper. So hyper! Laughing throwing her toys, one of which slid to the front of the bus….. yikes! At the very end she fell asleep. It was a very interesting ride! I visited my friend Mikaela most of the way. I noticed that most of the architecture looked like cement, which I guess is good since it’s an earthquake magnent.  One thing that really stood out to me was this tunnel we drove through. It wasn’t just any tunnel. It was the longest tunnel I have ever been through and it goes under Tokyo bay! It’s called the Trans Tokyo Bay Highway and actually 14km long, the 4^th longest under water tunnel in the world! You can read about it here if you want: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Bay_Aqua-Line

Ahhhh I didn’t want to hear that, it kind of took my breath away to think that we were underwater for that long! On base we unloaded the bus and then reloaded into vans. A couple ladies that live her year round were nice enough to meet us there and drive us to our appartment. We did not bring our carseat for Lily because in Japan it is not required because of the trains, biking, walking etc. But because we were on base US laws apply. Several carseats were in the vans for us to use which was great, but the last thing Lily wanted put in at 2am her time. She screamed most of the way as I and some of the other mom’s in the van tried singing Twinkle Twinkle little star to her. Finally, we arrived at our appartment. We got up to the apartment. Lily was wired. We played a bit, ate a snack and finally got her asleep by 4am Washington time….. 9pm Japan time. That was the end of a very long day. I laid down to sleep after the longest day of my life. But not for long. Lily was awake 4 hours later (8am Washington time) and (1am Japan time) and was ready for breakfast and to start the day. To be continued……..

 Arrived in Tokyo!!!