Posts Tagged ‘travel’

We got up early to take Mom & Dad to the train station. They were here almost three weeks, but it did go by really quickly.

We hadn't visited a Buddhist temple while they were here, so we stopped by the one on the hill by the train station. We went inside and it was dark and quiet and I felt like we shouldn't be there. It was peaceful and very pretty.

They had to take a train to Hachinohe, then get on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo, then take the Narita express to the airport. Then a 14 hour flight back. It's a lot, but they made it there just fine!

I love the Matt & Dad hug. And Heron's squishy cheeks!

It was so great to have them visit! I'm really thankful that they could make it all the way out here to spend some time with us.

Rhino had a hard time with their leaving. He sat on Matt's shoulders yelling "Grandpa, waaiitt!" (Both Mom & Dad are named "Grandpa" apparently. He just didn't get "Grandma.") Then in the car he cried for Grandpa to "si-down" and kept trying to hand the seat belt up to nobody. It makes my heart ache to see him so upset to see his grandparents leave! We'll miss them, too.

I had heard that there is a beach near us with real shipwrecks that people go to hunt for sea glass and fishing floats. We had never been to Shipwreck Beach, in Noheji, on Mutsu Bay so it seemed like a good time to go with Jen!

We found the beach without much problem, despite some questionable directions. It was much, much colder in Noheji than we had anticipated. It was a short walk from the parking lot, past a gigantic mound of shells, to the beach and by the time we arrived at the ships we were all pretty chilly. We spent about five minutes checking out the wrecks before heading back. It was just too cold and windy. We are definitely looking forward to returning when the weather is a little more tolerable or we are better prepared. It is definitely an interesting beach!

We were all ready working our way up the hatchet and decided to keep going, to the tip – Cape Shiriya. This is a fishing town where wild horses roam the beach. We weren't exactly sure where to go to find horses, so we just made our way to the water. We found a gathering of horses. They strolled down the road, grazed and drank, and some even came right up to the car. We ate our bento lunches in the car as we watched the horses. Rhino was most interested in the water and would point out the window and "wow" at it. It seems the horses made him a little uneasy. Jen chose a favorite horse, which she named Raja, and Matt liked the shrine on the rock on the coast. It was too cold still to go out, so we drove past the horses and headed home.

It was a great outing and I'm looking forward to going back up along beautiful Mutsu Bay! — Need directions? Check out How to Get There: Shipwreck Beach

Mama and Ron came to visit at the beginning of October and I just haven’t gotten around to blogging about it. We did so much, it’s a little overwhelming knowing it will be such a long post! I’m actually going to try to keep it a little short though and just highlight the great memories.

It was a Tuesday when we all got on the train to go down to Tokyo and meet Mama and Ron. The trains here are wonderful and it was a great trip. We take a 10-minute train to Hachinohe, where we then get on the Shinkansen. It’s about a 3 hour ride to get to Tokyo Station and is very comfortable. It stops a few times in the major cities along the way and we get to see a lot of buildings and rice paddies. When we got to Tokyo Station, we took the Narita Express train to the airport (about an hour.) I was a little worried that something would go wrong — someone would get lost, someone would be late — and we wouldn’t meet up. But everything turned out fine and we met them just as they were exiting from customs. It’s so exciting seeing loved ones at the airport, when they’re exhausted after a 12 hour flight and have been awake much, much longer! We exchanged their dollars for yen and got on the train to go back to Tokyo Station. From there, we got on the subway to Minato, where our hotel is. It was a lot of walking, stairs, dragging luggage, and hauling babies, but we finally made it. That was the end of that day!

We spent two full days in Tokyo, seeing what we could, before taking the Shinkansen back to Misawa on Friday morning. On Wednesday we slept in, had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel, took the subway to Asakusa Kannon Temple, explored that in the rain, and then walked through Kappabashi, the kitchen district. This was really interesting, it’s a street where pretty much all the restaurants go to buy furniture, stoves, pots, dishes, fake display food, etc. I didn’t get anything, but there were plenty of wonderful cooking supplies that I’d love to go back for! We had tea and toast in a sweet little shop along the way. This is where Mama and Ron learned about the fancy toilet seats we have out here. We made our way back to the hotel and everyone was all ready pretty exhausted. We went out for a great dinner at a nearby yakiniku restaurant, which was fantastic! Matt and I love yakiniku, but we have a fairly cheap, buffet-style restaurant that we frequent. This one was much nicer and SO delicious! Then we said goodnight to Mama and Ron and Heron and I nursed down in the super-comfy hotel bed and Matt and Rhino snuggled up on the also-comfy sofa bed.

Mama, Ron and I woke up very early on Thursday to make our way to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the largest seafood market and also the largest wholesale market of any kind in the whole world. We arrived around 5am and were there to see the vendors setting out their catch. We made our way to the far end of the market where the large tuna auction takes place. Every day there are 1,000 tuna auctioned off. We watched while the fish were inspected and labeled, before the bidding took place. It was crowded and we wanted to see the rest of the market, so we didn’t stay around for the auction. A lot of the stalls hadn’t yet opened. I guess there is a time line to the whole market that we just didn’t get right away. We had been told that this was the best place in the world to get the freshest sushi, so of course Mama was interested in some breakfast! Ron and I are not sushi fanatics, so we found a nice beef bowl restaurant while Mama had her sushi breakfast. The three of us headed back to the hotel where we met up with Matt and the boys. Then we took the subway to Meiji Shrine, which was absolutely beautiful! We walked around the grounds, fed the fish, saw some spiders, examined beautiful flowers, and got a little lost. Then we found the shrine, which was fantastic as well.

Mama and I got a chance to go out alone to Akihabara on Thursday night. It’s really nice to just hang out with her and catch up. It’s been almost a year since we were last together and even though we talk on the phone every week, I still miss her all the time. We walked a lot and had some coffee. We weren’t really up for shopping, we just went to see sights. We didn’t want to be out too late though, because we had a train to catch in the morning!

Now it’s up to Misawa!

Dearest Rhino,

Well, another month has flown by and you just keep growing! When we took you to the doctor for your 1-year checkup, she was concerned because you had lost some weight (dropping to 20 pounds 8 oz.) It looks alarming in your chart, but I think it’s mostly because you started to get a lot more mobile (lots of crawling and cruising!) and had stopped drinking so much Mommy milk (but weren’t liking cow’s milk.) So the doctor said to come back in a month and see how you’re doing. So, for your 13-month checkup you seem to be doing much better in that department. You still nurse occasionally (really only if you get fussy at night, otherwise you aren’t very interested and would rather have a sippy cup) but drink plenty of whole milk. You’re now at 21 lb 6 oz, which is still a low percentile for babies your age, but that’s nothing to worry about — you are a very healthy little boy! You are also getting even more exercise now that you’ve started walking!

Yes, you’re walking now! You took your first, wobbly steps on Feb. 22nd and today you’re almost running! You used to cruise around the sofa, look at the ottoman a couple of feet away, think long and hard about it and then give it a go, stumbling into the ottoman! Now instead of pulling yourself up with the coffee table or pushing up from a toy on the floor, you can stand up on your own. You are very steady and will walk around, turn corners, step over small obstacles, and right yourself if you start to trip over something. You are so cute to watch and you often find it so exciting to walk laps around us in the living room!

This past month you had another adventure: visiting Tokyo! We all went with our friends Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Kiser. We drove down to Tokyo, about a 9 hour drive, and you were so great the whole way! You love to look out the window at the passing scenery, play with your toys, show off to us, and sleep. The only time you fussed in the car at all is during the drive back home when your tummy got a little upset. While we were in Tokyo you stayed with Daddy and I in a hotel, went up Tokyo Tower, tried Japanese foods, rode on subways, trains, and buses, went to a pretty zoo and saw lots of exciting animals, saw the gardens at the Imperial Palace (and pretty swans and koi), and visited the Ghibli Museum where you looked at lots of pretty pictures and played with stuffed soot balls and watched lots of little Japanese kids. It was a very nice time and you loved chatting with and showing of to our friends, watching all the Japanese people zipping by, and flirting with the occasional waitress or lady on the train!

There are other new things that you are doing now, too. You point all the time at things you want, pictures in books, and Daddy and I. While you point, you usually say da, which sounds like you’re trying to say “that.” You aren’t talking to us yet, but we do get a lot of dadas out of you, which sometimes sound like you mean “Daddy”, but you say it to lots of things that aren’t Daddy, too. One of your favorite new activities is putting things away! When we play together, you like it when I dump lots of little toys out of a bucket or blocks out of a bag so you can quickly pick them all up and return them to their container. It’s lot of fun when you do this with your toys — especially now that you will help me clean them up! — but you do it with all sorts of other silly things, too. We are constantly finding toys, crochet hooks, remote controls, and other random objects you find stuffed in Daddy’s shoes by the front door or placed in empty glasses we leave out on the coffee table! You like to play with your nesting cups. You’ve always enjoyed un-nesting them and banging them together, but now you try to put them all together properly. Sometimes you stack the blocks on top of each other, too. This usually happens when your nesting doesn’t quite work out and you try to put a large cup inside a small cup. From there, you build upwards and seem happy with the outcome, too!

You giggle and chat and smile all the time, but lately you’ve gotten quite a temper! You understand “no” and will test to see where the line is. Sometimes you can be pretty sneaky and you get punished for it. Usually when we swat your hand and tell you no, you’d get over it really quickly and come give us a hug. Now sometimes you’ll push us away if we try to hug you or you’ll bang your head on the floor and throw a little tantrum! You need to get over it and I feel a little bad for you sometimes, but you still are way too cute! You definitely don’t like having things taken away from you and if we try to hide something, you’ll go searching for it. Sometimes you get so upset by other people. You used to do just fine in the church nursery, but lately it’s been such a horror! As soon as we walk up to the door, you know what’s going on, and you will throw such a fit about it. I’m hoping this passes soon because I know it can be tiring for the other ladies who work in the nursery and I want you to have fun with the other children while Daddy and I are away at the service. Soon enough you should be able to understand that we won’t leave you in there forever. In your last two doctor’s appointments I mentioned earlier you were also so upset. Even if I was holding you, if the doctor came near you at all or even just looked at you, you would howl like she was torturing you! I wish there was something I could do to calm you down because you get madder than I’ve ever seen, but I’m hoping this too will pass soon.

It’s been such a fun month and every day you entertain Daddy and I so much! I love how you hug and kiss us all the time and want to snuggle and also how pleased you are with yourself for doing silly little things! We love you so much, Rhino!

Love Always,
Mommy

Matt and I had wanted to get down to see Tokyo sometime before Mama’s trip this fall. We had only just traveled through and not really spent any time there. Liz & Drew and Nicole & Mike were also wanting to visit one last time before everyone moves to Texas, so we thought a big group trip would be fun! It turns out that Mike couldn’t get leave and Drew was deployed, so it ended up pretty much being a girl’s trip with Matt. He didn’t mind too much, though! We were meaning to rent a van through MWR — a cheap daily rate and we don’t have to pay gas or tolls (tolls are about $300 to Tokyo and back.) We were too late reserving a van for our dates though, so we ended up taking our little van. It’s a good thing the other husbands couldn’t make it, otherwise we wouldn’t have had any room at all!

Sunday:

We left by 7 in the morning, had to pick up Liz & Nicole and a few things on our way out of town, got a little lost finding the right toll road in Hachinohe, and then were finally on our way by around 9! The four of us took turns driving, so it wasn’t all that tiring. We made a handful of rest stops along the way to stretch, do diaper changes, and get lunch. Getting into Tokyo was a little confusing with all the different highways, but we made it to the New Sanno (military hotel in downtown Tokyo) by 6 without too many problems! We had dinner at the American restaurant in the hotel and promptly fell asleep.

Monday morning we had a nice breakfast in the hotel restaurant before heading out. We decided to do Tokyo Tower, which is in Roppongi and very close to the New Sanno. We took the subway a couple of blocks and then had a nice walk up to the Tower.

We got some great views of the whole city from the observation deck. It’s not at the top of the tower, just a little ways up. Rhino enjoyed looking out (and down) the windows and got some practice walking around. Liz and Nicole went up to the next deck to see what was up there. Liz got brought one of her Blythe dolls to take photos of around Tokyo and got some shots of her on the tower.

There are other attractions in Tokyo Tower, including a wax museum, trick art gallery, and “space wax” museum (which was sort of just a small gallery of old anime.) We had fun taking photos in the trick art gallery, and the wax museum was full of rock and roll musicians, Alice in Wonderland, Jesus, historical Japanese figures, etc. There was plenty more to do in Tokyo tower: an aquarium, a playground, lots of little shops and restaurants, but the museums and view had taken up most of our morning and this pregnant lady was hungry and tired!

We went for a walk to find the Outback Steakhouse (I know, American food in Japan, but it will be a while until I have it and I can have Japanese food any time!) Matt carried Rhino around and he really seemed to enjoy the trip, then got comfy for a short nap.

Lunch was good and Rhino had a blast playing with everything at the table! It was only about 1, but I was pretty exhausted from lots of walking and Matt was ready to go back to the hotel. Liz and Nicole had doll-related shopping planned in Akihabara and Nokono, which neither of us were really too interested in anyway. They got back after dinner, so Matt and I went for a walk around Shibuya to check out the district and find something to eat. I feel like we didn’t get a whole lot accomplished on Monday, but it sure felt like a very full day!!

Hello, darling!

Your mommy has been a little lazy about writing your letters the few months! So much has happened, but I’m going to only talk a little bit about it this time.

9 Month Letter (Nov 13, 2008)

During your eighth month you started to “army crawl”: pulling yourself forward with your arms while lying on your stomach. You got around for about three days like that before you figured out you can use your hands and knees to move, too! Now you are all over the place!

You didn’t have a doctor’s appointment this past month, but we did weigh you in. You still haven’t gained any weight since we checked when you turned 8 months, so the doctor did want to see what is going on. You were a little sick for a week and you’ve been getting more exercising with crawling, so the doctor isn’t worried at all.

You’ve been trying more solid foods lately, too. We haven’t yet found anything you won’t eat! You are great about eating your vegetables and this month tried steamed broccoli, which you had lots of fun with. You also like mangoes, kiwi slices, and cottage cheese.

This month you traveled a little bit to the towns around us. We went to Rokkasho for their yearly Salmon Festival. You got to see lots of big fish swimming in the river and also in the pools at the festival. Daddy was hoping to get to catch a salmon with his hands, but we didn’t get to the festival early enough. You had fun snuggled up with me and looking at all the Japanese people, fish, and food.

The big news of this month is that Daddy and I found out that you are going to be a big brother next summer! This is very exciting for us because we knew we wanted you to have a little brother or sister that was close to your age to play with. You went with us to my first doctor’s appointment, where we got to hear Little Baby’s heartbeat and even watch a little movie of him or her! It would be neat if you were a little older and knew what was going on so you could be excited too, but I know when the baby comes you will be such a fantastic brother and you two will have so much fun together!

10 Month Letter (Dec 13, 2008)

Now you’re 10 months old and the last month has been very busy! You are crawling around everywhere and starting to get into things! Daddy and I have to put more thought into what we leave around on the floor or what doors we leave open so you don’t get into something you shouldn’t. It’s a lot of work!

In November you saw your first snow fall. It was exciting for Daddy and I because it was our first snow since we’ve been here in Japan, and we haven’t seen any in quite some time! We took you out in the backyard so you could get a closer look, but you really just wanted to eat it. I’d walk you up to the snow on the tree branches or pick some up in my hand for you to get a better look and you’d just reach forward with your mouth to get a taste!

This month we also started our vacation back to the US to see all our family for Christmas. You got to take a couple of trains to get to Tokyo, then fly from Japan to California and were really good, considering how long you’d been up and how long the flight was! In the airport in Tokyo, waiting for our delayed plane to California, you started “cruising”. Daddy was eating some french fries and had them sitting on the chair and you were crawling around on the floor. When you saw those french fries, you pulled right up on a chair and walked yourself down to get a bite! You poor thing, you worked so hard to get over to the snacks, but of course we didn’t let you have any! Food seems to be your biggest motivation to try new things! We spent a little time in California where you got to see some people from our old church, who you’d met before (but you were just born and definitely wouldn’t remember!) We went to see our friends the Lasleys and their little girls. Unfortunately, when we stopped by the girls were asleep, though it would have been fun to see you with them! I know we’ll see all of them again though, and you’ll have a good time when you get to meet up with them then. We took another plane from California to Texas, to see your Pop (my father), Dandy (my grandfather), and GG (my grandmother) as well as all your great uncles & aunt, etc! You turned 10 months in Texas and had a nice trip meeting and visiting with lots of people.

When we’re at home, I usually feed you some baby food that I made or pieces of our meals and rarely ever use normal baby food. We thought that for the long trip, we’d pick some up in case there were meals that we couldn’t give to you or we were unable to cook for you. I was a little worried that, since you don’t eat baby food at home, you wouldn’t really like it. Boy, was I surprised! You ate lots of baby food from jars on the airplane, in the airports, in California, and in Texas and loved it! You’ve become a lot more demanding for food lately, too! When you see me start to get food ready, you’ll whine and hold your fists out and shake a little. Sometimes you even yell at me to “hurry up!” I know that you just get hungry, need to learn a little bit of patience, and really, really like your food!

11 Month Letter (Jan 13, 2009)

You spent your tenth month mostly back in the states, still visiting over Christmas. After we finished visiting my family in Texas, we flew to New York to see Daddy’s family. It was much colder there and you met even more people who were very happy to see you! We spent most of our time with Grandma, Grandpa, and your Aunt Jen at home. Other family members and friends would come over to visit and everyone enjoyed just watching you crawl and cruise around the room, eat your meals, play with toys, and they took lots of pictures of you! You got so much attention and really seemed to enjoy it. We visited at Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s (Daddy’s grandparents) home and they had lots of people over to visit. We got to meet another baby boy, Mitchell, who is just 3 weeks older than you (Daddy’s cousin’s son!) You two had fun pointing at and touching each other and playing peek-a-boo around a chair! Mom-mom and Pop-pop have a staircase, which you hadn’t ever seen much of (right now we live on one floor.) We wanted to see what you would do with stairs, and to our surprise you took right to them! You zipped up eight stairs and then weren’t quite sure how to get down.

We weren’t in New York over Christmas, but we had an early Christmas so we could all celebrate together. You received lots of wonderful toys and handsome clothes and are having so much fun playing with everything. One of the best gifts you got was a little baby piano that plays notes and songs, lights up, and is just your height. Now that you can pull up to a stand on things, it’s so much fun to watch you play with this. One of your cutest recent developments is “dancing” to all kinds of music. While at the piano, you will play a couple notes or start a song, then rock back and forth, and repeat this over and over. You had so much fun with the piano!

We noticed your dancing skills last month when I would sing to you or put on music. It started out with just rocking back and forth, but you’ve developed all sorts of new “moves” since then. Anytime someone would sing a song to you (Grandpa would sing “yummy, yummy, yummy in my tummy, tummy, tummy” while you’re eating), put on Christmas music, or play a toy that makes music, you’d immediately start “be-bopping” (this is what Daddy calls your dancing!) We love it and can’t get enough of it!

After New York, we flew to California to see Grammy (my mother.) Your Aunt Andrea, Uncle Michael, and cousin Amelia, as well as Uncle Matt and his girlfriend Adria came to visit at the same time as well. Amelia is just a week younger than you are and we were all very excited for you two to meet! You guys were so cute together and seemed to have quite a good time! In Colorado you met Jack and Tilley, Grammy’s two little dogs (you also met Jasmine and Mugsy at Grandma and Grandpa’s, so you had seen dogs before.) You didn’t like when they’d lick at your face, but you did enjoy being around and them and petting their fur. We had lots of fun at Grammy’s, going out to eat, making lots of food in the kitchen, relaxing with your aunts and uncles, and having Christmas!

Christmas with you was a great time! Daddy and I went to church on Christmas Eve and Aunt Andrea and Uncle Michael stayed to watch you. When we came back, you sat up with Daddy and I as we opened some gifts. Then when we woke up on Christmas morning, you and Amelia got to dig around in your stockings for some neat books and car toys! We had lots of presents under the tree for the two of you. Neither of you seemed to want to tear the paper off the gifts, but you really did want all the bows! Once the paper was off, you did have fun with it and the ribbons. You both got some wonderful new books, stuffed animals, Little People toys, and some very nice clothes. Even more people came over Christmas afternoon to meet you and eat more food! After Christmas we did more fun things like going to see a cave, which you really enjoyed. When we were in a big, echo-y room underground, you would babble and make all sorts of cute sounds!

You were extra-good on the flight back to Japan (it was an even longer than the flight to the States!) and on the three trains to get back home. You were wonderful to travel with, but we probably won’t go so far away again anytime too soon! You can read more about our December visits in the US in an earlier post I made.

Sorry, baby, for the long letter that covers the last three months! I will be better in the future about not skipping these so that you can learn about what your life was like as a little boy. As always, Daddy and I love you so much and are having the best time of our lives getting to know you better each day!

Hugs and Kisses,
Mommy

I see that my last post date is in October. I’ve been stopping by to write something for weeks, but really, I’ve just been intimidated. So much has happened in the past three months, I’ll never find the time to write about it all! Well, now that I’ve gotten down to it, I’m giving you the extremely abridged version!

I’m really not remembering much about November! A few things stick out, though. Rhino started crawling around, we got our first Misawa snow (and Rhino’s first snow ever!), we had two nice Thanksgivings (one with the church, then a second in our home with our friends), and we discovered we’re going to have another baby in July ’09! This of course is very exciting and just the age spacing we were hoping for. Thanksgiving was nice, too, and not very hectic at all. Liz, Nicole, and I split up the responsibilities. Really, all I had to do was make up some cranberry sauce and veggies and provide a clean home. The food was all wonderful and we had a terrific first Thanksgiving in Japan!

December will take a while to describe. I had my first prenatal appointment and we saw the ultrasound of our 8 week-old little bean! Heart’s beating, there’s only one in there, everything’s looks fine, that was about it! Two days later we began our trip back to the States to visit with family for Christmas. This was wonderful, but tiring! I’m so glad we got to see all our family (though not as many friends as I had initially hoped. Everything was getting too hectic!) and have Rhino meet the rest of the folks that didn’t get to come out when he was born.

Matt wrote up a big post about the horrible details of the travel itself. He pretty much covered it all, though he didn’t mention how uncomfortable a 9 or 12 hour flight is for a pregnant woman with morning sickness. Airplanes definitely were not my friends. I won’t take this space to complain further about travel and how we never want to step foot on an airplane again (we can stick out Matt’s career here and retire in Japan!) All our destinations made the flights more than worthwhile.

We flew into LA, so we decided to rent a car and drive up to Lompoc to see our friends and recuperate for the weekend. We left at 10pm on a Friday evening and it’s an overnight flight across the international dateline to California. When I booked this flight, I just assumed: leave Friday evening, overnight flight, land Saturday morning. I know, now that I think about it, it doesn’t make any sense. When we landed in CA and the captain said that it was 2pm on Friday, I was so confused! I hadn’t planned to arrive on Friday! So, it was my first time going back in time! We picked up our car and, 3 seconds off the lot, Matt almost gets into an accident! We’ve gotten quite used to driving on the left side and very slowly in Japan. When we got on the freeway, Matt felt all nervous that he was going so fast! Well, “so fast” is 45mph and he definitely needed to kick it up a bit, as everyone else was going 80! It was scary interesting watching him get used to driving in the US again. We arrived in Lompoc, called everyone we knew, didn’t get through to anyone, so we stayed in a hotel. It was nice to just relax and decompress from the long trip by ourselves. On Saturday (the real Saturday, not the Saturday in my confused head) we met up with Wayne and Rena, the wonderful couple from church that took us in as their “kids” (theirs had all moved out) and led the Bible study we attended for 2 years. It was nice to spend the weekend with them, have a little group reunion with some other church people, and show Rhino off. We also met up with our friends Denna, Adam & Ty. We went out to for an Italian dinner to catch up and gab. They ordered a plate of pasta for Tyler (2), but we discovered Rhino is nuts for pasta, and pretty much ate Ty’s whole plate! That was the first we saw of Rhino vehemently demanding table food and it was quite amusing, though slightly embarrassing to be out in a restaurant with a baby who yelled for food as if we hadn’t given him any for months! After church on Sunday we went over to Jody and Roy‘s to see their sweet baby girls, have some lunch, and catch up. The weekend was so short and we were fighting to stay awake during the day, so we didn’t end up doing all that I had planned. I couldn’t get a hold of Danielle and would have loved to stop by work (it was drill weekend), but it just didn’t happen. We drove back down to LA on Sunday night, got another hotel (oh my, another whole big terrible story, too!) and caught a flight to Dallas the next morning.

These descriptions will probably get shorter, now, as there’s still plenty more. Texas was nice. Papa was the only one to have met Rhino, back in March, so it was wonderful that all my uncles, aunt, grandparents, etc. got to meet him! Unfortunately, Rhino hadn’t gotten used to the time zones yet and had just started teething again, so he was pretty grumpy a lot of the week. We kept busy, though. We had a nice Mexican lunch out at the Tupinamba, a restaurant that my family always goes to when I come to visit! We got to see my brother, Matthew, who also lives in Dallas and finally meet his girlfriend, Adria. The five of us went to Ripley’s Believe it or Not, had lunch at Chili’s, and went over to their apartment for dinner and board games. Over the week we got plenty of gaming in — Sequence, Clue, Phase 10, Scattergories — and watched a couple of movies (Eagle Eye, The Other Boleyn Girl, As Good As It Gets). I also went with Grandmother and Aunt Pattie to a quarterly ladies’ luncheon at their church, which was really great! We had a delicious lunch, browsed through second-hand goodies to buy to support their Friendship House, and listened to a wonderful pianist and singer perform Christmas songs. Then on Friday, Papa took us out to the Granada, sort of his second home, with Matthew and Adria to see Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis. It wasn’t exactly our style of music, but it was nice to get out and see the theater and hang out with my dad and brother. We couldn’t bring Rhino, so it was his first time with a babysitter, Papa’s friend Kay. I was really worried that I’d get him to sleep at her house, leave, then he’d wake up and cry and never go back down for her. He did wake up a couple hours after we had left, and he cried for a little bit, then fell back asleep — I was quite impressed! Rhino got a few cute gifts from the Texas family. Papa got him some clothes, including a cute Dallas Cowboys onesie. Rhino also got a Bible stories book and a 2008 coin set. It was a nice time visiting with all the family and I’m glad they finally got to meet Rhino! We left Sunday morning for the next leg of our trip: New York!

Okay, so these aren’t getting much shorter! Well, not to New York. We flew into Buffalo and Matt’s parent’s were there to take us down to Obi. Matt’s sister, Jen, was waiting at home for us and everyone was so excited to see Rhino (and us, I guess!) We got in pretty late, so we pretty much went straight to bed. The rest of the week was filled with a lot of family (Matt has a lot of family close by!) visiting and staring at, taking pictures of Rhino! We went over to Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s one night to meet up with lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.! Rhino got to meet Mitchell, a little boy just 3 weeks older than him. They were so cute together! Another night the church pastor and his family came over one night for dinner and games. Jen and I got a “sisters only” afternoon one day to go get lunch and tea and browse Jo-Ann’s. Jen, Mom and I had a cookie-decorating day! Matt’s brother Jason and his fiancée came over so they could meet Rhino and we could meet her! Later that week, they were married!! I got really sick the night before and couldn’t go to their wedding, though! It was tough, I spent about 36 hours curled up on the sofa or huddled in the bathroom. Rhino pretty much had a full day without Mommy, but he did really well with Grandma and Aunt substitutes! I was bummed to not be able to attend the wedding, but at least I recovered before our flight out. We also watched some movies (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Wall-E, and lots of MST3K.) We also had an early Christmas on the 17th. Matt got more MST3K, some anime, books, cross-stitching stuff; I got some great knitting books and some others; and Rhino received so many cute clothes and toys! They’re all wonderful, but the thing he definitely loved the most was Jen’s gift: a very cute little baby piano! Rhino had recently started really enjoying music and dancing anytime any song started: a commercial jingle, someone singing, 3 notes on a piano, someone whistling, etc.! So he would stand up at the piano, bang out a few notes, dance to his music, play a few more, dance, and on and on! Everyone loved watching him play! It was a fun early Christmas! We did it again a few days later at Aunt Ginny’s with Aunt Connie & Grandpa, too. Rhino got more wonderful outfits, toys, and books. Thankfully, Mom and Dad shipped everything to our home so we didn’t have to pack all the gifts out! We left for the airport Saturday afternoon, but our flight out of Buffalo had been canceled. We made the long drive back home to sleep, and got on an early flight Sunday morning for Colorado.

Originally we had planned to arrive in Colorado two days early, rent a car, stay in Mama’s condo in Denver, and visit with friends in Fort Collins and Denver. By the time we got to Colorado, we were running out of money, car rentals were really high, I was lazy and hadn’t recently been in touch with any friends, we’d lost a day due to our canceled flight, and we were feeling pretty run down. Mama and Ron just picked us up from the airport and took us down to the Springs. I feel like a terrible friend, but it was nice to just relax at “home.” Plus, my sister, her husband and daughter were flying in just a few hours later so I’m glad that we were around to spend more time with them. We had planned to spend time with our friends Carol and Derik, who live in Omaha (and we used to work together. Matt went to tech school with both of them.) They drove down to the Springs for the weekend to see us, but it only turned into an hour that they came over and chatted after dinner on Monday. It was so nice to see them and of course I would have liked more time, things just didn’t quite work out. I’m so glad we at least got to visit for a little bit. Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity before too long! So with my sister in town, I finally got to meet my niece, Amelia! She’s 8 days younger than Rhino and I was so excited to see the two of them together. It was so interesting, they are such different babies! Rhino is a lot more vocal, interested in music and crazy about food. Amelia is all ready running around!! She likes to do her own thing a lot. They both play so differently, sleep differently, eat differently, cry differently — it was quite an experience! She is so beautiful and such a sweetheart. At 10 months, the babies weren’t really interested in playing with each other, but they did play next to each other! We joke that Amelia is sort of a “bully” — they would both be playing with toys, but she would always want to take whatever Rhino had instead! Rhino was very laid back about the whole thing and never really seemed to mind, haha! I wish we could have spent more time with Andrea and her family, but hopefully we will get to see them next year (when the babies won’t be babies anymore — waah!) Aside from watching babies in Colorado, we did actually spend time with Mama and Ron, too! Their dogs, Jack and Tilley, are very high-strung little wild dogs (but so sweet!) and we were nervous about how they’d act around the babies. We were all very surprised though, they were SO good! Whenever a dog would come up to Rhino, we’d say “dog” a lot and eventually Rhino would look at the dog and say “dauh” — he just wouldn’t say the ‘g’. I’m not counting it as a first word, but it was really close and he would do it everytime he’d see a dog! One night we were there, we went out to the Golden Bee, an English pub at the Broadmoor hotel. It’s sort of a Christmastime tradition that my Grandpa started years ago. The babies were really well behaved and loved eating crackers. We drove around afterward and looked at the light displays. We spent a lot of time at home, just relaxing, chatting, hanging out in the kitchen, watching TV, etc. Mama made some great meals that Andrea and I tried to help out with! Andrea made a delicious spinach tofu lasagna one night and Mama and I made a copy of the Olive Garden’s Zuppa Tuscana soup (my favorite!) Andrea and I made multiple visits to the Whole Foods — it was like Grocery Heaven for us! I wish we had more than our crummy commissary selection and expensive Japanese produce out here. Andrea found a Buddha’s Hand and was so excited, she bought it as decoration (I thought it was more appropriate as a Halloween decoration!) We never did use it for anything, but in the future she wants to make candied peels out of one. I found a kiwano that I had wanted to try since I found this sorbet recipe on one of my favorite foodie blogs. Well, we didn’t make a sorbet, just ate spoonfuls from it — and it was less than enjoyable! Matthew and Adria flew in on the 23rd, so now all us siblings were together with our significant others! It was quite a full house, but tons of fun. We had a great, salmon Christmas Eve dinner and filled up on Christmas cookies (Mama went overboard with the date rolls, oatmeal chocolate chip, pinwheels, hazelnut cookies, ricotta cheese sugar cookies, etc, etc.!!) before heading off to the candlelight service at First Pres. It was a beautiful service and I was so glad Matthew and Adria joined us as well. When we got home we opened all of the “grown-up presents”. Mama and Ron got each couple an awesome digital frame, which I love! We did stockings and “baby presents” Christmas morning, which was lots of fun! The babies got some adorable clothes, wonderful books, and some very cute Little People toys! Andrea, Michael and Amelia flew out the next day, so we got some time with Matthew and Adria. We all went to Cave of the Winds, which was amazing! With all the time we lived in Colorado, none of us had ever been and it’s just a few minutes from home. We left from Denver early Sunday morning for our long flight back to Japan.

The whole month was filled with such nice visits with family. I’m still getting all the photos from each location together, then I will post them to the gallery and include links in this post. I didn’t really take many pictures at all, though! I guess I was too busy with Rhino and visiting that I just didn’t think much about photos. Thankfully, other people got a few! The whole trip was very tiring and expensive (see Matt’s post!), but was definitely worthwhile! Unfortunately, it very well may be our only trip back to the States while we’re stationed in Japan. Mama and Ron, Jen, and Matt’s parents are all planning trips out to see us within the next 18 months, though!! I can’t wait to show them all the wonderful things out here!

Edit: Here are links to the vacation photos from California, Texas, New York, and Colorado!

Hello again, sweet Rhino!

You’re all ready three months old now! You are now nearly 25 inches tall and weigh 16lb 11 oz. It has been quite a busy month for you, too! We had a big move to Japan a few weeks ago. You did great on the trip and were really pleasant to fly with. You’ve settled into Japan and your new home quite well. Everywhere we go people love you because, well, you’re a cute baby! But every new person you meet gets showered in your huge, adorable smiles, from the airport security screeners and customs officers to Daddy’s coworkers and stranger in the commissary. You are so friendly and curious about everything we’ve seen (well, sometimes you sleep through interesting things!)

You’ve developed such a great personality. You’re so chatty and smiley and you’ve even giggled once! (Daddy was playing with you and you were having a great time on Mother’s Day. I heard your giggle from the kitchen, but I wasn’t there to see it!) You can be really goofy sometimes …

… and also so, so sweet.

You’ve been spending a lot of time looking at your toys and even swatting at them. You’re getting so much better with your hands and are so much more responsive now. You love to suck on your fingers (and try to fit your entire hand in your mouth!), your rattle, and will always bring blankets to your mouth as well. When you’re lying on your tummy, you’ll prop yourself up on your elbows and look up with your whole chest off the floor now! You don’t complain as much about “tummy time” anymore and will enjoy playing with me and looking at your toys. Earlier today you even rolled for the first time! I understand you’re not yet very graceful, and your roll is mostly just you losing your balance, but I am very proud of you! I even got your first rolls on video:

It has been such a busy month for our family, but a very exciting one. Everyone says that babies grow so quickly, but I’m really getting to understand that now! When I think back to last month or especially when you first came home, I’m amazed at how different you are! Daddy and I love every day that we spend with you and you definitely bring us so much joy. We both love you so much, and are looking forward to another wonderful month!

Love,
Mommy

On Monday morning we took the shuttle back to Narita and, from there, caught the bus to Haneda. We picked up some drinks from a vending machine at the airport, drove into Tokyo, passed Tokyo Disney, some giant ferris wheels, saw the water and a lot of buildings, and wound up at the airport where we waited for a few hours for our flight.

We relaxed for a while and watched Japanese TV in massaging chairs, then got a bite of ramen at a cafe. Nobody we talked to spoke any English at all, so we sort of picked something to eat at random. So we had our first Japanese meal. Rhino had a snazzy airport stroller in which we carted him and our bags around.

The flight to Misawa was pretty quick. We flew over some snowy mountains and the water, but it was dark by the time we landed, so we didn’t get to see too much else. When we landed there were three guys from Matt’s work waiting for us. Matt’s sponsor, Pete, took all our luggage in his van and we rode with Andre to the base. They took us to billeting, where we were told we may be staying for about a month. They took a list of groceries and ran to the store to get us a few things to eat for the next few days.

Misawa Inn from Melissa on Vimeo.

Tuesday morning Pete picked Matt up to go to work and take care of some paperwork. They showed back up at billeting to pick up me and Rhino to go have lunch at the BX food court. Then Matt went to housing to sign up for a house. They came back and got me when he was given keys to look at our new place. They pick one house as a first choice. If we decline that one, they give us a second choice. If we decline the second one, then we can no longer stay in billeting on the Air Force’s tab and need to find a place off base. We checked out our first choice. It’s on the bottom floor of a quadplex. It’s two bedrooms and has a washer and drier and a yard. It’s bigger than our old apartment and I like it quite a bit. So Matt got an appointment for Friday to accept the place and set a move-in date. Apparently we have to wait for FMO to move in some temporary furniture while we wait the 3 months for ours to arrive.

Wednesday Matt took care of a few more appointments and briefings, he and I both attended a driving class (to learn how to read the traffic signs and drive on the left) and received our Japanese driving licenses, I got a new ID, and then we had dinner over at Pete’s house. We met his wife and three kids, took a walk to the beach, and had some steaks and squash. It was a nice time and I think we’re going back over there for a barbecue this weekend.

Today we went out to dinner at Sukiya for some beef and rice bowls off-base. I think it’s a Japanese fast food place. They had about 500 menu choices and what we had was pretty good.

Then we went car shopping. We had looked at a few of the cars at the base lemon lot. They tend to be a little cheaper when sold by other military members moving on. Japan has this insurance called JCI that is good for 2 years and transferable with the vehicle. It gets to be about $1000 when you have to buy it. So, when car shopping on base, we were looking for cars that still had plenty of time left for JCI. There were some nice ones, but we heard that the lots off-base had full JCI and warranties and 0% interest. We also wanted a car that we wouldn’t have to worry about too much. You can get cars for extremely cheap or free here, but we didn’t want to have to deal with lots of repairs and issues. So we chose a ’97 Honda off a lot off base. It’s a bit pricier than on base (but still much cheaper than in the US), but we have the warranty and the 2 years JCI, which makes a difference to us. Japan is having a bunch of holidays this week (Shōwa Day, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day & Children’s Day) so the title won’t be transferred until they’re over, on the 7th. So they loaned us a little car in the meantime. It’s nice to have our own car than to rely on Matt’s sponsor.

There are more photos here!

The alarm clock is set for 9am, but I’ve been up since 5. It isn’t Rhino’s fault — he’s still asleep. Maybe it’s excitement or just the time change. We went to bed around 9pm (after being up for about 28 hours) and I got a full 8 hours, I just thought I would have wanted more! It’s 6 now, which is about 2pm in California. So maybe my body just knows not to sleep-in until 2.

We ate here at the hotel last night, at the California Restaurant for their dinner buffet. I don’t exactly know what made it so “California” — there was plenty of Japanese food! People had told us that everything is more expensive in Japan, but I guess this is the first we’d seen of it. The buffet wasn’t really anything fancy. We had a salad and some pork and fish and potatoes and rice. The bill came out to be 6000Â¥, which is about $57! It’s a good thing Matt is getting so much per diem (and I get 75% and Rhino gets 50%) to pay for these expensive meals!

We are staying at the Radisson in Chiba, which was about a 30 minute shuttle ride from Narita airport in Tokyo. We didn’t really get to see the hustle and bustle of Tokyo. We were driven (on the left side of the street – which scared us a few times!) through bamboo forests, rice paddies, and small houses to our hotel. I wish we would have learned some Japanese before we got here, like we had planned to. It’s kind of embarrassing trying to talk to people. We don’t understand, they kind of understand, and eventually it works out but it is a very awkward conversation! We brought all our little phrase books and dictionaries along, so I’m whipping those out today to try and learn something!

I haven’t taken very many photos or videos yet, but I will! Before we left California, I did put up a few new photos and new videos, though. More to come soon!

EDIT: Here are some photos.

Upon first arriving at the hotel:

The Radisson at Narita from Melissa on Vimeo.

The sign for the hotel:

Here’s the view of the town from our hotel window:

Here’s the view of the farms from our hotel window:

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