original little hellraisers

(all the japan photos are here)

december 17^th, 2008

woke up super early today to make our flight. and by super early i mean 3:30. kara was up until 12:45 packing our backs. i was ushered to bed in an effort not to relapse.

owen, just like his mother, is nearly impossible to wake up from a dead sleep. you can sit there and tell him to wake up, talk to him nicely, poke him gently. it’s like poking a jello ball. there is the tactile feedback that you’re touching something but there is absolutely no response from owen. so i did the next best thing and just started changing him out of his pajamas so we could make the airport in time. i’ll have to try that on kara next time i need to wake her up.

(that picture of dylan is just a cheap trick to get you to read this post)

once we got to the airport, with our huge amount of baggage, we had to strip it all down, including taking owen out of his backback carrier and taking off his shoes to pass security – before we even get to the ticketing counter. security check 1.

we get our boarding passes and then run over to the terminal fee counter (which seems common in the philippines) – where you have to pay for the use of the terminal. we run to that counter with the kids and bags (now in one of those push carts) to find out the fee was already included in our booking. after the terminal fee we hit another security check – this one seems like the ‘normal’ one for any given airport – after the boarding passes, but before the gate.

owen keeps yelling, ‘my shoes!’ everytime we have to take them off – i think he thinks he’s never going to see them again and that mean, imposing metal machine with the thing that the grocery store has on it will eat his shoes forever. we reassure him it is not the case. security check 2.

we redress again and then start making our way to the gate – we’re both pretty tired at this point – it’s roughly 5:30 or 5:45. figuring it’s best to get to the gate and then sort out getting any last minute airport-type stuff (water, snacks, etc.) so, as we get to the gate we find (and you might have already seen where this is going), a third security check. now i’m beginning to wonder how smart they think i am that i can out think their elaborate security stations with some threatening device. i mean, we haven’t gone more than 10 minutes on a walk to the gate. what could i have possibly acquired at this time? so, we go through another bout of ‘my shoes!’ and get everything else off and through the metal monstrosity. dylan is a champ the entire time, i might add. just chilling in his chair, waiting for his moment to explode.

we sit at the gate, reassured there will be pre-boarding. we’re exhausting, but happy that this fever is gone and we’re headed to japan… finally.

the guy behind us is american and strikes up a conversation. it would bore you, except for the part where i ask him what he does and he replies, ‘i work for the government.’ ours? i reply. ‘yes.’ he answers. what do you do for the government?, i ask. ‘i track things.’ he replies. now my imagination has this guy tracking covert operatives or some such to ensure that they are where they should be and are not turn-coating on us and becoming some evil version of matthew bourne or some such.

turns out he just tracks how engine parts are selling in other countries (and our own) to see how the world economy is tracking. pretty cool stuff still (at least to me), but not nearly as romantic.

we jump on the flight and have to explain to owen that he can’t watch totoro until after the plane takes off. you will find it interesting the things you have to explain to your kids when you travel that you may just take for granted. another case in point? owen asked for kix at some point during the trip – his favorite cereal – and they just don’t sell that in the philippines. why? he asks. so, you do the responsible thing and you tell him that terrorists won’t allow it and that’s why we went to war in iraq.  or you explain the global cereal industry to him and how general mills has a death grip on the world, but the philippines is the last strong hold out. or you distract him with something else and try to move on.

then the kids both fell asleep for the majority of the flight.

the only other major milestone for owen is that he went pee in the bathroom during turbulence. another thing that i had to try and explain that the wings weren’t, in fact, falling off and this was normal for plane rides. i was pretty proud of him, though.

he doesn’t like landing and takeoff either – he proclaims that it is ‘too loud’ and covers his ears and leans into either kara or myself.

pro-tip: when your plane lands, just let everyone else get off first. it makes it a little easier when you need to pick up and move with your kids. this may not be an issue with one kid, but we tried on our first flight to be a normal plane traveler and when we noticed that we were holding up the entire deboarding process we sat back down. it’s way less stressful just to wait. and we found it didn’t impact our time through customs or to get our baggage very much.

it was 70 bucks for all of us to get from the airport to within walking distance to hisano and yasu’s apartment. owen was excited because we got to ride on a bus.  there weren’t seats together, not even two, so some super nice and old japanese dude offered his seat to me so that owen and i could sit next to each other. i love this country. the old dude moved.

we take the 90 minute journey into aoba-ku, yokohama (which turns out to be one stop away from kazumi’s house) and everytime we passed a forest section owen would look for totoro. everytime a truck would pass, he would yell, ‘truck!’ i tried to keep him relatively quiet given the quiet nature of the japanese people and all-in-all he did a pretty good job.

as we were getting off the train, in pure japanese style, the girl behind owen (and by girl, i mean someone in her twenties) pulls out a whinnie the pooh! coloring book and crayons and gives it to owen. i mean, who carries this stuff around other than japanese people who always seem to have gifts on them to give to others? owen said ‘thank you’ in english. she giggled, patted his head and deboarded.

we got off the bus and in three minutes we see the waving, smiling and boundless hisano that we have come to know and love. she has yuuta slung to her the way kara has dylan slung – it’s cute. we throw everything into two cabs and make our way to their apartment.

we drag and then drop everything off and then basically collapse. it’s roughly 4:30 at this point and it has been a long day. (and it’s not over!)

china has grown so much (of course) since we last saw her – about this time last year. she’s running around and smiling and being a little girl. she’s pretty adorable. yuuta, at least to kara and i, looks exactly like iga-kun. he’s big (not fat) and quiet. i told hisano he reminds me of young buddha.

we finished the night with a huge dinner that hisano prepared. it looks like she is falling in line with her family tradition – feeding the hell out of her guests. she had a bunch of gyoza from her dad (who used to own resteraunts, remember) – they were killer. we had a spicy tofu soup. and then a sweet and sour pork dish. all of it was super good.

i crashed really early – i have a recurring headache. i hope it’s the last of whatever is afflicting me.

tomorrow? the train museum.

december 18^th, 2008

woke up early today – owen and dylan decided it was time to rise. hisano went and made us waffles for breakfast. and thank heavens for being in a country that respects the cup of coffee so much – hisano makes it strong – the way we like it.

it takes a while to wrangle four kids to get ready for the day so we did that as fast as we could so we could head to the train museum – which opens at 10am, we think. it’s two stops away and costs 100 yen, which is a hell of a deal all things considered. not sure if owen is going to love it or be terrified. this trip has solidified his distinct lack of adventure – which we’re fine with – he just tends to take a long time to warm up to new things – be it people or places. it’s like he needs to make a call on whether or not it (or you!) should be worth his time. i think he’s silently judgemental.

first things first though is getting the little guys (and gal!) on a train to the train museum. owen, of course, just stares intently at the tracks and then announces for the platform when the train is coming. you can actually see the lines go by from hisano’s porch, which excites the hell out of him.

after making our way to the station (azamino station, one away from her parents at eda station) and buying our tickets, owen just sat there saying, ‘train!’ over and over again. the other thing notable about owen right now is that he hates a gap in the walkway – like the kind you find between the ground and an elevator, or a platform and a subway car. we always have to pick him up to put him on. we’re starting to think about ignoring his pleas on the platform to see if he’ll muster the courage to just to tackle it.

once on the train he had to sit in my lap in order to get comfortable. from there, he just soaked it all in. we think this is his new favorite form of transport, it is certainly one of his favorite ‘objects’ right now. trains, trains, trains, trains, trains, trains, trains.

the museum was a mixture of fear and wonder. as kara pointed out, it takes about an hour for him to get comfortable with the idea of being in a new place. we went down to the bottom floor where we could look at all the old train cars, get on them, play with the simulators (which are pretty cool) get on the buses, etc. they covered the working parts in plexiglas so that kids can play with the buttons and

see how the trains and buses work. he would alternate between the ‘pick me up phase’ and the ‘leave me alone phase.’

the museum trip ends with a 15 minute presentation (in japanese, of course) in front of a huge working diorama of yokohama’s train lines. the trains and cars run, the sun sets, the lights come on – he was mystified at this point and then as we tried to leave, he made it clear he didn’t want to.

we came back to hi-chan’s place to let the kids nap and we ordered some take-out ramen, ate, i checked in on some work emails. we enjoyed the silence of sleeping kids – a rare commodity now (made even rarer by the addition of china and yuuta).

once the kids were back up we started to see the china/owen dynamic form. they’re almost flirting with each other at this point – china more than owen, but it’s nice to see them warming up to each other.

we did a quick trip to the super market – and if you’ve never seen a japanese supermarket , you need to make a point during some trip to check one out. it’s not that they are huge or anything, they’re just so complete. and then on the floors above, there tends to be connected department stores. we picked up some essentials while waiting for yasu to get to azamino station so we could all head to dinner.

hichan also knows how much kara and i looooove curry. thankfully there is a place connected to her apartment building that serves the second best curry i’ve ever had. top honors belong to her father for his banana curry – which to this day garners weird looks from the other japanese folks i know. i guess it’s totally non-traditional, but hell is it good.

we came back to the house, put the kids down, hung out for a little bit and then crashed for the night.

tomorrow… tokyo and yuuta’s 100-day birthday party.