Details

In the last few blogs, I've made a weak attempt to explain all that we learned and observed in Japan in only a few days. There's just so much to cover that it was hard to cover in a few blog posts, so I'd like to add in a few more details now.

It seems as if every person in every job that we interacted with in our time here did their job without complaint and to the best of their ability. From a customer perspective this is an amazing treat too often missed in the US.

Tourist Expenses- I heard many complain about how expensive everything in Japan is before we came. I suppose Tokyo is probably a bit worse than Narita, but Narita is about on par with LA from what I saw (except gas-but there are plenty of buses to get around that expense). I think one key is that everything is priced to include tax and tip, so there's no getting $50 in food, paying $5 in taxes, then tacking on another $10 in tip for a total of $65. $50 is $50. It can be shocking when you see your first 3600 yen bill for lunch, but if you account for the exchange rate that's $47 total: for 6 people, way better food than Applebees (which I'd probably spend the same on) and it includes a beer...... really not that bad at all.

And since we had to buy baby formula while there-even that was the same price as the US. It's not the brand we normally use, but it works well and the baby hasn't reacted to it at all. One of the few things on the can in English is that the company has been around since 1917. Figured that was a good sign of a good company.

Avoiding the real tourist spots can have it's advantages. The kids got to see tradesmen cleaning eel in Narita (a popular and common food in the city), see local markets, try random things along the way and interact with locals. There's so much to be learned and gained from that. Also, places that cater to locals and not tourists tend to cost much less. Of course, you have to be willing to try new things and eat what the locals eat, but there's a lot to be gained from that as well.

Preparing eel

Some drinks we bought off a street vendor. Tasted good,
and the kids loved the marbles that had to be popped down into the
bottle to open it.

Babies are a universal language. The baby was well loved on everywhere we went. Everyone we met was quite friendly and loved all the kids, but of course the baby was the star

He crawled right over to her. She was so excited to hold him

Just sitting and watching Japanese TV is a good time. There was one channel that gave calculus and computer programming lessons, which we thought was crazy, but watching their shows and commercials gave an interesting look into the culture.

Picture menus are great, and how we ordered everything we ate. They serve as a great way around language barriers.

Exploring Narita

Yesterday was yet another amazing day.

After breakfast we hung out in our hotel rooms and played uno with the kids. Afterwards we went out for a sushi, soup, salad, and roast beef lunch. It was delicious! (For the record wasabi goes well with roast beef).

After lunch we hit the free shuttle again, this time to Narita city for an all important lesson in making it up as you go along. Armed only with a map entirely in Japanese and a general knowledge of which direction was north, we set out to find the Naritisan Temple and Park (a 15-20 min walk from the bus station). We found the road that we figured was the correct one, and finally found a sign pointing to the temple to confirm it. It's a small street lined with numerous shops that has apparently been around for centuries selling wares to locals and visitors alike. It was fun looking around in all the shops and seeing what they were selling.

Main Gate

The temple complex was amazing. The buildings are mostly rebuilds from the 18th century or later, but the temple itself was founded in 940 AD.

Once through the main gate and up the main stairwell, you can smell the incense that burns continuously for the prayers of the people. At various locations throughout the temple we were able to observe a special Buddhist ceremony that had hundreds of Japanese women in identical Kimonos dancing in synch to music. It was amazing to watch them all.

I could have spent many more hours in the park behind the temple complex exploring. There were paths that twisted and turned it seemed everywhere, and there were only so many we could walk down in the time we had. What we did see was absolutely beautiful though. The kids got a kick out of feeding the fish and turtles in the ponds as well.

On our way back we stopped at a Ramen place that's apparently a favorite spot among the airline operators that come through. It was great food, and we were able to feed all of us for about $47USD (3600 Yen-all prices include tax and tip here).

Thank you Narita for a wonderful few days. Your people and your food are amazing, and we hope to be back again soon.

Journey to Japan

Wednesday we woke up, loaded our bags, ate breakfast and went to the airport. Then the fun part began. The skycaps saw us and turned the other way instead of helping so we had to go get a few smart carts before we could even enter the airport. Luckily the Delta agents were a bit more helpful inside, and quickly directed us to a counter to check in even though the international counters were still closed. 45 minutes later, all our bags were checked and we had tickets (I can't imagine how much worse it would have been had I not been organized). TSA, of course, was a hassle and freaked out about juice and baby food. Admittedly I had a bit of both, but we were about to get on a 12 hour flight to Japan and I wanted to ensure that my baby wasn't the one screaming the whole way.

Ready to go!

After getting through security we had some time to grab water (I got 6L) and a few sandwiches before boarding. They couldn't actually fit our plane at our gate, so after we checked in we had to board buses and go to some remote area at the other end of the runway with a few gates to actually board. We settled in for a long flight. The kids did well, with Annabelle quickly making friends with a young Asian woman and getting pseudo-adopted by her for a few hours of the flight. When we landed in Narita, Delta's staff were very helpful in getting us and all of our stuff onto our hotel bus.

Welcome to Japan!

The kids were so excited to get to Japan (as were we). Deciding to stay instead of continuing on direct to Guam was probably one of the best decisions we could have made. The Hilton Hotel Narita is a gem of a hotel, well worth the cost to us for the 2 rooms. The staff quickly got our bags up to our room, ensured we had interconnecting rooms (which had cribs waiting for us-yes, cribs, they put one in each room) and made sure we had everything available for a great stay. We all crashed pretty hard pretty early, and were all asleep by 8.

At the hotel

Yesterday most of us were up by 3 (remember we lost a day crossing the date line). We kept everyone calm and tried to get them to rest a bit more, but by 630 the kids were more than ready for breakfast. The breakfast was wonderful and offered American and Japanese options. I am determined to only eat Japanese here, but held off hitting the miso soup and Japanese pickle bar to avoid embarrassing myself until I found an old couple I could watch and follow through. It was well worth the wait.

Following breakfast we boarded the free shuttle the hotel offers to The Aeon Mall in Narita because we needed to get a few things for the baby and were told we could find it there. We did, and probably could have found anything else we wanted too. The place was huge. We ate lunch at the mall and fed all of us for under $30USD. We had Octopus dumplings (they were so good) , fried pork rice bowls and soup for lunch.

We came back, and went to the health club downstairs to take the kids swimming. I wish we could have used some of the facilities apart from the pool, the complex down there is impressive. The kids were a bit weirded out that they had to wear bathing caps to go swimming, but got over it quickly once they got in the pool.

As I type this, it's almost 6am local and 2 kids are already up. It's a marked improvement over yesterday, and the time we have to get up tomorrow for our flight so I'll take it. We hope to explore a bit more today.

If you've made it this far, thanks. Sorry it's so long, but so much has happened in the last few days and I honestly feel like I'm glossing over quite a bit. I hope you all are well, and we miss you all terribly. Thanks to all we saw before we left, I'm sorry to all those we missed. See you all soon!

Part 2-car trips

1) Snacks and food: I'll admit that occassionally we stop somewhere to eat, but for the most part I try to avoid this. I pack food for ourselves because it's cheaper and healthier. Fesh food and veggies don't have the negative behavior impacts that processed foods do, and prevent things like swelling from sitting for long periods of time.
2) TV: I rarely use it, unless it's a greater than 6 hour trip. Video games: absolutely not. The kids don't need to spend hours rotting their brains, and they have plenty of toys and such (and their imaginations)  to keep them entertained. The added bonus is that when I do finally turn it on, it's such a novelty that it actually keeps them interested.
3) I envy those whose kids sleep in the car. Mine never have, so, we only travel during the day. Since we enjoy stopping and seeing, it's not a big deal though.
4) We stop and explore. I find a 1 hour stop at a small museum or grocery store can do wonders for the kids. We don't stop frequently, but we make our stops count.
5) If we don't stay with families, we stay at suite hotels (preferably with a door between the living and sleeping areas). After a long day in the car, we all need room to spread out and separate ourselves. If we have a suite, we can talk, watch TV, or whatever without waking the kids or keeping them up.
6) Don't over pack, and limit the number of bags. The more things I have to keep track of, the more stress I have.

Exploring New England

It's been a busy few days in the northeast.

Sunday we drove down to the church I grew up in to attend services. The excitement of seeing everyone was tempered a bit by seeing the pastor I grew up with step down, but, in a way I'm really glad I was there for that as well. He was the pastor that confirmed me, he's a big part of why Adam is a Lutheran, he married Adam and I, and baptised our 3rd child. As my friend put it, "you picked a hell of a day to show up".

Our original plans for this week involved a lot of time in Boston, but as it turns out this week is spring break in MA and the Boston Marathon was running Monday. So we changed our plans and Monday we drove to Plymouth, MA. It was a beautiful day, a bit warm, but that made the sea breezes that much nicer. I've never been there (I literally skipped the grade that included that trip)  and for some reason, I had this idea that the entire town was the Plantation. I couldn't have been more wrong. While the Mayflower landing is a big part of the town, I found it to also be a beautiful little New England seacoast town I wish I had much more time to spend in. Of course, we did the touristy stuff, too.

She loved talking to the role players on the Mayflower

Look! It's a rock!

Stained glass windows in the Pilgrim Museum
(the oldest continuous running museum in the US, but not the oldest)

We didn't go to the Plantation. It just seemed like too much at the time.

Tuesday we drove out to the place my parents are hoping to close on soon. It's a beautiful house built in the 1800s on 16 acres of land......out in the middle of no where. It fits them though. They'll be able to garden again, which I know they miss, and my dad has always wanted chickens so he'll be able to get those. I'm pretty sure dad wants goats too, but I'm not thinking mom will let that happen.

Yesterday we went to Old Sturbridge Village. The kids had fun seeing everything (we had a hard time keeping #4 from trying to catch chickens) and we all came back to my mom's tired and hungry after a long day.

Watching the lambs

My girls asked if they could help garden and she let them. Too cute!
The oldest girl loved interacting with the role players here as well.

tee, hee

Our time here grows short again, and we continue our Gypsy life with a drive down to my grandparent's house in the Poconos today. Should be a great time as always.

Taking the road less traveled.

After saying goodbye to some very dear friends today, we left NY for my moms house in New Hampshire. The faster option to get from one place to the other was to use the NY Thruway and the Mass Turnpike. Being very familiar with this route I was none to thrilled with the idea. It may be faster, but I wanted to relax and clear my head. So, we headed north a little bit towards Glenns Falls, NY then east on US 4 (ok technically it's marked as north on the signs, but it really does head east.) to I89 south to New Hampshire. This was a great decision. Instead of just flying by things on the main highway, we got to explore and take time to see the area.

First stop was a spring in Saratoga Springs to show the kids part of the history of the town.

The kids thought it was neat seeing the water bubble up from the ground. Much to my surprise they didn't try to stick their hands in and splash around.

On our way east we saw this sign:

which led to an unanticipated stop to figure out why. The visitor center provided some information, but we wandered around the park to find more. We ended up needing to do more research online later to figure it out, but we found a few other things to explore too! There was a canal lock for the Champlain canal and the remnants of a ship that they raised in 1958. Top it off with beautiful weather, and it was a great stop.

During the next part of the drive we allowed our little girl to sit in the front seat of the car to see the snow still on the tops of mountains with the windows down. I think this picture sums up her experience with that:

She loved it. Cracked me up to watch her. 

Our last stop came after driving over this:

It's the Quechee Gorge in VT. We stopped and walked over it. An absolutely beautiful surprise, and a great way to get the wiggles out of the kids.

Now we get to spend the next few days with my mommy. Have fun everyone!

Things to do and see in Charleston

As our time here draws to a close, I thought it would be fun to make a list of things of our favorite things to do or see in the Charleston area. There are more places I have been to, but for one reason or another are not part of our top list.

1. The Charles Towne Landing is one of our favorite places to visit. As the original landing site for settlers in the area, it holds a particular historical significance. Beyond that, it's just plain beautiful and fun for everyone. My kids especially love the animals and the reproduction ship.

2. Edisto Beach: It's a natural, beautiful site away from the craziness and build up of most beaches.

3. Colonial Dorchester: Another original settlement site in the area. Love the old tabby ruins and the remnants of the old church.

A note on the above sites: these and many others are part of the South Carolina State Parks system. These are the ones in the Charleston area we have been to, but we've visited others outside the area as well. We have NEVER been disappointed with our state parks visits and higly reccomend that if you're moving to South Carolina buying a state park pass.

4. Charleston Museum: "America's First Museum", founded in 1773, has an extensive collection and is constantly rotating exhibits so there is never a shortage of new things to see. They also do many events for kids and are very good at keeping them interesting!

5. Fort Moultrie: I bet you were expecting Ft Sumter. Honestly, in the 2 years we've been here we haven't gone out to Ft Sumter. It's cost prohibitive for a family of 7 (while Ft Sumter is free, the ferry out to it is most definately not). Ft Moultrie is both affordable and, I think, quite an interesting piece of history. It was built and used from the Revolutionary war up through WWII. We all loved exploring the Fort and seeing how it has changed over the years.

Wow, this is getting long. I'll skip the descriptions on the rest, if you want more details just ask!
6. Powder Magazine
7. Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon
8. Charleston City Market
9. Waterfront and Battery Parks
10. Downtown churches and cemetaries
11. CSS Hunley
12. Charleston Tea Plantation

Getting out

This week, we took a few day trip up to Devil's Fork State Park. This may seen like odd timing given all that is going on with the move, but we booked our villa on Black Friday, when the State Parks system was running a 50% off sale. The cost was non-refundable so had we cancelled and not gone we would have been out the money. So, we went.

Going was such a great decision, and the timing ended up being perfect. We turned off the phones, unplugged and regrouped. We got to spend a few days coming together as a family without any outside distractions and away from all the craziness. We hiked, laughed, played, waded in the lake, stargazed (brought the telescope), read and prayed.  I think it's safe to say we're ready to face all that lies ahead and finish out everything that has to be done before we move.

View from the cabin in the evening

View in the AM. Perfect for coffee.

Hiking one of the trails

Oconee Bells. Rare flower that only blooms from mid-March to early April.

View of the lake from one of the trails