Kyoto, Kimonos and C-C-o-o-o-l--d

Kyoto is well known for beauty, history and for very tourist-friendly. It is one of the  few places on our "Must Do" list to visit while we are stationed in Japan.

We recently visited this amazing city. I have been oh.so.anxious to tell you all the details.

A little bit of knowledge before we start our tour. (What can I say, once a teacher- always a teacher.)

Kyoto (京都, Key-oh-toe) served as Japan's capital and the emperor's residence from 794 until 1868. It has a population of 1.4 million people.
In Japanese Kyoto is written as 京都.
Tokyo, the current capital, is written as 東京.
Notice the same kanji '京 is used for both?

Tokyo means "eastern capital"  while Kyoto means "capital city". Tokyo is also called the 'new capitol' since it has 'only been the capital for 140+ years'. 

We live near Tokyo. First we had to decide how we would get to Kyoto, which is about 330 miles. Normally, with a large family, we find that driving is the most economical way to travel. That all changed when we moved to Japan. 330 miles could easily turn into 20 hours on the road and over $400 in tolls. The tolls were actually the least of our worries. We simply don't get a ton of days off to travel and hated to spend our time sitting in traffic.

I researched taking the "normal" train to Kyoto. It would have been an okay option. A ton of stops, not too comfortable and not cheap.

Then, I looked at the shinkansen. For those of you who don't know what the shinkansen is by it's 'real name', I bet you will recognize it by it's slang name- the "Bullet Train".

I have been looking forward to riding the bullet train. The train travels right at 200 MPH and makes very few stops. It is incredibly safe, having never had a fatality crash. When you can travel far and fast it comes at a price. Each ticket is about $300 round trip. However, if you know me at all you know I found a deal on our travel :)  Bonus: We got to pass right by Mt. Fuji as the sun was rising. It was breathtaking. (The train goes too fast for pictures! I got this one online.)

There is an amazing amount of things to see in Kyoto. Even the kids got into planning our trip. Our oldest was excited to try out his new camera, and the other kiddos wanted to see the sites they had heard about in Japanese class. 

We started out with the Fushimi Inari Shrine (伏見稲荷大社, foo-she-me in-our-e). There are said to be over 10,000 torii gates here!!!!


Fushimi Inari is dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice. Foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, resulting in many fox statues across the shrine grounds.

The toriis are all the same orange-red color. It is called vermilion, but I surely didn't know what color that was until I looked it up.  The toriis are mostly the same size standing at 8 feet tall. You can easily walk through them with a few thousand of your closest friends.

On the back of each torii gates are various "good wishes" and "blessings" messages.  The torii gates are in various conditions. Some are brand new and perfect. Others are quite old and damaged.


Hubby wanted to see Every.Single.One. I heart that man of mine. I really do. He just gets a little compulsive competitive about seeing ALL the sites when we travel. I am more of a 'hit the highlights type' gal. We try to compromise. The 10,000 torii gates is a classic example. 

Here is the map ----->  Now unless you like our crazy friend. cough. cough. Joel, then you don't have to climb the entire thing! In an hour of climbing, we got to where the big red dot is about halfway up before this wife won the battle of climbing. 

This was just our first site of the day. We were trying to get to more sites this day, so- thank you Jesus- I convinced hubby we didn't have to climb ALL.the.WAY.up the massive hill.

Then, IT happened. It started snowing. Now this normally would not stop Matt us from doing anything. But, as is typical for my 'murphy's law', we were not ready for snow. I had checked the weather before we left. It was supposed to be in the low 50's our entire trip. It does not snow in the low 50s!

We had packed sweatshirts and umbrellas. We had packed swimsuits for the pool. We had even packed snacks, drinks and breakfast foods- I told you we hubby is frugal. The boys had packed shorts. They want to wear shorts all the time.  I had insisted the each pack one pair of jeans. We had NOT packed big winter jackets. 

How were we going to tour if we didn't have  jackets? Of course- we had to drive on. We are Army Strong, after all. 

We ran to Daiso (which is like a classier dollar store) and bought gloves, hats and random earmuffs. We put the kids in every shirt they packed. Seriously, every shirt. Over that we put whatever sweatshirt we had. We would have just bought sweatshirts or raincoats if we were in the States. The Japanese people are so tiny that we just can't fit in their clothes. That is why we are wearing the same clothes in all of our pictures. They are-literally- ALL the clothes we had!


We were looking pretty... eclectic. Oh well. No one knows us here.

Next stop: Gion. This is the district where most of the gieshas live, train and put on nightly shows. Beautiful wooden tea houses lined tiny alleyways and 'hid' the traditional  women away. We just wanted to see the women with costumes on. (Obviously we weren't going to see the shows. They can cost about $3000 a night to watch! And, no, geishas are not prostitutes in case you have heard that.) We didn't see any geishas. Not one.  Oh well, it was on our way home anyway. 

Near the Gion district, there's a lot of SHOPPING. I'm talking about high end brands like Dior, Chanel, LV... clearly too rich for my blood, but we looked around. We enjoyed the area, but only after we found some normal priced shops. It ended up we had stumbled on Nishiki Market. This famous "fish market" was already done selling fish for the day.  It was full of cool shops under a dome-like awning. We casually walked around and took in the sites, smells and sounds of Kyoto.

After grabbing dinner, we went back to our fabulous Kyoto hotel. For those of you who will never get to stay in a Japanese hotel, let me point out a few of the cool features. We stayed out at the New Mikayo Hotel right by the Kyoto train station. The hotel is large, very clean and has impeccable service. We had reserved two rooms, each sleeping three people. The hotel had pulled out the couch and made it into the third bed for us. 

Japanese hotels have a ton of goodies for the guests. In the 'bowl of goodies' there are bath sponges, razors, hair bands, brushes, combs and cotton swabs. The shampoo, conditioner and body wash are in large bottles that get refilled every night. They think the small little bottles are a complete waste and harmful to the earth. 

The hotel had the funniest brochure on how to respond in an earthquake.

Come on, did you know you had to put your cigarette out if there was an earthquake?

We slept well and awoke to an even colder day. Ugh! Who write those crazy weather reports anyway??? I mean they were off by 20 degrees! We bundled up in five or more layers and headed out to enjoy ancient Kyoto.

Even a rainy day could not dim the brilliance of the Kinkaku-ji Temple. This temple is better known as the "Golden Pavillion". Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion) is a Zen temple in northern Kyoto whose top two floors are completely covered in gold leaf. Five layers of gold leaf actually. It is meant to "shine forevermore".  Kinkaku-ji is a very popular site. It was crowded! 

For the record, they are cuddling with me because it is THAT cold! I knew it was bad when with six layers on I thought about buying a blanket to wrap around me. Luckily, it warmed up after awhile. Or I went numb. I'm not sure which. 


One of the strangest things was that several younger visitors kept taking 'selfies' without even getting the temple in their picture. Most people were trying to get the temple in their pictures and then you would turn and see this chick. The temple is the opposite way, but she was to into getting her own picture to realize. Oh, selfie sticks are everywhere here. It was ridiculous to see! 

After a few more pictures of the Golden Pavilion, we walked around the grounds. There is, of course, a temple. That means there are incense burning and bells to ring. The worshiper rings the bell "to awaken the god" . Then, they clap, bow and pray. 

You can purchase 'fortunes' at the Golden Palace, and many of the shrines and temples throughout Japan. After you read your fortune you tie it to wire racks around the shrine area. They have fortunes in several languages. (We have never bought one, just observed.)

We headed back to the bus. Or was it a train? 

We decided to head off to Sanjusangendo. No, I cannot say it. I just know how to get there. What am I saying? I don't know how to get there! I know how to follow my geography master hubby. First rule of travel, always let the "map man" do his thang and find the way. Second rule: smile while you say that to him!

Sanjusangendo houses 1001 Buddha statues & Hindu deities that are in front of the statues. 

Time Out: I see this type of sites in two ways. We are not in a Judeo-Christian country. We live in Japan. It is not America. Christianity is a tiny percentage here. The Japanese are primarily Buddhists and Shintos. They honor, worship and adore these statues. My family and I do not. However, we believe everyone should have the right to worship the way they want. We will not step on their beliefs. We will not change our beliefs. We explore these temples, shrines and religious places but we do not bow, pray or honor their gods. We pray to a living Jesus and that doesn't change depending on our geography, our mood, our age or audience. Back to the blogging part. Oh, and photo bombing a bit. 

You have to take some mental pictures though because photography is forbidden. Shoes are also forbidden. Which is only funny because you have to put on this slipper things. Not a single pair would fit anyone in my family over the age of 12. Our size 14s were so large they hung off the ends of the shelves!  Like I said, we are large- let's just say "Southern Grown"- people. We had to slip the slippers on and never lift them off the ground. If we lifted out foot the slippers came off and we had to bend down to put them back on. All of that is just disrespectful when people are praying and bowing. So, this large ol' group of white folk were walking through the very long hall trying not to lift their feet or giggle at the situation. Yep, we are that easily amused. 



I was able to find some professional pictures online to show you what we saw. (Why is it okay for professionals to take the pictures but not me?)


After seeing 1001 Buddas we were hungry. We headed to lunch at McDonalds. I know that sounds silly, but we are a large family eating two meals out a day. We have to watch our funds. Mickey D's costs us under $30 to feed 6 people. Then, we eat great Japanese food for dinner. That costs us about $50 a night. So, french fries were our friends on this trip.

Hubby wanted to head to some temple names Kiyomizu-dera next. I had not heard of, but okay. You know what to do...Follow the "map man". Now you are learning! 

Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺, literally "Pure Water Temple") is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan. It was founded in 780! That was many centuries before the US was even founded! Kiyomizu-dera (key-oh-me-zoo) turned out to be a simply stunning Buddhist temple on a very steep hill. In order to get up to the temple you have to walk up with a ton of tourists. 

Here's the twist. A ton of the visitors are wearing traditional clothes. The are stores that "rent the clothing" at the bottom of the hill for $35 a day. You get dressed and have your hair done down at the base of the hill. Then, you climb up to the temple and enjoy the amazing views of Kyoto. We had no idea that was done or we would have brought all of our kimonos and yatakas. I am glad we didn't have to climb in our nice Japanese clothes clothes though. Mainly because they wear socks with wooden sandals that resemble flipflops. I would not want to climb a steep hill in wooden flipflops! 

After a steep climb we arrived at the steps of Kiyomizu-dera. This temple was not only built in 780, it was built WITHOUT nails! What? Yep, no nails in this baby! This temple is best known for its wooden stage that juts out from its main hall, 40 feet above the hillside below. The main hall, which together with the stage houses the temple's primary object of worship, a small statue of the eleven faced, thousand armed Kannon.

The views were worth every single step we took. The kids will always remember this temple simply because we were in awe of how it was built.

Our bodies were exhausted so we headed back to find some ramen and miso soup. (Maybe if Americans slowed down long enough to drink some hot soup before they ate, it would help us not eat as much.) Train stations are a great place to find ramen so we knew just where to go. 

On our way back we came upon a fun surprise. The Kyoto train station is a very modern building with some amazingly cool sections. Almost all of it is 'outside', but under an awning of sorts that keeps the weather at bay. The "stairs" are over 8 stories of quite steep outdoor steps. On either side of the stairs are escalators that run constantly. (There are elevators inside the building. 

Earlier in the day we had seen hundreds of people lined up around the stairs. They were cheering on athletes who were "running the stairs". There were news cameras and announcers. Well, we thought it was neat, but we didn't really understand what they were saying so we moved on.  Chalk that one up to another random thing we have seen in Japan. 

We went about our day and returned that night to eat. We arrived to see some random lights coming from across the station. We decided to walk toward the lights are see what they were. Well, lo and behold, the lights were coming from the stairs! The stairs turned into art the minute the sun went down. It was Valentine's Day, so that was the theme. There were bears giving each other gifts, a bunny eating a Kyoto chocolate bar and random other designs. The kids ran the stairs and "oooed and aahhhed". It was a creative, fun surprise and typically cute Japan.

After a few donuts from Mister Donut, we headed off to dreamland in our comfy beds.

We woke up early the next day to head out to another temple. Do you see a theme here?

This time we hit Toji Temple (toe-g). This temple was close to our hotel and we only had a few hours before our next train.  The Zen gardens were peaceful and relaxing. The area made for some great pictures as well. There were red buckets filled with water at every temple we saw. Apparently, if a fire starts you can are supposed to grab the bucket and put out the flames. OK. I think we made need some more buckets?

Finally, we shuttled off to our fabulous bullet train. Did I mention that the train only stays in each stay for 65 seconds! The car we were supposed to get on had so many people getting off that the 15 second bell went off. Luckily, Matt yelled, "Jump on the next car!" We did and barely got on the car before the buzzer went off. It was nutzo!

Kyoto was an education, a joy and a pleasure. It may be one of my favorite cities ever. It is that cool to see the mix of new and old Japan. We saw so many foreign tourists in this town! It has over 15 million visitors a year, but only about 500,000 of those are non-Japanese. Japanese love their own history as much as we do :)

Off to Hiroshima my huge crew goes. Trying to teach these kiddos about the world is exhausting. Good thing they are so cute! Back on the train we go!

Stay Tuned, we're not done yet ~

Aggie Amy

Setsubun or "Bean Throwing Day"

Setsubun or "Bean Throwing Day"

February 3rd is 節分の日(setsu-bun) in Japan.  It is similar to Spain's tomato throwing food fight, but with roasted soybeans. Yes, there is a celebration to have a huge food fight at a holy site. No, I do not claim to understand why it would be a shrine, but it is. 

 

Setsubun is a traditional ceremony (not an official holiday off of work) that happens right before
 立春(rish-shyun), which is the first day of Spring which is February 4th.

  The kanji's 節分(setsu-bun) literally means "Split the Season". The Japanese celebrating leaving Winter and moving into Spring. It still feels like Winter across most of Japan, but alas it is the official start of Spring so they do it on the day. The culture likes to follow the rules.

A few activities or rituals are performed on this day. The most popular one is held at shrines all over Japan. It is known as  豆撒き(mame-ma-ki)... or bean throwing to us English speaking folks.

 

It is said that on the day the season changes evil arises and demons bring bad luck. But thanks to good 'ol soy beans you too can ward off evil spirits.   Some people (I am not sure who gets picked for this task or why), but some people wear the evil demon "ogre" masks, while everyone else throws roasted soybeans at them. Seriously, who would volunteer to be the Demon? Wait a second, I can think of a few people who would probably enjoy this part.

Anyway, people don't only throw the beans. You also are supposed to eat as many beans as you are old to ward off the evil spirits. And, you get those beans off of the floor after people throw them at the demons. I'm kidding. There are bags of beans for sale that you eat. The Japanese are amazingly clean and would not eat off the dirty floor.

 

When throwing the beans you  yell "鬼は外！福は内" which means "Demons Out! Luck In!" It sounds like, "oni wa soto; fuku wa uchi". I never could copy what they were saying. I had to look it up.

The celebration is so popular it has it's own KitKat and Aero bars! The KitKat is roasted soybean and dark chocolate. No, I didn't buy them only because I was out of Yen :(  I would have made someone in this house try it! 

Some shrines get really into the festivities. They bring in celebrities or sumo wrestlers to throw the beans. There is also candy and money thrown at certain shrines.  It is basically just a huge party to celebrate the changing of seasons.

On Setsubun, there is also a traditional food eaten in a certain way. (Of course there is! In American we eat cabbage and black-eyed peas on New Year's, turkey on Thanksgiving and ham at Easter. Why would other countries not have a special food on certain holidays?) In Japan, it is customary to eat "ehou-maki" on Setsubun. This is a large, uncut sushi roll with certain fillings based on the area in which you live. Here around Tokyo, the roll is filled with avocado, crab, fried egg... And several other options. As long as it has seven fillings. 

 

But there is another way of celebrating setsubun no hi, and that’s with a big, long, uncut sushi roll called ehou-maki. There are several rules to the ehou-maki that I found interesting.

This made me react in So, what makes an ehou-maki different from a regular sushi roll? There are basically three rules:

• It must contain seven ingredients, because seven is a lucky number.
• It must not be cut, because it might cut (off) your luck.
• You have to eat it while facing the lucky direction, which changes every year! This year’s lucky directly is hinoe (丙 (ひのえ)), which is a little bit to the south of south-south-east on a regular compass. If you can read kanji, this page has a good chart.
• Finally, you must eat the whole roll in total silence!

Well, never mind this whole celebration. If that WHOLE thing has to be eaten in
TOTAL SILENCE, this family is hosed. We will never be able to accomplish that!

A final way of celebrating setsubun no hi is to take a nice long relaxing bath, with some slices of yuzu in the water. Bathing in hot yuzu-infused water is supposed to get rid of bad spirits. Yuzu is basically a blend of an orange and an tangerine, if I am reading the translation correctly.

In Japan you can get bath essences with yuzu oil. I forgot to grab those when I was out shopping locally this week, so I'm just cutting up some oranges and throwing them in my bathwater.  Hey, any excuse to take some alone time in a hot bath works for me!

 

You can see why today is a great day in Japan. It has always been a great day in my family. It is my baby brother's birthday! He is pretty much the typical "baby of the family": spoiled, funny, know-it-all and tells all our secrets. He is much more than just that though. He is dedicated and strong, hard-working and caring. We adore him everyday, but on this date, we say an extra special prayer of thanksgiving for him being in our lives. Happy Birthday Uncle Ryan. May all  your dreams come true!

 

Until next time, enjoy the "split of the seasons" and love on each other without throwing beans please!

 

Living the Life,

~Aggie Amy

 

Classy & Clean Narita

 

 

 

Here is our view on the way to Tokyo's Narita International Airport. It is gorgeous!
 

I have traveled a lot. And I do mean A LOT! My entire life, I have been on.the.go.  I flew alone as a very young child and am completely comfortable on almost any plane, anywhere. I have moved over 21 times. It is totally crazy to most people, but it is my normal. My brats think it is normal too.

 

Having been mobile my whole life, I have visited seen quite a few airports. I have flown internationally, been delayed hours on end and even had to sleep in an airport or two.  

We, unexpectedly, had to go back to the US. We had to fly commercial out of Narita International Airport in Tokyo. This airport is just such a testament to the quality of the Japanese people.
 

Narita is a massive, sparkling clean, very modern airport. Why would I want to tell you about an airport? Well, because the Japanese do it RIGHT when it comes to shopping at transportation hubs. These are just a few of my bags ---->

I'm here to tell you, Japan knows how to pack in greatness wherever you have to travel. At train stations across the country you will find some of the greatest places to eat, freshest groceries and nicest bathrooms. It is actually a pleasure to travel.

You know what it is like to travel, right? You are stressed and hurried. You are wondering who in the world designed an airport where the bathrooms are miles away from the restaurants.

Helll-lllooo, do people not see the connection between these two places? Then, when you have been stuck in the airport for hours and decide to get a bite to eat, you realize you may need to take out a loan to get a hamburger. It is THAT expensive to eat at an airport. Well, not in Japan.

I'm here to tell you, Japan knows how to pack in greatness wherever you have to travel. At train stations across the country you will find some of the greatest places to eat, freshest groceries and nicest bathrooms. It is actually a pleasure to travel.

The Narita airport is nothing but relaxing. Yes, relaxing.  From chocolate covered potato chips to a Pokemon painted airplane, the kids had a blast in the airport. The prices are shockingly... normal! We bought several fun items, like random KitKat flavors and candy making kits. We even found a few quirky candies for the kids to try. All at the same prices we would pay in town at regular stores. They do not mark up items at the airports here.
 

In the so-clean-you-can-eat-off-the-floor bathrooms, there are 'toddler chairs' in each stall. This chair, which I know looks a tad like a urinal, is a safe and clean place to put that kiddo while you do your business.

There is also a random little sign that ensures you know the "proper posture" to use while using their potty. Umm, I have no comment on this one. Just passing on info.

The Wifi is fast and it is FREE. That is the only way our kids get Wifi because, well, because I am cheap. Oh,  did I mention, that the carts are all FREE and everywhere you look? Plus, they have people to check you in within minutes of going through the door. In the US you have to be at the airport at least two hours earlier than your flight to have enough time to check in, get through the long lines at security and get down to the gates. If you are flying to an international location, you are supposed to be there 4 hours ahead of time. In Japan, you only have to get there early if you want to shop. Seriously, you walk straight through security. There are no lines, no lines at all. Even the small shops in the airport have numerous employees to help keep you from waiting. It is truly refreshing.
 

There are recycling bins all along the way. Typical Japan.  For those of you who have never traveled to Europe or Asia, they do recycling SO much better than we do in the States. I'm not exactly sure why. I doubt you can tell but this recycling is for: Newspaper/Magazine, PET Bottle (plastic bottle), Bottle (glass), and Can. They even have pictures so young kids can recycle too.

What they don't do well, or I guess that depends on how you feel about smoking. Here is the "Smoking Room" at Narita. It is for adults only, and you don't smell or see smoke anywhere. It is this way all over Japan, but it is still fascinating to see it.

A few more gates down from the smoking room you can find the "Nursery". I went inside, because come on you know that is exactly what I would do. I wanted to see what it looked like and... well, I wanted to see all the adorable Japanese babies. (I would so take home a few of those sweet faces if someone wanted to give me a couple!) Well, wouldn't you know it. Inside there was a beautiful, relaxing oasis for moms and dads. There was a private area for breastfeeding, free diapers, a sink, filtered water and samples of formulas. It was awesome!

There are 'priority' chairs in the airport similar to the ones on the trains. The chairs are reserved for elderly, sick, pregnant or those with babies. We have never seen the chairs used by anyone who did not need the chair. That would be dishonest.

When Japanese travel they want to be seen as classy and respectable because they feel like they are representing their homeland. Throughout the airport you see men in suits, women in dresses and even kids dressed up in their "Sunday best".  We were discussing this as we walked through the mall. I am a "typical" American in a quite a few ways. I did not allow the kids to fly in the sweatpants. That's just not a good representation to ours of Americans. I did let the kids wear sweatshirts though, so I thought I was doing well. About the time decided, again, how much we love the cleanliness of Japan we walked to the next gate to this chick.a.dee :

Ugh! Meet "Toe Jam Girl". Not only is she dressed in sweats pulled up to her calves like she is resting at home, but she has her FEET ON THE CHAIR! Nasty! You only have to be in Japan two minutes to see how they how they hate dirty shoes. She is disrespecting their whole culture and could care less. We watched as Japanese keep staring at her, as if they were secretly yelling, "Get your yucky feet off our chairs!". No one said anything to her. That would be rude, and would not happen. Even my 9-year old wanted to go tell her that she was 'being rude' because 'maybe she doesn't know how much she is offending the locals'. And, THAT right there folks is one of the key reasons why we have military around the world. We want to learn each other's cultures, so we can understand and respect our friends. 

After we left "Toe Jam Girl", we kept touring the airport. We love to look at the stores, and study the people. (Yes, we are that nerdy.) We found the coolest inflatable plane that matches the real Pokemon plane. (This plane is used for domestic flights in Japan and is always packed! Last time we checked it was completely booked for the next 18 months!)

All parents think their kids are smart, but I have proof. My kids always know what restaurants in Japan are serving. Cool, huh? They can just check out the name of the place, and study the plastic food in the windows... oh, wait... that's how they are doing it! Outside almost all of the restuarants in Japan there are elaborate displays of food. It is brilliant. It makes people hungry and lets those crazy Americans, I mean non-Japanese, to pick out what they want by simply pointing. I doubt that is why they do it, but it is a bonus for us. We started to walk around the airport's "restaurant row" to find some eats. Look at what we found. The food above is fake. It is a whole new art form.  There are even drinks that look like they have condensation on them. It is clean and intriging for those wandering around trying to decide what to eat.

 

After walking a bit, we found what this crew wanted to eat. The US has Hershey's milk chocolate. Japan have Milky chocolate. This company is about the same quality as Hershey's. It is good, but certainly not the best grade of chocolate. The airport has a Milky restaurant. We have been wanting to try one, but have simply not had the chance. That all changed when we found ourselves with a few hours of freetime at Narita. Off to the Milky Cafe we went! (We went to the airport thinking like Americans think. We thought we had to get there 3-4 hours early. Japan is so efficent that you can easily breeze through the airport for an international flight in less than an hour. It is such a difference!)

 

Milky's was such a hoot. We have been here for 7 months at this point. I know enough Japanese to say 'hello', smile and point to order. I can say 'excuse me' or 'thank you'. I can count, a tiny bit. The kids know way more than I do because they learn Japanese in school (and Spanish). Here is where it gets laughable. We walked into the Milky Cafe and in Japanese told the hostess how many people we had to sit. We also greeted her and said 'thanks' when she handed us the menus. We asked for water. She left until we know what we wanted, we rang the magic bell that called her back and we ordered- mostly in English I would say. Well, a few minutes later an American couple came and sat down near us. The waitress created them in English and got them an English menu. WHAT? Why didn't see greet us in English? Where was our English menu. I giggled and shared my observation with the kids. The waitress came back and overhead me. She smiled, bowed and told me that, "You were trying so hard to fit in I didn't realize you didn't know Japanese." Well, I have heard it all. I was mistaken for a Japanese speaker. (I can clearly never get mistaken for being Japanese with my tall body, blue eyes and light hair.) I blended in, kinda. Wow, I'm impressed. I know it is silly, but I didn't have to have an English menu to survive. I can do it with my Southern stubborness hard-headness.

The Milky Cafe was great. I had my favorite fried rice and meat combo. Actually, I shared with a boy because we all wanted desserts. The girls had the kids' meals with all sorts of goodies. Carson had a crazy pasta with eel or something slimy. He ate it. I smelled it and decided... not.gonna.happen unless I am on Survior and HAVE to eat that junk-o-la. The desserts were just as good as they look! The strawberry cake is a very popular Christmas time treat, so we knew that was a must have. Our total bill for two large adult meals, two kids meals and four desserts was a whomping $28. See, even this guy was full. That almost never happens!

Our departure time was getting closer. We headed to the gate.  After the family got settled, Momma cracked her whip. This woman made her poor kiddos get out their books and do homework. Yes, I hear that judgement from you. We missed a week of school to go back to the States, so they had a ton of work to do. They were 'bored'- which they knw is like a curse word in my book- so out came the homework.

We watched as our United Dreamliner 787 pulled into the gate. For those of you who don't know me personally, I have a love affair with planes. This was my very first time on the new Dreamliner. I actually booked us on a longer layover, in a way different place because I wanted to fly this plane!

As we got called on the plane my tallest son turned around to me and said, "This plane Rocks!" When youa re over 6' tall like we are you hate that moment when you first step on the plane. You all of sudden realize that you will be bent over for the next... 14 hours! Not on the Dreamliner. The plane is so tall, and there is just so much room. We got to our seats and every seat had this little package: headphones, new blanket and new pillow. I'll take it. Once seated we started enjoying the entertainment package on each and every chair. There are screens with preloaded movies, music and TV shows. There is a map mode of the area we are flying over (not as interesting when we were flying over a w-h-o-l-e lotta ocean). You can push a different map and see how far we have flown, how long we have to go until touchdown, the temperature outside and even how fast the plane is traveling. Can you tell how happy these sweet faces are to be going home to the land of Chick-fil-a, Target and English? They were thrilled until they found out the trip would take us over 30 hours of traveling. Then, well they were still thrilled. And a little weary.

They survived. The slept, and ate more meals that anyone needed just to have something to do. They all watched several movies and napped on and off. We landed and only had five more flights ahead of us in the next 19 days. I told you, we travel. A lot. We flew more than 15,000 miles this trip.

We spent almost three weeks in the US. I wish that I could say that is was easy and fun. Parts of it were. Parts of it weren't. Unfortanetly, part of our mobile lifestyle means that we almost always see our family and friends when we are in the midst of a long trip. We have spent days trying to get to them, built the trip up in our heads and it doesn't always turn out like we expect. We try to fit in and bond with folks when we only see them 5 days a year, if that. It is hard to do. If the kids have a bad day then that is remembered for the next year until we get to the family again and try again. This trip I had some bad days. Traveling is tough on the parents too.

But, in the end, my family is meant to do this. I adore that man of mine and this is his dream. So, it has become my dream. This smiling faces have rough days and tough travels. Still, they get up in the middle of the night to return rental cars, the grab their iPads and shuttle onto another plane. They grab their Passimo train passes and jump on the train to Yokohama. They sit on a bus to Seattle. They last through another road trip in Carolina. They have grown up 'on the road'. These four babies where born in three different countries. They know that the culture may change, their address is temporary and their 'house' is never theirs for very long.

Still, they are brats.  The know sacrifice and strength firsthand. They can adapt and overcome. They are comfortable in their skin. Their parents adore them, even when they have a bad day. They know they can count on their God to stay steady in the midst of the storms of life. They even remind this Momma of that sometimes.

Socking Away those Frequent Flyer Miles,

~Aggie Amy