the OTHER side

Sorry for the long radio silence folks and thanks for your patience. We made it to the other side of the world! We packed up our house in Austin and left it in very good hands, passed off Lucy to some good friends for the year, tried desperately to foresee and plan for the Duval house remodel, packed eleven huge duffel bags full of clothes, toys, kitchen supplies, and American souvenirs, said some sad goodbyes, and boarded the plane.

 

 

We had a short little flight to Dallas first thing Monday morning and then settled in for the long 12 hour leg from Dallas direct to Tokyo. The kids did amazingly well. We didn't even come close to using all the toys and snacks we brought along. And we didn't have a breakdown until after we got all our bags through customs and were headed to the train. At that point, it was 3 or 4am Texas time and Blue especially was looking very tired. We were greeted by all of Graham's Japanese co-workers once we got to the hotel with plans to take us to dinner! A sweet thought but there was no way the babies were going to make it through that. So Graham went ahead and the kids and I were in bed by 7pm.

 

 

We are staying in a service apartment while our apartment details are getting worked out, and while it is better than I was prepared for, it is still quite small and basically just one open room. Adjusting to time change has been tricky in such a small space. We were all failing miserably until I unearthed the sound machine from the bags. Now Blue can wake up and have a cry about not wanting to go back to sleep and Wiley can sleep through it. One week later and I think we are all mostly adjusted. The hardest part now is that Blue's little pallet is right next to our bed and such close proximity is tough for our chatty one. Most mornings we have been up by 6am and our the door an hour or so later. Nothing really opens until 10 or 11 though so we have been doing lots of morning strolls.

 

 

 

 

 

The morning strolls provide good exercise for the kids but not the good, free, run around, explore, kind of exercise they are used to. More of the - hold my hand in the street, watch out, keep up - kind of exercise. We found a good park though, near the apartment we hope to settle into, that has places to just be. This same park is also used by the school Blue will be attending so I am sure we will all become very familiar with it.

Sayonara for now. That is literally one of maybe four Japanese words I know. A project for when we feel a little more settled I think.