The long way home

Buh, buh, buh baby and the jets...

Cousins!

Such a lucky little girl :)

We took a trip to the States. Then we came home. This is that story.

Believe it or not, we brought the Bean back to the States for a visit only a little over a month after getting back to Misawa from the States (yes, our heads are still spinning). Your math is correct! Bean has crossed the Pacific Ocean three times in just four months! She has been to (but not in) both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (isn't it all one ocean anyway?). We went back to America for the annual Hergenroeder beach vacation in Ocean City and also spent a week with my parents. Our time at home was priceless (and very, very brief) and we will cherish the memories forever, but the craziest part of this trip was its ending.

Bean getting friendly with a flight attendant. 

We left Maryland on the morning of Father's Day Sunday. After driving to Reagan National Airport, we took a short flight to Detroit. There, we boarded our flight to Tokyo. We had great seats on the plane and felt really positive when we took off. The flight went exceptionally well. Bean mostly slept and was pleasant when awake; cooing at the flight attendants and squawking at fellow passengers. It was incredible! The flight was a little over 13 hours long. Somewhere around  hour 11, I began to get a terrible headache. Upon landing, I had to run (with the "barf bag" as I've always called it) to the airplane bathroom to well...barf. I had hoped it was an isolated incident, but unfortunately it marked the start of a 24 hour bug...or food poisoning...or something. 24 hours of yuck.

Somehow we managed to get off the plane, clear customs, retrieve our bags, and take an hour-long bus ride to the other airport in Tokyo. We waited in a parking lot at that airport for a shuttle to take us to our hotel for the night. (When flying home to Misawa, you have to stay overnight in a hotel and catch a flight out in the morning). Never have I ever been so happy to see a bed in my life.

At about 6:50 the next morning, Eric said to me, "Ninoosh, we have to leave in 10 minutes or we are going to miss our flight." I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom and...I was still sick. I heard Eric say from the bedroom, "let me make some calls." Fortunately the airline and Eric's boss were cool about our need to change our travel plans and we were able to stay another night in our room. We all pretty much slept the entire time and luckily, neither Eric nor the Bean caught the yuck.

At 7:00 the next morning, I was feeling like a new person and we were back on the hotel shuttle headed toward the airport. As we stood in the check-in line, we saw our flight status change from "on time" to "cancelled due to fog."

Joy.

We were informed that our best option was to take a flight to the city of Aomori and return to Misawa by train. The flight was about an hour long. Bean saved her only public meltdown for this leg of the trip. During the safety spiel and taxi down the runway, she screamed bloody murder...in front of a very sympathetic crowd...of Japanese businessmen.

After she fell asleep, the rest of the flight was gravy. We landed at the airport in Aomori and boarded a bus to take us to the Aomori train station. 35 minute bus ride? No problem! When we arrived at the train station, we realized that we did not have enough Yen to purchase tickets and they did not accept credit cards. Eric GPSed the closest Post Office and went out in search of Yen while I stood with our tons of luggage and bounced a tired babe. I was surprised I didn't look pathetic enough for people to start throwing money at me.

Eric finally returned with Yen, we bought the tickets, and waited an hour and half for our train. Then we took an hour and half train ride from Aomori to Misawa. On that train ride, we learned that Eric's colleagues had to attend a formal event and would not be able to retrieve us with our car from the train station (as planned). When we got to the train station, we couldn't take any of the cabs waiting outside because only one cab company has base access. Eric called and we waited for one to arrive. We got in and Bean cried and cried and cried. The driver took us back to the parking lot of Eric's office where we got in our car and drove the final, excruciating 10 minutes to our house.

Still chipper on the train from Aomori to Misawa. 

HOLY MOLY WHAT A TRIP! 

Three airplanes, two busses, one train, one taxi, and two nights in a Tokyo hotel later, Eric showered and returned to work to prepare for court the next day while I bathed a screaming Bean and laid her in her crib where she proceeded to sleep for a zillion hours. Poor baby. 

Our bird has definitely earned her wings.

It doesn't have to be epic to be blogable

Eric and I finally made it back to the Hachinohe fish market, this time with Bean in tow. We have wanted to return to the market ever since first setting foot in it last year during our, "welcome to Japan" tour. However, we spent our first (almost) year in Japan just getting our bearings (oh yeah, and having a baby). With the exception of our epic Japanese adventure, we both feel we have not done a great job of taking advantage of the novelty of everyday life in Misawa and the surrounding areas. There is so much to see and so little time! We need to be much, much better at this.

Since returning to Misawa with Bean, we have vowed to do something new, at least one thing new, anything new every weekend. The fish market was not new, but was even more awesome than the first time.

Upon arrival, we enjoyed a hodge podge lunch of meats-on-a-stick, sushi, and the most giant fried calamari you've ever seen! For dessert, we had green tea/vanilla soft serve swirls. Cravings satiated, we strolled through the fish market and collected some items for dinner: shrimp and clams-in-the-shell, which later turned into a delicious pasta by master chef, Eric.

After the fish market, we found the place called the Cement Factory (this was our something new), which is basically an old cement factory turned junk store. There, among a plethora of curiosities and oddities (to include a glass urine bottle- hard to resist), we found a handful of treasures to bring home.

Our former car seat hater in chief did well on our adventure, though she threatened to remind us of the power of her wrath on the way home. I single handedly put on a three ring circus to keep her distracted from crying from Hach to Misawa.

Hope we stay true to our promise. Something new Saturdays are awesome!

Crowded in KYOTO

We arrived in Kyoto by train and took a really fun cab ride to our hotel. There are over 300 hotels in Kyoto and our driver did not recognize the name of the one in which we were staying. Our driver spoke very little English and of course we speak less than very little Japanese. We communicated through broken Japanese & English, smartphones (the driver needed glasses to see the phone, but had to take them off to drive...this caused some challenges), and good old fashioned hand gestures. He pulled over a few times to run into other hotels and business establishments to inquire whether anyone knew of/knew where our hotel was located. We finally found it and all shared a good laugh along the way.

I have to get this out of the way at the beginning: We saw beautiful and amazing sights in Kyoto, but after all the hype (and for various other reasons), we left feeling a little let down. Maybe this had to do with the fact that we were pretty exhausted and road-weary by that point. Maybe the crappy weather? Maybe it was because it was insanely crowded since we visited in a peak tourist season. Maybe it was that we'd already seen "little Kyoto" and countless other amazing places? Maybe there was just too darn much to see! Whatever it was, we never felt like we got a handle on the city and it was the only stop we left with a sense of unfinished business. It was the only city we left feeling like we didn't do it justice. That was disappointing. We're talking about Kyoto here! Despite our conflicted feelings about our time in Kyoto, we saw some pretty incredible stuff. Here's the rundown...

After dropping our bags in our hotel room, we ate lunch at a chain restaurant that serves fried pork cutlets; a popular dish in Japan. We did not particularly want to eat at a chain, but most restaurants in Japan close between lunch and dinner and we were hungry at an in-between-time. Luckily, our food was good...and filling!

We walked (a very, very far distance) to Gion, one of the most well known geisha districts in Japan. Geisha in Gion call themselves geiko, which means artist. This neighborhood has two hanamachi or geisha communities. The exact number of geisha in Japan today is unknown, but it is estimated that there are only between one and two thousand. Sightings of real geisha are very rare outside of their communities. Usually when tourists have geisha sightings, they are likely seeing other tourists who have paid to dress up as maiko or apprentice geisha.

There were TONS of tourists in Gion. The streets felt more crowded than Shibuya Crossing (remember, that crazy intersection in Tokyo?). We were elbow to elbow in two-way  foot traffic with other tourists. It was completely insane and hard not to feel kind of anxious. Not because of any danger or feeling unsafe, but because of our complete inability to see where we were going or from where we had come. Despite the crowds, Gion was cool; full of old buildings and streets; a feeling of real, old-timey Japan. Many people were strolling in kimono. We were surrounded by temples and amazing fall foliage; the Japanese maple were an explosion of golds, oranges, and reds. We wandered around for quite a while before walking back to our hotel to rest up for dinner. We got back to our room a little before 7 pm. We laid down to "rest our eyes" and did not open our eyes again until 7 am. Our first night on the town in Kyoto had slipped away from us, but I suppose these weary travelers just needed a good sleep!

During our first full day in Kyoto, we had a half day with a personal tour guide. We had a busy agenda for a half day to include: Nijo-jo Castle, Kinkaku-ju (Golden Pavililon), and Daitoku-ji (Buddhist Temple). The sky was a bit overcast and there was some drizzle so we hit the road with umbrellas in tow.

Nijo Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was originally built in 1603 as the official Kyoto residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu. It stands as one of the finest examples of Edo period architecture and houses Edo period art commissioned by Iemitsu. One of the most interesting features of the castle are the nightingale floors, which were built to chirp like birds any time they are walked upon in order to protect the occupants of the castle from sneak attacks and assassins (ninjas). There were also closet doors in each of the reception rooms that samurai would stand behind so that they could pop out to protect the shogun from disgruntled visitors. Definitely a must-see in Kyoto!

The Golden Pavilion (a World Cultural Heritage Site)  is precisely what it sounds like: a Buddhist hall that is covered in gold foil lacquer. The garden and buildings centered around the Golden Pavilion are said to represent the Pure Land of Buddha in this world. It was gorgeous the way the sun brought the building to life; making it sparkle and shine. As usual, the Japanese gardens were stunning. Speaking of stunning gardens, the gardens Daitoku-ji (another Buddhist Temple) were very interesting to see. There, we really got a good understanding of the meaning behind each feature in the garden right down to the shape of the boulders. We were not permitted to take pictures inside Daitoku-ji as they had apparently been having problems with people taking pictures of the gardens and replicating them elsewhere in the world.

Our guide was very informative, but also a "chop chop" kind of tour guide. She didn't waste any time chatting and I practically had to beg to stop to take pictures! The plus side of this was that we got a lot packed into a very short amount of time! She ended our tour back in Gion, and by this time, it was POURING rain. The same crowds as the day before were out, but this time they (we) were all holding umbrellas. It was even harder to see where we were going and from where we had come. It was another in-between-time to eat, but we were starving. We searched far and wide for a restaurant, but everything was closed. We finally stumbled across a food shack (for lack of a better word) and scarfed down bowls of hot noodles in the rain. it was hard not to feel a little discouraged.

After we got a little food in our bellies, we rallied and visited Kiyomizu Temple after lunch. It was very beautiful and would have been an amazing place to take in the sights of the changing maple leaves had the weather been nicer and the crowds been smaller. It was too rainy to try and get good pictures, so our memories of the temple will have to suffice.

After visiting the temple, we walked all over Gion (again!) looking for a bus stop to take us back to our hotel. We were soaked to be bone by the time we made it back. Eric had also turned green from the waist down from the bleeding dye of one of our travel books.

We decided to siesta until dinner. And, yes, this time we actually woke up! For dinner, we walked down the street to a little Indian restaurant. We sampled dishes from North and South India- it was delicious! We walked off our meals in the area around our hotel and then went to bed.

We got a late start on our last full day in Kyoto, which ended up haunting us later in the afternoon. We took a day trip to Nara, the first capital city of Japan. It was about 30-45 minutes South of Kyoto. Nara is a much smaller city and there was a lot less traffic and crowds. There is a park in Nara, which is the epicenter of tourism there. There are number of temples and museums in this one, concentrated area. There are also hundreds of friendly deer. They wander around and eat food from people's hands, pose for pictures, visit, and accept friendly pats and hugs. I wasn't feeling like deer hugging and neither was Eric, but the deer (and other tourists) were fascinating to watch and the babies were super cute to see!

Nara is also home to the Great Buddha- one of the world's largest Buddha statues and a National Treasure of Japan (Japan's largest statue). The building housing the Buddha is the largest wooden structure in the world despite the fact that it is 33% smaller than its original version, which burned down both in 1180 and 1567. It was awe-inspiring. I lit a candle there for Michael.

After strolling through the park, enjoying the foliage, and seeing the Buddha, we had worked up an appetite. One of our guide books had suggested a falafel joint, but after searching far and wide we were unable to locate it. We assumed that it was no longer around and opted for a hot bowls of Ramen instead.

Over bowls of steaming noodles topped with shrimp tempura, we hatched a plan to hustle back to Kyoto in time to make it to Sanjūsangen-dō, known for the thousand life-size armed Kannon statues standing to the left and the right of the statue of the main deity. When we realized we actually had a shot of making it if we caught the next train, we slurped up our noodles and ran to the train station. Sadly, this is where our late start in the morning bit us in the butt. We were about 10 minutes too late for the last admission of the day. By this time it was also too late (too dark) to be able to enjoy Fushimi Inari (another shrine we had hoped to visit). This one famous for the thousands of Torii gates lining the path to the inner shrine. When we realized we had blown our chance to see both of these really cool places (must-sees for us), we each suffered meltdowns in our own special ways. After a spat, some pouting, and shared apologies, we accepted defeat and decided what to do with the rest of our afternoon. 

Big surprise- we ended up in Gion AGAIN. We shopped for pottery and got one last look at the beautiful maples. We may not have seen enough of Kyoto, but we certainly got our fill of Gion. 

We met a fellow JAG friend, Megan, for drinks that night at her swanky hotel bar. After cocktails, we decided to get dinner at one of the restaurants in the place called "Eat Paradise" at the Kyoto train station. We had never seen a place like this. There were one zillion (that is an exact figure) restaurants, literally floors of restaurants in this one place. The place we picked was traditional, Kyoto-style, Japanese food. It was simple but very delicious. We had sashimi, sushi, soba noodles (hot & cold), rice with vegetables, and tempura. Eric and Megan sampled some sake and for dessert we had these sweets that are a jello-like consistency and covered in a floury powder. They suck all the moisture right out of your mouth, but are really quite tasty. 

A night with Megan was a great way to end our time in Kyoto, and luckily it wasn't the only time we were going to spend with her on this trip. We had plans to meet her again at our next (and last) stop, Hiroshima, on Thanksgiving!