Out on the Town!

Today was one of those awesome days where I got to spend several hours with my two boys. I seriously love those! We decided to take a little walk along the main road by our apartment tonight, snap a few shots, and stretch our legs. Because it's Saturday night, a lot of people were "out and about." Lots of cars and lots of pedestrians. We definitely stuck out as those foreigners stopping to take pictures of the most random, everyday things (such as a vending machine or the road...)

But hey, what's "normal" to one culture is completely unfamiliar to another, so those random little pics make for great memories.

Oh, and on our way back to the apartment, we just had to stop by the 100 yen store (aka Dollar Store) to grab what has rapidly become my favorite Japanese candy bar: Black Thunder. The best way to describe it is crushed up Oreos wrapped in chocolate. The only thing wrong with these little lovelies is the fact that they come in fun size (what's so fun about a mini candy bar anyway?) rather than king size!

Here are some pics. :)

My handsome boys!

A lot of colors on the road

A sweet pic Casey took!

A lot of biking goes on here. I love it! Being able to ride a bike eases the pain of not being able to teach Spinning classes right now. Also, those raised lines on the sidewalk are for blind pedestrians. They are everywhere (the lines, not the blind pedestrians...)

Ah, a familiar face.

Saluting the Colonel

Black Thunder! And...as Casey so lovingly just pointed out...it's upside down. Meh. Not the first time I've done that since we've been here.

Not a pic from the walk. It's the view from our balcony. Miyazaki homes are all quite close to one another. Oh, and we hang out clothes on a clothesline, which I seriously love doing for whatever reason.

It's All Fun and Games Until the Diapers Run Out

(First of all, I cannot get this annoying grey background to go away behind my text. Looks like it's here to stay.)

Well, this post doesn't have a whole lot to do with the fact that we're in Japan. But I suppose the purpose of this blog is to document our lives while we're here, a journal of sorts, and today just has to be documented for memory's sake.

It all started yesterday, when Casey traveled to Korea by bus and what is apparently called "The Beetle." The Beetle is a boat that takes passengers between the two countries. He left in the wee hours of the morning in order to make it to the Japanese Consulate in Korea to get his work visa approved and stamped. Conveniently (definite sarcasm here), a person must get a visa stamped outside of the country where he or she intends to work and live. We tried our darndest to get it to Utah before leaving to Japan, so we only had to travel to Colorado (the nearest consulate) but alas, it was not to be. But anywho...

Casey arrived in Korea (yay!) and made it to the Consulate (double yay!) but soon found that he would have to stay for 24 hours in order for the proce

ss to be finalized (triple boo!) His phone is also dead, which makes communication impossible. Although I'm not so sure the whole calling thing would work between the two countries anyway. Luckily he's found some internet cafes, so we've had some contact. But I digress (Just have to put that phrase in here so that Casey can cringe when he reads it...major phrase pet-peeve right there.)

We didn't do a whole lot of smart planning before Casey headed out, so I ended up having 1000 yen (10ish dollars) to my name. I soon noticed we needed more formula but figured we could wait until tomorrow. So grateful I had that money!

Around 10 last night, I found that we were down to our last diaper and it soon had a nice, smelly present waiting just for me. I scoured the apartment, but it was not to be.  With no car and definitely no Wal-Mart to be found, we were totally and completely stuck. Soooo....after some serious searching for anything that might work for a diaper, I settled for some pads (yes, feminine hygiene pads...) and a plastic protective swimming thingy and put the little guy to bed.

It totally didn't work. I am sure Bridger was totally unimpressed with his mommy's attempts at a makeshift diaper.

I dreaded getting up this morning knowing I'd have to deal with quite a mess all day long but was determined to do my best at some cloth diapers. Er...and I mean like towel diapers. I even tried a burp rag. And they were all epic fails. Aye Carumba. I should probably put some Japanese phrase of exasperation there instead but that'll have to wait until another day when, ya know, I actually know one. But back to the point - I completely admire those who choose to do cloth diapers. Um yuck. And why the crap. And all those other incomplete thoughts of wonderment about why  someone would voluntarily do that.

And now for the moral of the story (I bet you didn't see that one coming.) I knew this was a funny and, well, ridiculous situation I was in, but I "knew" I could pull through until midnight tonight when Casey returned. I figured I could hold out until 9 tomorrow morning when the store reopens. I emailed Casey about it, who suggested that I ask Dennis (our friend and employer) to borrow some money and pay him back tomorrow. As it turns out, I am completely prideful in this area. I would pull through victorious without anyone's help. I could do this on my own. But as the day wore on, I looked at my little guy's bottom to find a rash beginning. And then I cried. And cried. (How do single parents do it? Goodness me, I need my hubby!)

So I swallowed my pride and made the phone call. And I just have to say that the Dennis and his family are saints. We got the diapers and Bridger Bug is now comfortable and asleep.

Apparently, I will do whatever it takes to make my baby comfortable and happy, even if it means taking a big slice of humble pie.

And...now for the pics!

(P.S. - our child's poor derriere! When we first arrived, we "disinfected" Bridger's bum several times. And I mean that literally. As in we bought disinfectant wipes thinking they were baby wipes....Parents-of-the-Year Award right here.)

(P.P.S. or is it P.S.S.? - While today was a bit difficult, I was definitely blessed with several tender moments from my Heavenly Father. 1. When buying formula today, the ladies at the counter gave me a box of baby cookies for Bridger for free just because they thought he was cute. 2. The Petersens were so willing to help me out to buy diapers. 3. The Petersens brought dinner over to me because they knew I was alone, along with more food for later. 4. Noa, a sweet girl and friend of the Petersens came over to drop off the food with Heidi and ended up pretty much cleaning my kitchen! I was embarrassed and told her not to worry about it several times, but she genuinely didn't seem to mind and wanted to help. I wasn't sure what to do, but I accepted another piece of humble pie and am so grateful I don't have to clean right now! And 5. While putting Bridger to sleep tonight, I was holding him like I would hold an infant (aka with him lying down.) He struggled for a moment, then climbed up to my shoulder and laid his head there and snuggled up to me really close.)

So grateful for the Lord's tender mercies, which are there even on the hard days. Okay, and now for the pics. :)

Thank you, clothespins.

Probably thinking something like "Mommy, you're a doofus."

And "Um Mom, this doesn't even cover my behind!"

Journey to Miyazaki

Well, we are officially Miyazakians. Miyazakites? Still a bit surreal to think that we live in Japan, but I think we’re getting used to it quickly. While it’s weird being away from home, I’m happy to say the transition hasn’t been all that horrible. And honestly, it’s all due to the fact that the Japanese people are incredibly hospitable and welcoming. Throughout my other travels, I have never met a kinder, more gracious people in my life. The change was evident the minute we set foot onto our international flight, which was through All Nippon Airlines, a Japanese company. 

Bridger's not quite sure what to think

Playing in the airport and most likely thinking "Is this our new home?" Ah, layovers...

Immediately, we could sense a change. The stewardesses bowed (quite deeply, I might add) when greetings and instructions were being made. We soon learned that this is a huge custom in the Japanese culture. It is a culture of respect. When you pass someone on the street or say hello, it is polite to bow. Being the “Gaijin” that I am (aka foreigner) I am pretty bad at the whole thing thus far, and mine generally turns out to be more of a head nod than anything else. But I’m working on it.

But anyway...perhaps the biggest change in the American and Japanese airlines on our way over was the fact that the stewardesses loved Bridger. They offered him a lot of toys and came up to talk

to him for minutes (literally) at a time. At one point, I shifted in my chair and was promptly asked if I needed to use the restroom. Confused, I looked at Casey. He later explained that the stewardess was eyeing Bridger and seemed to want to hold him. This love for children, and American ones in particular (at least from what I have noticed) is also very normal here. He has never received so much attention in his life! Whether at the grocery store, church, or anywhere else, he is the star of the show. Not that he earns it: Sure, he’s stinkin’ cute (I do acknowledge some mother’s bias here) but he always gives out what I have termed as “grumpies” rather than the adorable smile I know he has. But he is adored anyway and gets a lot of poking (perhaps a reason for some grumpies) and attention.

But back to our journey to Miyazaki. We left Utah on August 13. The small plane we flew in to L.A. was incredibly loud, which gave me quite the headache. Bridger wasn’t super excited to be on it either, so what I thought would be the easiest flight turned out to be the hardest as he wanted to bounce around and fuss a good amount of the time. We had a 5-hour layover in L.A. (yay, gotta love those!) Just in case you were wondering, LAX seems to be huge! So we spent a good little bit of time finding the international flight section. We then ate ridiculously overpriced hamburgers from good ol’ McD’s. We would have gone to Panda, but the line was insanely long and we decided we were way too lazy for that.

Once on the ANA international flight, we settled in for the 10.5 hour journey to Tokyo. I just have to say how incredibly thankful I am that the flight went so well with Bridger. We traveled overnight, so he slept for about half of it. It sure is a different experience flying with a baby! No more sleeping the whole time or just watching movies. Instead you’re praying he doesn’t try to grab the hair of the girl sitting next to you or try to take something off her tray (the little guy tried his best, but alas, Mommy won!) But overall, we really can’t complain. He did a great job.

Tokyo Airport - er, it was supposed to be blurry...

The moment we stepped off the plane in Tokyo, we felt sticky. Hello humidity. After a two-hour layover, we went to our gate to board the plane. The passengers for this flight boarded a bus instead, which then took us to the plane, where we boarded outside by stairs rather than the usual tunnel-type set-up. It was sweet. I felt like the president or something. We also saw THE coolest plane in the world (pretty sure it’s a fact.) It was blue with several anime characters such as Pokemon’s Pikachu on it. Um yeah, the coolest thing ever. We couldn’t get a very good pic, but here it is.

Coolest airplane ever

Not sure how to turn this...

Our Tokyo airport food. Sandwiches that look like sushi and had such flavors as potato and egg and fruit filled.

Potato, egg, meat sandwiches. Odd.

I was scared.

As usual, I’m getting way too long-winded in this post. So I’ll try a bit harder to be more concise (not sure it’s possible, but we’ll see!) We were greeted at the Miyazaki airport by the missionaries and John, a teacher at the American Kindergarten where Casey will be working. The elders even gave us a cute greeting card and some cookies! And John and his wife, Kioko, immediately took us to buy some groceries at the local market. Thank heavens for that. Have you ever tried to grocery shop when you can’t read anything and things are packaged differently? Wowza, it really is an experience. I never realized just how much I read at the store until I came here!

After that, we came to our new, adorable apartment and crashed. All three of us fell asleep for a nap at 1:00 in the afternoon Miyazaki time and woke up at 3:00 the next morning. Now that’s what I call a nap. Changing time zones so drastically sure is a doozy. Even now, two weeks later, we feel like we’re barely adjusted to the change.

Well, I realize this post is a bit of a scrambled mess of ideas all tied up in one post. I just have so much to say. But I think this is good for now. Sayonara!