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!