Day 1 Japan

 

Its day 4 here in Japan. Technically we have been here 7 rotations of the Earth but time works differently when you fly across the planet. In fact so differently that your brain becomes such muddle you first typed out 7 rotations of the sun like an 1100’s Catholic philosopher.

The first day was a blur. This trip was booked differently. We rented a house near the airport, booked a direct flight, and were ready to fly through customs. We did all that but still encountered an immediate cultural hurdle. Not all houses are on roads, some are on footpaths. It makes sense when you consider the size of Tokyo, having road access for every dwelling wouldn’t support the sort of urban sprawl they have. So we stumbled along a broken path tired, chilly, and with 7 pieces of luggage and two toddlers saying they were scared of the dark. Fair play kiddos. It wasn’t ideal. We then tumbled into bed at 6pm. The next morning awoke at 10pm on the same day. This began day 1. A day fueled by eating macaroni and cheese for dinner at 7am, naps from 9am to 2pm, bed again at 4pm only to wake at 1am, with drags of work and midnight trips to 7-11 to refuel. I tried to venture out with the kids one day alone while Kyle went to bed at 1 in the afternoon. I couldn’t manage to make the few turns out of the houses jagged turns to the 7-11 about 100 meters away. I would need to wait until Kyle woke for the morning around 9pm.  It was a blur, yet before that blur we had managed to book the wrong flight.

Yes after our haggard harried 80 hour day we needed to check into our flight to Sapporo. We managed to not figure it out until around 6am on Day 2/5. Flight “Sapporo to Tokyo” we read. “Maybe they read flights from right to left as well?” I wondered out loud. “No, the plane is definitely going up in the picture from Sapporo like a take off…” I replied to myself. Time to pivot, a thing in our family we do best! Well not best, but most. And thus set off a series of perfect saves.

Pivot one, we rebook onto the bullet train since flights are now too pricey, also the bullet train gets us to Hokkaido in just 4 hours and no security to go through! A flight refund is issued, we are on our way! Taxi to the train station! Ok so we have to take a later train, no worries time for a café! Oh shit, we left the bottles at the house, taxi ride back to the house to get the bottles, expensive but necessary. Kyle suggested he go alone, I told him to pull his head out of his ass. We rode 30 minutes back to the house where Kyle found the bottles on the front stoop where I had left them. I then got to apologize for chiding him for 30 minutes. Ok get back out at the taxi at the train station.  Oh shit! I realized, I left a bag in the front of the taxi. I promptly became as fluent in English as the average Japanese citizen and frantically pointed at the taxi yelling to Kyle “Go bag, taxi, go bag” as he frantically asked which bag?!? I just flapped my hands uselessly and Kyle dutifully ran off. Run Kyle run! Oh Kyle is my hero, he got the bag with all our American snacks – phew! Ok let’s wait for the train. Why is everyone getting in front of us in the line? I ask. Maybe they are rude we conclude. Wrong we got on the wrong train. Shit Kyle get off the train take the kids! There’s still a bag he shouts back as a scramble to get off, door alarm pinging quietly because we have officially held up the most on time train system in the world. It’s Japan, they aren’t going to have an obnoxious alarm. The most obnoxious alarm you have here is simply reversing a car and as per usual that’s just respectful of them. We eventually stagger into bed in Hokkaido. A bed so firm that despite the ridiculous amount of stress we have gotten through, it still takes a minute to fall asleep on.