Writing from Japan now. Not totally sure which day this will go up, partly because it can feel difficult to get a moment of rest that isn’t used just for catching a break or sleeping. Still typing on a phone, no computer yet. And, at the current moment, no internet since the pocket WiFi provider has some issue, though they’ve offered some resolutions which hopefully come into effect within the day.
So I’ll recap basically the events to now, whenever now is.
We departed MSP about 11am Wednesday for the 12 hour flight. Immediately this was welcome news: I anticipated a 13.5 hour flight, and the shorter time was actually accurate. Overall the flight went pretty well, better than expected but it was no vacation either. Basically the key was to keep filling the kids with snacks and candy and hope they don’t puke. Frida slept twice, maybe 4 hours total, and Greta didn’t fall asleep until they announced the descent into Tokyo.
Greta’s stomach hurt once we deplaned. Presumably since she refused any real food since breakfast 18 hours earlier.
Customs and cat inspection were a breeze, thank you Priority line, and we managed to get everything done in the airport and check in to the airport hotel by probably 5pm where we had an exceedingly frustrating time with children at “Tea Hour” prior to the dinner service. Sarah and Greta brought back to the room some quick snacks from Lawson (conbini/convenience store).
Frida woke up about 8:30am, Minneapolis time, which wasn’t ideal since we were in Tokyo. Fortunately, it being 11:30pm in Tokyo Sarah lucked out and was able to fetch some vending machine snacks from the airport before it closed at midnight. And thus began our Friday (Thursday being largely lost to time zone tricks).
Friday saw us from Tokyo to Noto, about 40 minutes in the air before landing at the world’s first Pokemon airport. What did that mean? Well, the first clue was that the safety video prominently featured Pokémon. But of course it is at the actual airport where they have wall decorations, dummy Pokémon suitcases on the baggage carousel, statues, music, etc. We had to rush out to meet our taxi so we didn’t get to explore further (though it’s a tiny airport, with a handful of flights each day).
The taxi, a passenger van, was the worst part of the trip in terms of smoothness of ride. I don’t have any memory of the road we took being so bumpy, but maybe it was the earthquake a few years ago that really messed it up.
The road took us directly past Sarah’s childhood home, which was mostly torn down after that earthquake. What remains is just a back portion of the house and a storage area. It’s a real shame, as that house obviously had a lot of memories in it.
Finally, we arrived in Nanao at the house. It’s been 4 days here already, and I feel like I’ve already fallen behind on updates but also simultaneously written too much. In the future, smaller, possibly more interesting posts. For this one, I’ll draw it to a close.
Reminder, if you want you see pictures of faces, you will have to register on the site and be approved. Right now there aren’t really any of those restricted photos so you aren’t missing much, but that’ll start to change once I have real internet and a computer set up.