Sorry it has taken me so long to write this. Just busy seeing Japan and enjoying Matt. It is a long one so seat back and enjoy.

Few background notes:

· In the two months Matt was gone Reagan and I travelled to see all of the grandparents and my best friends. I think we put about 4,000 miles on our car in those two months. A lot of quality time in the car but worth every minute.

· In the last weekend of being in the states we went to Lubbock for my sister’s graduation with her PhD, then back to Artesia for fajitas with the Haines’s, then church and Kite Day with my parents, then to Ruidoso for Steve’s 80th birthday.

We were two very busy girls but we had to get as much time with our family as we could. We love all of you guys and miss you all so much already.

Getting it all packed up

Let’s set the stage for my packing situation. I could have four fifty pound bags and two carry-on bags since I bought Reagan a seat. In those bags it included clothes for a whole year from very hot and humid to quiet chilly, some things for the house maybe not necessary but it is so nice to have some bits that feel like home, we all know how Reagan and I both love shoes so of course shoes, 24 cans of green chili, some spices, and other random odds and ends I was sure I needed.

It took me like three days to finish packing. One day just for sorting, another day for packing, and the last day for arranging stuff just right. If one bag was over but another was under I would just switch things around until they all equaled 50 lbs on the dot. It was quite the puzzle and my poor Mom’s house got the bad end of the deal. (Thanks Mom and Dad for letting me live with you and destroy your house.)

The tricky part came with the carry-ons. It was all of the loose ends plus Matt decided on a new computer thing for the house like four days before so that totally threw everything off. It came down to his stupid computer or my red plaid heels. The computer won because I figured I could get some new heels here. Debbie insisted that we at least take them to the airport and see what happens. Well magically they made it. The first flight said no to them in one of the bags because it was over weight but then let us throw them in the bag with the car seat. Also one of my other bags ended up being over so I had a random tennis shoe that I just carried on the flight. The next flight we had to have the car seat so my tennis shoes went in the stroller that folded down and went under the plane and after some rearranging the heels went in my carry on. I have already worn the heels and am glad Debbie insisted on carrying them and hoping for the best because they looked so cute the other night for dinner.

Getting to LA

Debbie was my traveling buddy to LA. She had agreed months ago to help me get that far. Katie was flying with me from LA to Tokyo so that is as far as I beg her to take me. So the first leg of the trip was getting to Albuquerque to fly out. You would think this was the easy part but Reagan must have known something was up. She was just in a mood and wouldn’t get over it. We ended up pulling over to get her some chips just to keep her from crying the whole three hours to Albuquerque. Once we got to Albuquerque we had some lunch and headed to the airport. Of course this is when Reagan choose to crash on us. So Debbie dropped Reagan and I off by the outside check in and went to park. So I just sat and waited while Reagan napped. Then I hear “Chelsae”, great someone is going to see me with all of this stuff. Did I mention I had four big bags, a stroller, a car seat, a rolling carry on, a backpack, and my diaper bag? Well it ended up being Katie and her mom and dad. So Katie and her dad helped me carry everything in while her mom waited with Reagan and we started the check-in process.
Debbie came around the corner right as we stepped up to the counter. After a little rearranging, a little bit of sitting on bags to make them zip, and a lot of laughing, they pretty much took all of my stuff excluding the random tennis shoe Debbie shoved in a pocket of my backpack. Off to the flight. The flight was two hours long and it felt two hours long. Reagan woke up as we were going through security and didn’t want to go back to sleep. This is the one part of the trip she didn’t have her own seat so she just bounced from me to Debbie to Katie and then back. We were just glad to get her off the plane and I am sure the people around us were too. After a long day of traveling we got to our hotel had some dinner and were in bed by 9 pm.

Getting to Tokyo

The next day started nice and slow. We started our day with some breakfast followed by a little swim, and then got everything back together and off to the airport 3.5 hours early. Seems like we would have time to spare. Nope. We stood in an 1.5 hour line just to get checked into the Singapore Air flight. The check-in guy was great, he took all the bags without a problem and had us all three sitting together. Debbie tried to get us in bulkhead seating but the guy said there were eight other infants on the flight without their own seats. It was kind of comforting knowing I wouldn’t be the only with a little one screaming.

So we headed to security. This is where my second set of hands had to leave us and handed it all over to Katie and me. (Thank you Debbie for getting me this far.) I hooked the car seat to the rolling bag, put Reagan in the backpack, and put the diaper bag over my shoulder. Katie helped me with unloading my bags for security. This was a task. There were my shoes, Reagan’s shoes, her bow, the three computers, and trying to get all of the bags on the conveyor belt. When we got to the other side and started to put everything back in its place I realized the computers didn’t make it.
Of course I started stressing out a bit and called over the nearest TSA. They called the supervisor and she started lecturing me about watching my stuff go through. So she went to the other side and lucky that was what had happened. I hadn’t pushed it through. She continued to lecture me about watching my stuff. Here Katie and I stood with all of our bags and my two year old. She obviously had never travelled with a toddler. I just thanked her and went on.

 We headed to our gate and got there with about 15 minutes before boarding. Long enough to use the restroom and run Reagan around a bit. We wanted to let her run as long as she could before putting her on an 11-hour flight.
They started with the family boarding first but Katie and I thought it would be better if we just waited for our number since that would be longer for Reagan to be out and about running around. Once our number came up we boarded the plane. Katie had my diaper bag and Reagan’s toy bag when we loaded the plane. I went first and as she was boarding behind me they stopped her because she had too many bags. They pulled her and I aside and we tried to explain why we had so many bags. I think the biggest catch was the girl didn’t know Reagan had her own seat. I nicely explained that the two extra bags Katie was carrying were my two personal items. The bags I was carrying were my two carry-ons and the other two bags were Katie’s carry-on and personal item. She finally let it go saying our personal items were too big but that it was okay. We laughed to ourselves because has she not seen the handbags ladies carry these days. You could carry a body in them but whatever. She did make us check Katie’s carry-on saying it was too heavy. So like thirty minutes later we finally loaded the plane. By then all of the overhead compartments were full and they ended up taking my carry-on and Reagan’s backpack. As they were taking them away they ask, is there anything you will need or of value in these? Of course there is, they are my carry-ons. This is where you put your valuables. So we pulled the computers, money, and jewelry and a few of the toys I had put in there for Reagan. I was so glad I had the diaper bag and Reagan had a toy bag because everything else got taken away. Some how we bought three tickets and got no carry-ons with us. We did see later that was because the row ahead of us each had both of their bags shoved in the overhead. I just don’t see how they decided to pick on the two girls with the kid. Everyone else had way too much stuff too. Guess we were just an easy target.

We finally got settled in and we took off. It ended up being a great flight. Reagan did so good. I am so glad we got her a seat of her own. She played with toys, watched movies, and snacked most of the flight. She even slept for 3.5 hours. We only had one breakdown right before she crashed.
All together, not too bad of a flight. Eleven hours later we were in Japan. We got all of our stuff rounded back up and got off. We made it right through immigration and headed to baggage claim. It had taken us long enough to get our carry-ons back that by the time we got to baggage claim our bags were pulled off and set to the side. So we put them in carts and headed downstairs. As soon as we came around the corner there were our husbands. It was so cute Reagan must have seen Seth first because she was just yelling “Seth, Seth, Seth” she didn’t even notice Matt walking toward us. Finally I pointed and she yelled “DADDY”. It was cute.

Matt’s boss had brought the boys so they didn’t have to take the train but his car wasn’t big enough for all of us. Seth and Katie were really sweet and let us go with their boss and the bags and they took the bus. We got here about 8 pm. That is 5 am in the states. We had been up for 21 hours. Let’s just say a very LONG day but a great ending. Matt had bought Reagan some hot dogs so we had some dinner and headed to bed. More about the first couple days in Japan in the next blog.

~Chelsae

Well I’m a little behind on my blog posts, ok a lot behind. That said this post is going to be real short with a few pictures.

The Sumo Grad Tournament is two weeks long and occurs every three months. The tournaments are held in different cities and the May tournament was held in Tokyo. We went on Saturday, May 15 which was in the middle of the tournament. They have matches pretty much all day long but the Makuuchi, “The Major League,” didn’t start until about 3:30pm. We arrived at the Sumo Hall around 1:00pm after having McDonalds for lunch. I know, I know, “You are in Japan and having McDonalds?” It just tastes so good here in Japan.


The Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Click here for a larger view.

The wresters have four minutes to start wrestling and every time the use all of the four minutes. They use this time for some ritual displays and getting pumped up for the match. Also the wrestlers decide between themselves when to start. Nobody says “go” they just start when they are both ready. It is very interesting.

They do their stomping.



Then they put water in their mouth and spit it out.



Next they take some salt and throw it into the ring.



They then line up like they are going to start but then they walk away and do it all over again.



During this next set of rituals the wrestlers’ endorsements are displayed with banners that are walked around the ring. The better wrestlers have more banners and the crowd always cheers when the banners are displayed.



After all of this the match usually starts and maybe last for 30 seconds. So there is a lot of build up for a very short period of action. I’m not a golfer and so I’m sure some will disagree with me. But watching Sumo is like watching a golfer walk around inspecting his upcoming put for four minutes then all of a sudden getting hit by a football player and then its over.

I really did enjoy and hopefully we can go again. Below is a video that Seth took of one of the matches.

Quick Notes:
Weather: Mostly sunny in the mid-70s
BBQ
Kamakura
Yokohama
All Photos

This trip was during Japan’s Golden Week which is an extended national holiday. The first holiday is on April 29th (Thursday this year) which is to honor the birthday of the Showa Emperor, the reigning Emperor from 1926 to 1989. Then May 3rd is Constitutional Memorial Day, May 4th is Greenery Day, and May 5th is Children’s Day (also know as Boys’ Day). Being a national holiday I knew there were going to be a lot of people every where but I had to go see something since I had all this time off.

This is where and how this story starts. Saturday (May 1st) I was invited to a BBQ at the Ninomiya House on Sunday. Sunday afternoon I walked out to see if people were in the courtyard and they were out there cooking. I went down and met a few people and talked to the host for a little bit. The BBQs are very friendly and sharing but you are expected to bring something to share, which isn’t a big deal. Knowing I didn’t have anything to cook I had to go to the store. While walking around in the grocery store with Seth we decided to make a big juicy American (Southwest) green chili cheese burger. Bought what we needed and headed back. Made the patties, made some guacamole, grabbed a can of green chilies, some cheese, and headed downstairs. We made four burgers, ate two and shared the other two with the people. There was a mix of people some Japanese, four Frenchmen, an Englishman and two Americans (Seth and I). A couple of the Japanese shared one of the burgers and really enjoyed especially with the green chili. During the BBQ we were invited to go to Kamakura and Yokohama the next day with a few of them. Since we didn’t have any solid plans we figured it would be nice to go do something with some people we knew so of course we said yes.

We meet the group at Tsukuba station in the morning which included five Japanese, a Spaniard, a Mexican, a Frenchman, and an Englishman. The trip plan was go to Kamakura first, which is about 50 km (31mi) south of Tokyo, spend some time there and have lunch there then go to Yokohama. Kamakura is enriched with history and I’m sure many other things that I don’t know but the largest tourist spot is the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) statue. The statue was cast out of bronze in 1252, it is 11 m (37 ft), and one of the two largest pre-modern bronze Buddhas in Japan.


Group of new friends in front of the Daibutsu

Next we set out to find some lunch while making our way to the beach. I found a Turkish kebab joint that looking really good and it was great, I had two.

Turkish Kebab Stand

When I got to the beach I was eating my kebab (2nd one) and out of know where this hawk-looking bird dove down and almost took me out. Luckily it didn’t take out my eyes or take my kebab. The beach was nice and it was definitely calming (besides the hawk part) to have some personal space back and just watch the water. All ages were out enjoying the beach from babies to great-grandparents. There were kites, wind surfers, people clamming (digging for clams), kids chasing each other, and just relaxing.


People at the beach

After the beach we made our way to the Hase-dera Temple which has beautiful gardens and a great view of the Sagami Bay. The Temple houses a wooden statue of Kannon carved in 721. The statue is 9 m (30 ft) high and is the tallest wooden statue in Japan. There were numerous of beautiful flowers and the pictures are posted here.


Main Temple of Hase-dera


Sagami Bay

Now back to the train station to go to China Town in Yokohama. So I thought that I had been on a train that was really full, Seth and I call it “Gettin’ Real” not sure why but it makes sense because you are about to get “real” close with the all the people around you. I digress, the train was already more “real” then I’ve seen and then another 20 people got on our train-car, needless to say it got really real. As a disclaimer the video below is suppose to depicted the lack of a personal bubble not that the Japanese are rude or disgusting.



China Town in Yokohama was very stimulating and overwhelming. All of the streets were full of people, there were fireworks going off, people dressed in dragon costumes, and street vendors trying to give you some kind of nuts. Did I mention all of the people? Also there were still a few cars trying to drive on the streets through all the people, controlled chaos.

Streets of China Town Yokohama

We walked through China Town to the bay to see the sunset and at least for me I was able to regain my composure.


Passenger ship that served as a hospital during WWII.


Sunset at Yokohama Bay

We ventured back into China Town for dinner and found a little place that actually had setting for all 12 of us. It was served family style with 6 different main dishes, soup, and desert. It was great and hopefully I can find the place again. After dinner we headed back to the station and headed home. It was an amazing day with new sights and new friends.