The Big Trip

We left for the airport at 5:45 AM in a convoy to Logan. Since Sam came out straight out of bed he was still in his lobster PJs, and he just did not want to change out of them. So he had a wicked Boston look for most of the way to Tokyo.


All in all the trip went pretty smoothly. Getting through security twice and the last hour or so on the plane were probably the most difficult. Taking off shoes, removing laptops, and pulling out little baggies of liquid items while wrangling the two of them was rather insane but doable. On the Boston-NY flight American Airlines didn't sit us together. They put me with Maia, but Sam behind Chris. But the flight attendant, who was flying her last flight ever, helped us out. And since Maia would sit on my lap for that flight I gave up my seat on that flight for $200. The beneficiary was an Irish businessman who was making a tighter connection to a Tokyo flight than ours. Father of 1 year old twins, he definitely didn't mind helping to entertain Maia. We agreed that our cheeky flight attendant cracking jokes with the pilots and criticizing the gate attendants for the lousy seat assignments, would be a good contrast to the polished and super competent JAL staff.

After a delay due to some really spectacular lightning and despite being 13+ hours in the air, Japan Airlines from NY to Tokyo was quite nice. They had various things for the kids: personal TV, Anpanman (a Japanese cartoon Sam watches on You Tube) diapers, a bib, kids' meals, and a nice car seat for Maia's seat, the last of which was a lifesaver. I could put her there when she was asleep, and the side of it made a nice cushion for me to sleep on. She was a bit antsy but didn't cry much at all, at least that anyone other than I noticed. One of the stewardesses was really ready to take her home, and in fact offered to do so when we were on our way to the immigration office at Narita.

Sam freaked out a few times, but was basically pretty saintly. He sat next to Chris and since he kept kicking in people (mostly Chris) in his sleep, Chris slept even less than the three or so hours I did. So we survived the flight, but I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon. In the car from the airport (the Nagatas all came in two mini-vans to pick us up), Sam who had just woken up said first "Where's Jon?" - his Uncle Jonathan had driven us to the airport in Boston and then "I want to go home!" Sorry Sam, we are not getting back on that plane for some time to come. I doubt you'll miss it.

Going to Kyoto

At the end of this week, we head to Japan for the school year 2008-09. We thought we'd keep a blog so friends and family can stay in touch. We are new to this format, so please bear with us!

We leave early Saturday, August 2nd and arrive late afternoon August 3rd. We decided the best route would be to take the short flight to New York, and then fly directly from New York to Tokyo (about 14 hours). This makes for the shortest amount of time in the air, and avoids trying to get three-year old Sam back on the plane a second time after, for example, a long flight to the west coast. Our final destination is Kyoto, and there is an airport closer to there (Kansai International, KIX). But there are fewer one-stop options from Boston to Osaka, and we thought a week with the Nagatas would make the transition easier.

The Nagatas are my host family in Tokyo from when I first went to Japan in the summer of 1986 at age 16. I lived with them again for a year and a half 1995-1997, and they are really a second family to me. They haven't met any of my kids yet, so they were pretty eager to have us stay there immediately rather than going up to Tokyo later. They live in part of the "shitamachi" area (near Asakusa), and in this photo Maia is reading up on the local sights.We'll stay for a week there and then head down to Kyoto on the Shinkansen train (the so-called "Bullet Train"). Sam is much more excited about the Shinkansen than the airplane, and I can't blame him! We have been looking at photos of the Shinkansen on the internet, but he says they all "are pretend." We also watched You Tube videos of Japan Airlines 747s taking off. All pretty interesting, but we'll see how he reacts to the real thing.

Well, we better get packed and ready to go!