Are You My Mother?

Usually flying to Japan involves loosing a day. You leave say, Sunday morning, and you arrive in Japan Monday night. You are so tired, that your first day in Japan is really Tuesday.

Before I tell you about my first day in Japan, let me just say that the trip started out a bit more eventful than I care for. Mechanical difficulties held up the plane that was taking us to Seattle, so the lovely people at the airport were clicking away trying to find alternate routes. I can't remember that movie scene where the attendant is clicking clicking clicking.... but that is what it was like. One suggestion was to fly back to Atlanta, then to NYC, then to Japan. Yuck. Or we could hang out in Seattle for two days. We decided to do that option, but also to just hope that the flight to Tokyo would be delayed. So we flew to Seattle, and ran through the terminal hoping to catch the next flight. We got to the desk, and the lady checked us in and said good things happen to nice people. Our bags and ourselves arrived in Tokyo on Monday night as planned. Tim's boss was also flying to Japan this week, and his flight was also delayed, but that meant he had to fly to NYC, then to London, spend the night, then around to Japan that way, and his luggage did not arrive with him. I consider us very fortunate.

Onto the first day in Japan.
We live in this building, in Shibuya, which is a part of Tokyo.

View Larger Map


I slept in, and then I unpacked, and realized that there are a few things I would like to have. Such as a container for my makeup and other toiletries. At home, I have little baskets, but I didn't pack those. So I decided to head out to the store to pick up a few things, and then to get some food.
I haven't found a Target or a Walmart in Tokyo. The Japanese version of Target is called Loft, but you don't pronounce it that way... you pronounce it Roft-o. It is a multi-level store in downtown Shibuya where you can get stationary, furniture, bedding, household items, etc etc. What I like about this store is there is one sign in english that explains what is on each floor. I needed to find some hand soap. Imagine walking down an aisle that has bottles, and you have no idea what they say. You are wondering if it is hand soap, or lotion, or shave gel, or shampoo, with no real way of knowing. Finally I located a Berts Bees section of the store. English labels! I can read! It's a miracle! So I got some hand soap. Buying a little plastic bin to put my makeup into was no big deal, no need for literacy.
Then I went onto the grocery store. The one I went to happens to be under the train station, and is called Tokyu. The amazing thing about the grocery store is that it is more about prepared foods, and things that look kind of like our deli counters, only way fancier, than it is about buying stuff you cook yourself. The food that you can cook is about 3 very very short aisles. The rest of the store is counters full of food they have made, like delicious cakes, and hand made breads, and meats and other things. I wanted to buy something to make myself lunch with, so I wanted some lettuce, and a cucumber and some bread and some lunch meat. I cannot read any labels in this store, none are in english. So I am wandering the produce section and I see lettuces. However, I don't know what kinds they are, because I can't read any labels. So I decide to just buy the cheapest head of lettuce. It was still about $10. Then I am wandering trying to find something that looks like a cucumber.

What does a cucumber look like?

Are you a cucumber?

No.... you're an eggplant!

Are you a cucumber?

No.... you're a squash!

Are you a cucumber?

No.... you're a zucchini (aka a green squash)!

But I must admit, I am really torn over this, because it looks the most like a cucumber.....

Are you a cucumber?

Sort of....

My sister informed me this was an English cucumber, which is why it was so skinny and not quite convincing.

So I finally decide to risk it with this sort of vaguely familiar cucumber. At this point, I can't remember how much money this stuff costs, and Tim said that grocery stores only take cash, so I go up to the register, and see people paying with plastic. I decide I will just pay with plastic, and then I can get the rest of the stuff I wanted. I had to ask someone where to find the drinks, and instead of a whole aisle devoted to beverages, there was only two shelves. I picked one of the three salad dressings that had a label with an English word on it. I hope I bought yogurt and not cottage cheese, but it is hard to tell.

I went to check out, and the cashier bows and says something, probably like, did you find everything ok, do you have any coupons or rewards points, would you like paper or plastic.... I have no idea. I am trying to remember the word for thank you. Arrigato. I know that isn't how you spell it, but that is how it sounds.

I walked home with my four bags. Here is the route I took to get to the two stores and back.... I forgot to label the boxes. The one at the bottom of the map is the apartment building, the one at the top is Loft, and the one in the middle is the grocery store and the train station.

Honeymoon

You may recall, Tim wanted the honeymoon location to be a secret. So we played 20 questions for me to guess where we were going. I will be honest, knowing the name of the place did not convey the beauty of the island of Tobago in the Caribbean.




We enjoyed swimming in the pool and at the beach. I managed to not get sunburned, unfortunately, Tim was not as lucky. He got sunburned the first day, but then we did better at applying sunscreen. We rented a car and drove around the island. I was surprised at how small it was... it took 10 minutes to get from one end to the other. We drove through the rain forest, and up mountains and through villages and around to different coves. It was a beautiful island. The house we stayed in was gorgeous, the only downside was the mosquito's. We got to enjoy some local food cooked by the house's manager. We also went to a couple of restaurants. We flew back to LA in time to catch a Dodgers game. They lost, which was too bad, but the Dodger Dog was tasty and we got to see Ozzie Osbourne lead the stadium in a scream contest for charity. Then we went to the open house in Tim's home town. It was nice to hang out with his family, and meet so many friends.

Wedding

The week of the wedding everyone came into town. Tim arrived on Memorial Day, my sister and her boyfriend, my brother, and my grandparents came in on Tuesday, and the other grandparents came in on Thursday. We all hung out and played games, and visited at my mom's house. It was alot of fun.

One day for lunch we went to Tim and I's favorite restaurant. I am not sure it made a good impression because it was so dark inside, we were trying to read the menu by the light of our cell phones :)
Then Tim and I went to run errands, and we met up with my sister and her boyfriend and my brother at the mall. It was fun to see them try on three piece suits.

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple with my sister. It was a great experience to be there with her and the rest of my family.

One night at dinner, we were talking about the fact that there might be rain on Friday, and how we were praying that it would be sunny so we could do the pictures outside. My sister's boyfriend leaned over and said, if you asked me, I would put in a good word so the weather cooperates. So I said, yes, please. Friday was gorgeous, blue sky and sunny.

Tim and I went to meet his parents at the airport, which was the first time I had met them live in person. Technology is amazing, with email and skype, that you can get to know someone before you ever meet them.

Thursday night my friends came into town so we sat and visited at my house. My sister spent the night, and then she drove me around to get our hair and makeup done. I had done a trial run of the makeup, but when we got to the store, they had someone else do my makeup. This concerned me slightly, as the lady told me she had only worked there one day and she didn't know where anything was! But I had wanted to alter the makeup plan anyway, since the trial run was a bit too dark, so it worked out great. She listened to what I said, and I ended up with a look that was still me. Then I got my hair done. The fascinating part was that she curled my hair with a flat iron. You have to pull pretty hard to get something straight to curl. The part I didn't like was that the pinned up part wasn't smooth, it looked like a rats nest. But in the photos you can't tell. Then we got dressed and headed to the temple for pictures. This is where I met Tim's siblings for the first time :) It was great that so many family members were able to come, especially from such far away places. Tim had family in from California, Texas and Norway, and I had family in from Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and Missouri. We are really blessed.

The flowers arrived, and they looked beautiful. Our photographer was great. It was so hot though, we were all dripping. There was a spot of shade that everyone was huddled under, and then the sprinklers went off and got everyone wet. Then my mom got out her portable fan. She is always prepared. It was really nice to feel the breeze from the fan.

Then we went into the temple. It was a wonderful sealing. The best part is that Raleigh is a small temple, so we knew the people who were helping us and the sealer. They are all in my parents ward. For me, the tender moments were having my mom help me get ready and her words of advice, and then having my sisters there.

Then we went to the reception. It was so nice, the flowers were gorgeous, the food was good, and we just got to visit with everyone and enjoy ourselves. It was such a great day, and everything went so smoothly.

Savannah

My sister and I decided to take a road trip to visit Savannah, Georgia. Before the trip, I was in Target picking up some snacks, and I saw the Glee CDs so I bought them to listen to on the road.
Our first stop was at the Old Fort Jackson, which was used during the Civil War as a defense for the city. They fire off the canons in a demonstration every day at 2 PM.

We walked River street, and I was amazed through the whole trip how the Civil War was referred to as the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression on plaques and in tours. We ate a really good dinner at a place on the waterfront, in a restored building, and then got some gelato.


The next day we got a good breakfast, and then went on the trolley tour around the city.

It was cool to hear about the historic sites, and see the different "wards" and the statues in the squares. One of the interesting things was hearing how the Savannah College of Art and Design had restored so many of the historic buildings and were using them for classrooms and other buildings. After the trolley tour was over, we walked back through some of the sites. We got to see the Savannah History Museum, which had some quilts on exhibit. We also saw a maritime museum, which had model boats. The cool part of that museum was the house it was in :) We then went to a Southern Variety Show where the performers sang some great music.


The third day we went to the aquarium, which wasn't quite what we were expecting. But it had a nice walk out to the intercoastal waterway. Then we went to the Civil Rights Museum. It was a really good museum. They had a tour guide who explained how the right to vote was taken away with silly rules, like guessing how many red marbles were in a jar. No matter what the answer, it was always wrong. There was also an exhibit that explained how students were trained to participate peacefully in a protest. It was a skit that showed how polite behavior was required even if the police or others did mean things to the protesters. It reminded me of a skit we would do for standards night. We then cooled off by watching a movie, and then we went back up to River street to eat dinner and ride on a riverboat. On the riverboat they put on a murder mystery, which was pretty entertaining.

On our way home, we drove by Tybee Island Lighthouse. It was really interesting because the lighthouse keepers home had been restored. We got to see the furnishings and hear about the restoration process. Then we climbed to the top of the lighthouse.

It was a great trip. Savannah is a beautiful city, and it was fun to walk around.

Bowling

My roommate always impressed me by being able to take short trips and enjoy her weekends to the fullest. I was able to tag along sometimes, and really enjoyed it. This spring we didn't really do much traveling together, and she realized that there was only one weekend we would both be in town before my wedding. So she decided that she should put together a bridal shower. Since I am vehemently opposed to lame games, we agreed to get dessert and then depending on who came, maybe go bowling or see a movie or something fun. When I was in high school, Gypsy's Shiny Diner was a fun place to get a shake. So we went there because it was also close to a bowling place and the movie theater.
Then we went bowling, where our goal was to collectively get over 200. We have decided that bowling alley is not a good place because the music was not conducive to getting good scores :)




Since it took us such a short amount of time to complete a terrible bowling game, we went to see Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland.
All in all, a great weekend.

Hershey

I went to Pennsylvania to visit my best friend and her family. It was a great trip. They have this great way of including me as part of the family that I really enjoy. We got to go to the gym and do a class, and then watch her daughter in swimming lessons. My best friend taught me how to knit, and I completed my first project, a winter hat. I also got started on a blanket. I got to play outside with her kids. We took a trip down to Hershey PA and got to see how chocolate was made. We also had a great sandwich, it was on a pretzel roll. Really amazing.

I wish I May

I will admit, the last 6 weeks have gone by very very quickly. So this is me, trying to catch up on all that has happened.

My sister came home from Germany on April 28, and her boyfriend flew out. Tim came for a two week visit, and my brother came up from Charlotte. So it was a big Sunday dinner that first Sunday.

My other sister came home for a visit once school ended.

One of the things Tim and I did while he was visiting was to get a marriage license. We saw a couple at the courthouse in a suit and a nice cream dress, so they might have been heading off immediately to their wedding.

I painted my bedroom. This was a weeklong undertaking because I had previously painted the trim black. Memo to self.... no matter how cool black trim sounds, it is a pain to repaint.

I packed up my life. I had thought maybe I would ship things to Japan, but then I couldn't really decide what to ship. So I just packed three suitcases, one for the honeymoon, and two for Japan.

The rest of May I took trips, which was totally fun. I will write about those in separate posts.