Traveling to Japan

So I wanted to talk about getting myself to Japan with nothing by my person and a 4-year old side kick.

Started out by oversleeping and leaving later than I wanted to which meant no coffee, so I'm already on a great start. But it gets better.

I proceed to get into the airport with my two suitcases, three carry-on's and son. Get to the check in and it won't work. Get to the counter the man says "Oh, these are government tickets and they weren't paid for yet."

"Can I just pay for them myself?" I ask him, ready to set the airport on fired.

"Do you have a government credit card?"

"No, I'm just the dependent."

"Then no, I'm sorry."

So panic is setting in. My flight takes off in a little over an hour and I haven't even gotten to security. I call up the husband and begin to panic. He tells me to call the travel agency the company uses. I call them and get this old guy with the thickest Boston accent I have ever heard who tells me "Oh you need to call Helen in Virginia." So I try to sound nice and hang up and call Helen. Helen is very nice, she is immediately concerned with this and tells me she's going to walk downstairs and take care of it personally to sit tight.

I call the husband in tears at this point because although everything can be fixed, I'm already feeling weird about the whole moving to another country bit on top of everything going wrong.

So Helen calls me back, tickets have been paid for. I go to check in and the lady tells me I have to take 10 collective lbs out of my suitcases. So I basically end up carrying even more crap then I originally intended on doing.

Plus I have a 4 year old.

So somehow I manage to get through security, stop at the convenience store, grab juice and milk, take my magic happy pills, get chocolate milk into my kid, get on first plane.

First plane ride was just fine. B did great, he was a little nervous, but he enjoyed it. I fed him some yogurt from the convenience store and he was excited to get sprite. He played his gameboy and I tried to relax and rest.

We land on that plane and we end up being close to the last ones off because, again I'm carrying three bags and have a 4-year old. We have literally an hour until the other plane takes off. I get on the train, get to the gate, get to another convenience store and stock up on some protein bars, cheeze its (a must with B) and some waters. We get back in line in time for them to start calling the zones. There are some perks to looking like a ruffled mother with too many bags and her kid. 1. I had a military passport, meaning I was traveling on my orders. So when the people saw the red they mostly just let me go. I get on the plane which is a house on wheels. The flight attendant sees my struggle and immediately helps me out and takes my bag to put up into the thing for me. We get settled in and it's a bit tight, but it wasn't terrible. I'm so glad I chose aisle seats because I was able to stand up and move about a lot easier. The girls in our row were very kind and I'm pretty sure B's head was resting against one of their arms while he slept.

Which was only for 2 hours.

Out of the 12 hours flight.

But he was great, he just played and watched movies and I actually had to make him mad and stand up and stretch and move around and go potty. He was content sitting there for 12 hours doing nothing. He's my kid, what can I say?

The flight was otherwise uneventful. We landed a few minutes early and had to wait for the next plane to move out of our gate. Well, B decided that was the time to fall asleep and passed OUT. So I literally waited for everyone to get off the plane before even beginning to get him to move. Again, another flight attendant sees my struggle and takes one of my bags to the end of the plane for me. B is slow moving, still half asleep and I'm glad we were there for good because there was no way I would have made a connecting flight with him moving so slow.

We get to customs and immigration and the line is unreal. B tells me as soon as we get into line he has to pee and it's an emergency and the bathrooms are of course the entire distance away from where we are standing. So I gather all of our crap, get him to the potty, and get back in line. We get in line and he starts crying. He wants me to hold him, but I am holding a backpack, a messenger bag that weighs 100 lbs, and dragging his tiny darth vader bag. This only makes him cry harder.

I try and try to get him to settle down, but he's having none of it and so I cave and pick him up. I am literally balancing him on the messenger bag against my stomach and pulling the vader bag. People are, at this point, beginning to make comments. "Oh do you have a connecting flight?" "No, we are here for the next 3 years. My husband is on the other side of this." The nice man in front of me asked if he could carry a bag for me and just as I was going to answer one of the Japanese immigration women came up to me and asked to see my passports. When I showed her she pulled me out of line and took me over to the priority line that had 3 people in it.

God bless this woman, I hope she finds money on the ground.

I get through the rest with no problems. At baggage claim I grab one of those carts that keeps me from dying. I get to customs, the guy sees my passport, asks me if I have any weapons, when I say no he lets me go through.

God bless that lovely man.

Finally, we are reunited with Kurt. B is excited and I go to the convenience store when I find a Japanese magazine with 2PM on it (a band for those who don't know) and I am a happy mom for the 2 hours we have to wait for the next bus because we missed the first one.

It's all good though, the bus showed up and I think B and I were on it for maybe 10 minutes before we both passed out.

All in all, everything could have been much worse. Things could have gone downhill and everything could have been crap. My kid is amazing, he's so excited about being here and he's going to fit in just fine. The husband is also doing amazing and is loving his job and fitting in great.

I have a lot of anxieties still. I don't know anyone here so of course that makes me anxious. The thought that this is my new home for the next few years is still a lot to wrap my head around. But I'm not sad about it. I am still excited for the adventure. I see things and I think "I can't wait for people to visit me so I can show them this." I've started leaving post its of Japanese words all over the house in hopes of learning it quicker. I also hope after my classes on base, I will find a Japanese course I can take. Once I am more comfortable in the language I will be more comfortable here, I think.

Regardless, we made it! We are safe! And God's plans are better than our own.