Japan Trip: Part 2 (Yokohama)

On Sunday, our first full day in Yokohama, we stopped by the Babies R' Us (very interesting to see and compare to the American Babies R 'Us!) and picked up an inexpensive umbrella stroller. This came in very handy during our trip even at home Olivia rarely rides in a stroller anymore. It was so nice to have when we were out and about all day and she needed a chance to rest.

After that, we headed to the InterContinental Hotel for lunch with Yuskau's dad's side of the family. We met with Yusaku's uncles, Shunzo and Katsuhiro, their wives, and children (Maki and husband, Hiro and wife, and Yoko and husband and son, Mahiro). Including Yusaku's parents, the four of us, and Yosuke and Manami, there were 19 of us there! Even though most of his family doesn't speak English, we had a nice time visiting. They were excited to meet Natalie and see Olivia again and both girls received MANY presents.

After lunch, we took a short walk to Yusaku's uncle, Katsuhiro's apartment.

We spent a good while there, visiting with everyone. We had a very nice time!

On Monday, we walked around the harbor and checked out the deck by the cruise ship. It was freezing! After this, we headed to the mall for something warm to drink and a bite to eat before heading back out to a store where we could buy Natalie some diapers.

view from our hotel room

It turned out that the store where the diapers were was very close to the Anpanman Children's Museum, so we decided to check that out. It was an interesting experience for sure.

After the museum, we had some lunch (a ramen set) at the mall food court, shopped at Uniqlo, and headed back to the hotel. Natalie and I called it an early night, while Yusaku and Olivia headed out for some dinner with his parents.

Tuesday, we had lunch with Manami's family and later, dinner with Katsuhiro and his wife.

Japan Trip: Part 1 (getting there and Tokyo)

We've been back now for about a week and our sleep schedules are finally returning to normal (thank goodness!). We had a great time and the traveling (planes, trains, etc.) went much better than I was expecting. It was fun to see Olivia experience as a 3 year old this time around...much different than when she was 4 months old (see my post about her first trip here). Both kids were troopers.

I want to document our whole trip, if for nothing else than my own memory. So..here it goes.

We dragged the kids from the warm beds around 5 am the morning we left (Thursday, January 9), stuck them in the car, and headed to the airport. Not surprisingly, once Olivia was awake, she did not go back to sleep for a LONG time after this. Our flight from Dayton to Dallas went off without a hitch and then we had a couple hour layover in Dallas before we boarded the plane to Japan.

Unfortunately, we ended up sitting on the plane for the next two hours before they decided the mechanical problem with the plane could not be fixed and we all had to get off and hope that they could find another plane for us to use later in the day. This was disappointing, especially after we had all already been awake for so long. I just wanted to get the journey started, not prolong it. Fortunately, a few hours later (about 5 hours after we were originally supposed to leave) we boarded a new plane and took off. The kids did really well and they both even slept a good bit (about 6-7 hrs). It was almost 10:00 pm Friday the 10th when we arrived in Japan. After waiting for our luggage, we took a quick cab ride to the airport hotel and slept for about 6 hours.

After some breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and took the hotel shuttle back to the airport to catch the Narita Express, which we took to Tokyo. This was our first train ride of the trip and thankfully, Olivia did great. We stored our luggage in lockers at the train station and headed out to see the Imperial Palace. It was a beautiful day. After a few hours in Tokyo, we headed back to the station and caught another train for Yokohama. Once there, we checked into our hotel, had dinner (tonkatsu sandwiches and super delicious strawberries from the grocery store in the basement of our hotel), and headed to bed.

Christmas 2013

Our first Christmas as a family of four and Natalie's first Christmas ever was a success. We tried to scale back a little bit this year in terms of the number of presents, because, let's be honest, we all already have enough stuff. :)

Olivia's favorite presents were probably her very own working "kids camera" and window markers (being allowed to draw on windows is pretty fun). Unfortunately, the one present she asked Santa for, the Flutterbye Flying Fairy Doll, terrifies her! :) It flies on it's own and is a little unsettling and when we try it out, she asks us to keep her safe. Ha ha! Maybe she'll like it by next year. I think Natalie's favorite present is a little apple teething ring. She is working on her bottom two teeth right now (and rolling all over the place and attempting to crawl!!!).

Christmas morning (which apparently I have no pictures of), we opened presents with the four of us at our house and then headed over to my parents' for presents and brunch with them and my sister. We headed back home for a little down time before heading to the Kawai's for presents with them followed by dinner with them and my family. Just like Thanksgiving, it is so nice to be able to celebrate with both of our families at the same time. It was a wonderful Christmas. Enjoy the pics.

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve we met up with lots of our old high school friends and their spouses and children at Marion's for lunch. It was so fun to see everyone.

After lunch, we headed home, changed into church clothes, and headed to 3:00 Mass at St. Charles with my family. Afterward, everyone came to our house for some stuffed shells for dinner. Before bedtime, the girls got to open new Christmas pajamas and we read Twas The Night Before Christmas. We set out milk and cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph and hung our stockings.

After church

Opening new pj's

Showing Natalie her new pj's