Well, about 2 weeks ago Jared was offered the opportunity to come to Japan to do some training. We jumped on the opportunity knowing that it would only be for a few weeks and may not come up again. So...after crazy packing and last minute preparations we boarded a flight on Thursday around 11 am to head on over. We had a short layover in San Francisco and then continued on to Tokyo. The flights, layovers, and commute to our apartment afterward came in around a 20 hour adventure. Lucikly Brigham did amazingly well through it all.
On the flight he even sat still to watch Baby Einstein, complete with headset and all!
It was so wonderful to finally make it to our new apartment Friday night. Jared's co-worker, Ikue, helped get us in and showed us all around and had even stocked our fridge with milk, juice, and muffins for breakfast in the morning. She showed what we're finding to be the epitome of Japanese hospitality. They are all so incredibly kind and willing to go out of their way to help. We'd also been warned before about how much Brigham would be fussed over. That is already becoming very apparent. Even Ikue offered to stay and play with Brigham while we unpacked that first night. Unfortunately we were so tired that we declined her offer and decided to turn in for the night instead.:)
Yesterday was our first full day in Japan. We decided that our goals for the day were to find the international grocery store for some shopping and to get a look around and some experience on their train system. Well, after many, many hours we can finally say that we accomplished all three. Unfortunately, it really shouldn't have taken that long.
We were told that we could "walk" to the area where the store was through the "subway." After a few hours we finally realized that their "subway" is different than England's "subway" and that you really couldn't walk through the subway. Luckily, by the time we were getting tired, we got on the Japanese subway (which is an underground metro) and made it to the part of town we had been directed to for shopping. As we continued to wander through this part of town the most amazing thing happened...We walked around the corner and saw the Angel Moroni in the distance! Aaah, suddenly everything became so much better. We wandered through a park on the way to see the temple. It was a truly magnificent site and really smoothed our whole day over.
Notice the beautiful Cherry Blossoms! What a site to behold!
After the temple we felt so much better and headed on our way to the international grocery store to pick up the food we needed. Can you say expensive?! We thought England was bad...Here is the food we bought for a grand total of 95 big ones! Can you believe it?
We took a taxi back to the apartment because Brigham was getting tired. He was asleep before we could even get in the taxi. The best part is that he didn't even get grumpy. He just snuggled in and fell asleep. What an angel!
For those of you who are interested in what our apartment looks like we've included this slideshow. Enjoy!
Also, take a look at this piece of porcelain in our apartment. We aren't exactly sure what all of the buttons do yet.
Well, that's about all for now. Hope you enjoyed the craziness of our life as much as we are.
Love you all!
Eating time was a fight for a couple of weeks until he finally realized that it wasn't that bad afterall. Now he loves eating again and gobbles down almost anything we give him (especially if it's table food). :)
Thanks so much, Eric & Tiff! We had a great time with you guys and loved seeing your cabin!
Brigham started army crawling that weekend at the cabin and has quickly progressed to hands and knees crawling. He loves moving around and is very proficient at getting pretty much wherever he wants.
A couple of weeks ago we stopped to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Rose. Brigham loved seeing them and playing with their toys. Visiting with them was wonderful! We really should be better at doing it more often.
Grandpa did "Doodely-Doo" with Brigham for the first time while we were there with them. He loved it and I got the sweetest picture of it. That brings back GREAT memories. I even remember when Grandpa did it with me when I was little. We love you, Grandma and Grandpa!
