The trip to Japan was a lot of fun. It started out with an accident though... A flight from South Bend was delayed for an hour because the oxygen tank needed to be filled (when was it used? I don't know...). So we timed Ethan's snack time to be when we take off so he could have a bottle and it'd be good for his ears... that didn't work. But he had no problem with his ears.
As we approached to Atlanta (we went through Atlanta on the way to Japan because the tickets were cheaper), the pilot announced that there was a severe storm in Atlanta and sooner we get there was better. Of course as we got closer the weather got worse and we flew over Virginia for a while to see if there is any window for us to land there. The fuel was getting low and there was no sign of the weather clearing up, so we ended up landing in South Carolina. We were not even connected to the airport there, we had to wait 2-3 hours in the plane. Ethan was starting to fuss a little due to a dirty diaper and being tired, so we changed his diaper (on our laps because there was no changing table in the bathroom, suggested by the flight attendant) and tried to put him to sleep.
So by the time we got to Atlanta our flight to Japan was long gone. Luckily they recognized this as a "maintenance issue" rather than a "weather issue" because had we left on time we would have made it, so they paid for our food and lodging. It worked out ok except that this was right after the Europe problem with the volcano, so the airport was a little hectic and getting to the ticket counter took an hour and going through the security took another hour. But at least we made the flight this time.
This time in Tokyo we rented a monthly apartment for two weeks in downtown Tokyo. It was only 10 minutes from my mom's place so we either went there or she stopped by every day. And it was nice to be in downtown so we could go see a few things, come back for a nap, and then go out again. Jeff and Ethan went out by themselves a few times also.
Lot of highlights for me; showing Ethan off to my family, eating great food, new haircut, shopping with my mom, etc. Definitely the hardest thing hands down was adjusting to Japan time. You can not force a baby to stay awake or sleep! It took Ethan 2 weeks to adjust to Japan time, and when we came back, it took him a week. That was the hardest week! Jeff and I both went to work that week with just a few hours of sleep. We were woken up once or twice (although each time we were up for 1-2 hrs). I can not imagine doing that for a year or something. Thank goodness Ethan started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks, as soon as we started letting him.
Here are a few pictures from the trip. I will write more if I remember what I want to write about...
This is how they slept the entire way over there... good job Jeff!
And when he woke up he was always sweaty
We happened to be in Japn on the "boys' day" and this is one of the displays.
Yes, we put our son in the closet to sleep...
On our balcony on the 24th floor
This was another display for the boys' day. They were all over the country!
My Grandpa and Ethan
My too excited Grandma and Ethan
My aunt who wanted to hold him so bad but Ethan was not sure
My uncle. Ethan looks like when my uncle was little
At the park near my mom's
Many restaurants hada high chair and brought utencils and a menu out for Ethan
My tradition: with a panda
Packing
Ethan loved playing hide an seek (he says it in Japanese) and it was the "boo!" face
Another picture from our balcony. You can see the Mt. Fuji (the white triangle at the back)
Jetlagged child at home
