Japan trip, Part 1

I guess starting at the beginning of our trip would be the best way to start, right?  I couldn't sleep Thursday night (8th/9th), so I was actually up at 2:45am before my 3:30am alarm.  YAY.  That meant it was 7pm on Friday in Japan, my destination.  We got the girls up at 4am and were out the door by 4:30am to catch our 7am flight.  The guy at the ticket counter was really nice and even got my husband a pass to go to the gate with us.

Daddy saying bye-bye to his girls for a week.

We got on our flight to San Francisco, and that's where the biggest fireworks of our entire trip happened.  My mom and I don't see eye to eye on many things, plus her hearing is going and she doesn't feel the need to talk about things, so she told me "oh, my brother is picking us up with the car at the bus station when we get there."  Um, what?  We specifically didn't bring the car seats because we were going to take buses the whole way.  We can take buses the whole way, thankfully.  Her answer?  "I didn't want to have to carry around those big car seats, they're a pain."  So, my daughters' safety is a pain in your ass?  You didn't bother to tell me these plans until it was TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING because it was a "pain in your ass?"  I really didn't care that it was 7am and we were on a plane full of people, I screamed at her for a good five minutes at her idiocy, how we would NOT be riding in a car (guess what, Japan has car seat laws too!), and who the hell gave her the right to withhold this information from me until now and decide what was safe for my children???  She was pissed and embarrassed, I'm sure, and when we got to SF, told me that she was leaving me there and catching a flight back to Columbus.  Fine, go, you're being a total bitch and I don't need you.  The only thing that convinced her to stay was L bursting into tears because we were fighting and saying "Don't go!  I neeeeeed you!"  Ugh, drama.

L & E playing at SFO while Mommy and Obaasan duke it out.

Our flight to Tokyo sucked.  E refused to sleep in the bassinet the airline provided and didn't want anyone but me, which resulted in me basically holding her for the 11.5-hour flight.  That was horrible.  L didn't want to eat anything but was starving (damn toddler pickiness!) and only slept for a few hours the entire time.  My mom tried to ignore both of the children so she could watch TV (one damned addiction she's picked up from my dad that drives me literally insane), so both girls were crying/screaming for quite a bit of the flight.  The stewardesses tried to help by bringing toys and offering to hold the girls, but they just wanted Mama Mama Mama.  Just shoot me now.

Upon landing in Tokyo, we got our luggage, went through Customs, got bus tickets to Hachioji, pottied, and rode the bus for 2.5 hours to the other side of Tokyo (Hachioji is on the western side of Tokyo).  It was raining and cold.  YAY.  We arrived at the bus station and, of course, Mom had lied to me again:  she said she needed to call her brother to get him to pick us up, but since I had blown a gasket, she wouldn't call him to pick us up and we'd take the bus.  No, she had called him from the airport (while I was in the bathroom with the girls) and he was waiting for us at the bus station with the car.  WTF could I do?  By the time I figured out what to say in Japanese to him, he'd already loaded the luggage and Mom was pushing us into the car.  So pissed.  Went to my grandmother's house, unloaded, got the girls fed, and then went to bed in the coldest room in the world (between 40-45F nightly).  It was after 8pm Japan time, so I'd been up for well over 24 hours.  I just wanted to murder my mom and put E in a box somewhere so I could stop holding her.

Sunday (with the time change, we arrived on Saturday afternoon) was quiet.  We stayed at the house so that the girls could recover.  Mom went to the grocery store to get food for the girls, and we hung out in the only (tiny) room in the house that was heated.  L fell in love with my uncle and played with him tons and tons while she was awake.  She fell asleep around 1pm for a nap and didn't wake up.  I kept telling my mom that I needed to wake her up after a few hours (around 3-4pm) so she'd sleep that night, but she insisted that I should let her sleep, she'll wake up on her own, and then she'll still sleep through the night.  Still sleep deprived, I let it go.  L slept from 1pm-12am.  At midnight, she was up and ready to go, hungry, and loud.  Mom was pissed off - I remember her yelling at L to go back to sleep, she was too tired to deal with her (even though she'd told me she'd take care of her if she got up), and then she eventually got her food to eat (E wanted some too).  I think L basically lay awake most of the night afraid to move or talk because of my mom.  She was asleep when E got up around 3:30am (up for the day, lol!), but not for long.  I eventually took the girls out to the heated room by 4am so that they wouldn't wake up my grandmother or uncle, but I was just super disappointed that my mom was being so mean and cranky with the girls when she had promised certain things to them and me.  Granted, she did all the housework and prep of stuff for the girls and I while we were there, for which I'm grateful, but she was a total bitch to me most of the time and wanted the girls to basically be "seen, not heard."  It was so frustrating.

L playing with my uncle.

Monday was better.  We actually got out of the house for awhile and that helped.  We went to the cemetery to visit my grandfather's grave, got to take a nice long walk, and went to the playground.  Keeping ourselves busy definitely helped, and L went to bed at a much more decent hour (4:30pm, lol!).

Me with L & E on a rickety bridge to the cemetery.

The cemetery where my Japanese family rests.

E sleeping in our futon arrangement, in the cold cold room.

More tomorrow!