Traffic ahhhhh!!

When we first got here friends kept telling us about epic traffic jams, I'm talking Moms having to pee in diapers and eating baby food traffic jams. This stuff was worthy a Snopes investigation let alone inspiring people to keep buckets in their car to pee in and packing luggage full of a day's worth of food rations for their entire family. Surely, they were exaggerating just trying to scare us a little with their drama.

Ha. 

Well, after today I am in the market for a car potty bucket. You sell'n?

 It started out as a simple trip to Motherways (children's clothing store) to buy the kiddos some Monsoon rain gear and 45 minutes later we are still in the car. I'm in the car writing this in fact! This trip with no traffic would have taken us 10 minutes. *pulls hair out*

I made several rookie mistakes on this excursion, 1. I didn't feed the baby before we left (hello screaming infant!) 2. I left the potty training toddler in his underwear and didn't put him in a pull up. (Please God, don't let him pee himself in the car!)  3. I didn't bring the "kid shutter upper" aka the iPad and WiMAX so they can watch Netflix in the car. 

Never again! God willing we make it there in the next hour or forced rationing of  some fruit fruit snacks will have to commence as bribes to keep the little honey badgers calm. 

Costco in Zama

People who know us IRL (in real life) know we kinda just have this thing for Costco...80% of what we buy is from there and our kids get really excited for samples and huge hot dogs at the food court. So when we we found out there was a Costco nearby, naturally, we were there.

The first trip my husband went with me and we arrived just ten minutes prior to closing so we just canvassed the area and plotted our next visit. Second trip, we all came back as a family on a Saturday (bad idea #1) and didn't bring Cash (bad idea #2) because Costco takes debt cards...Right?! HA!  We embarrassingly had to put back 1/2 our purchases at check out to make sure we had enough Yen to cover everything. Good thing we had picked the line with the non Japanese Cashier named John! Because we needed every bit of that English he spoke to help us figure out what exactly we were doing wrong.

I took the kids back by myself on the third time is a charm trip, fully loaded with 20,000 Yen ($180) and on a Tuesday. First of all, the entrance to Costco is

scary, y'all. Its a peddle to the metal "shut up kids! I'm driving!" incline into the parking garage with a sharp right turn into the cave parking garage. I hate parking garages. Im claustrophobic. So this girl heads straight for the open air top where none of the Japanese ever seem to park, wide open spaces! My husband and I have endearingly nicknamed the top of parking garages the Gaijin Parking because the dark spaces, tiny spots that you have to back into (no thank you) in the lower sections freaks most foreigners (me) out.

After getting parked, the kiddos loaded up in a cart and baby girl snuggled in the Boba carrier we proceeded down the scariest escalator in the world. I need to get photos of this time next time. Its a steep downward moving sidewalk that the cart magically stops on and doesn't roll down killing everyone. Its fun.

Costco itself carries all the same things as in the states except for the snack section, fish & peanuts anyone?

The Dairy section is also a lot different with more cheese offerings but less milk variety. Milk is only sold in bags of 3 liters for about the $5.00. The prices are steep for most of the Dairy. I paid $17 for cheese that ran about $11 in the states.

The seafood section is new to me also, they have whole octopus, fresh whole squid, squid ink pasta sauce (I've been told it tastes like garlic by a friend, I'll take her word for it) and the best was the shrimp and squid Pizza and the so called German Pizza, with raw potato and mustard on it. Having  lived in Germany, I don't see where they got that one.

I made it through my list with minimal issues from the kids (thank you apple!) and only a few SOS photo text messages to my brother's Japanese girlfriend of "What am I looking at here?"

Even better, we made it through check out having to place one thing back! I did, shamelessly, pick a check out line with a Caucasian bagger hoping he would speak English if I did have any trouble, but this time all I had to do was fill out a form changing my address to my local one so the cashier doesn't have to call a manager every time they scan my American Costco card (which is still valid here, score!) to check out. Easy Peasy! First Costco trip in the bag!

Sub Sandwiches

I was in desperate need of some curtain hooks and to get out of the house, so I called a friend and asked if she would like to accompany me to Super Viva Home Store, its probably the closest thing to a Target I'm going to get over here...I walked in and was AMAZED! They sell $2,000 puppies, $1,300 kittens, toilets with sinks in them, clothes, soaps and yes...curtain hooks! It was amazing. They also have a Subway Sandwich company in the grocery store next door. We thought, what the heck...we did come all the way to Japan to try Subway, lets do it!

And as usual, the Japanese do not disappoint. I had a visually stunning sub of shrimp and avocado on honey wheat that looked, no lie, exactly like the photo. Just wow! There is excellence and pride in everything the Japanese do. This sandwich not only tasted perfect it looked it! Shrimp and avocado- best idea ever!

My friend and I could barely contain our amazement though at the TWO olives, just like in the photo...our sandwich was only allowed two olives. I am not really sure what two olives contributes to the taste of the sandwich, but by golly...it will look like the photo so absolutely no more then two olives allowed!

We also enjoyed as apart of our Meal Set potato wedges coated in Basil Salt...why am I just now discovering this??? Oh, and that amazing drink in the photo? That would be a Carmel Latte FLOAT. Its beautiful isn't it?! I was wholly impressed with my lunch and recommend anyone traveling in Japan to seriously give Subway a thought for lunch!

Shinjuku in May

"We've only been in country four days, Lets go to Tokyo!"

Since we didn't have our Japanese driver's license yet, much less a plan...we decided to take the train and check out Shinjuku. The train itself was fairly easy and buying tickets wasn't that hard once you find the right terminal. The ticket machines all have an English option, the fare itself is cheap, a one way ticket was around 400 Yen (which is about $2.00.) Children under 6 are free! We didn't take the stroller because I was afraid the train would be packed or just a hassle with stairs in the city. The nightmare of the Paris train station is still burned into my memory so naturally I balked at the thought of dragging a huge double stroller up 4 flights of stairs while dealing with the worlds slowest 11 year old and Mr. My-knees-dont-work-after-twelve-stairs-in 5 year old. Needless to say, Paris is lousy with stairs. So instead we decided to brave on of the world's largest and most crowded cities with our baby carriers, ye old faithful Ergobaby and our new Boba.

 

Once we get into the train and take our seats its already pretty full...and absolutely silent.  SILENT.
I leaned over and whispered to my husband, "Why is everyone so quiet?!" to which he whispered back "I don't know, stop talking!" So there we sat, in complete  absences of all sound waiting for the train to start rolling. The social awkwardness of the silence didn't last long for  2 year old Caleb and he was soon looking for ladies to entertain. Caleb was really excited out the poles that reach from the ceiling to the floor and in his mind appeared to be just right for some pole dancing. He would jump up, grab the pole, squeal with glee and slide down.  I don't think the locals were impressed with our parenting skills.

The closer we got to Shinjuku the train got more and more crowded so it was a relief to finally get off. While no one ever even so much as glanced our way, we couldn't help but be painfully aware the entire ride of how loud and "obnoxious" our kids where being... by Japanese standards. American standards, they were great! You could have heard a pin drop on this train. Seriously, it was strange.

We spent the entire day in Shinjuku, pretty much just wandering around in a circle around the train station and eating everything in sight. We really didn't see anything touristy...really...we just ate! We found some neat pastry fish things. They looked like croissants cut in the shape of a fish, what was not immediately obvious was that they are stuffed with pudding. Not my thing but apparently Tokyo is known for this fish pastries! For lunch we had Ramen in a teeny little shop that looked like something that would be featured on an Anthony Bordain show. 

I've never been a fan of Japanese Ramen so this was nothing great for me, but my husband seemed to be enthralled and it was everything he had hoped it would be eating real authentic Ramen in Tokyo.

After lunch we walked around some more admiring window displays and enjoying all the huge screens on the sides of the buildings and K Pop music playing all around us. We even managed to stumbled upon Godzilla! 

We left to go back mid afternoon, hoping to beat the rush home from school and work by the locals and honestly the kids had worn us the heck out. Nothing like carrying an infant while chasing a toddler and listening to the non stop whining of a tired 5 year old to really suck the joy out of a moment.


 Oh, and you can totally do Shinjuku with a stroller. 

       Caleb  thought the hand hold rings would be a perfect place to practice his gymnastic skills

New Orleans

I love road trips. Its so freeing and to me the best way to really see the countryside. When we made the decision to leave our dog with my parents, it was only natural to me to just go. So I loaded up the SUV with the dog, two guinea pigs and four children to drive across the country. Why you ask? Well, as part of the process of getting ready to move to Japan we are leaving our beloved German Shepherd with my parents. The poor dog wouldn't survive the long plane ride and the quarantine period in Japan is extremely strict & long. He will be staying on my parents 2 acre hobby farm enjoying the good life. One of the stops on our 3 day drive was visiting my cousins in New Orleans, which co incidentally happened to be the start of Marti Gras! Like how lucky are we to just happen to roll up into New Orleans for Mardi Gras??

We arrived in New Orleans around 10pm to a traffic jam the likes I have never seen before. The excitement of the city was just contagious. Everything was lit up in celebration and while sitting in traffic everyone had their car windows down enjoying the cool breeze coming off the river. Music filled the highway street from the parked cars, I could feel the energy of the city and couldn't help but smile as I passed the time imagining all the parties my fellow drivers were on their way to.

We finally got to my cousins house around 30 minutes later and were elated to finally be out of the car. I got to meet my Cousin's new son and hold him for the first time. Seeing that little boy brought tears to my eyes. I didn't think it would be possible to love another persons child so much. He is one special little dude to me.

We got up bright and early the next morning to attend a parade happening outside my cousins neighborhood. I was ecstatic. My first family friendly Mardi Gras parade!

Our sweet Princess got her photo taken by a Photographer with the New Orleans Advocate in honor of her First Mardi Gras

 

Everyone obviously had a great time at the parade. We probably came home with a few pounds worth of beads!

The Adventure Begins

My husband and I love to travel. We go everywhere...and we take our kids. All four stinky, ornery, don't like traveling kids. Its a mess, its frustrating and its our passion. We refuse to be held back and ruled by the little people in our life and instead drag them along with us as we fulfill our dreams of seeing the world.

This spring our family is moving to Japan. Come along and experience the frustrations and joys of traveling with 4 small children all over the world.