We arrived as scheduled at NRT Airport in Japan.    As we debarked the plane Zeke excitedly commented “Hey look the carpet is red, just like in Grandpa Loren’s Vision!!!”  We truely feel that god has paved the way for us on this journey.  In the days before we left Loren shared with us that he had seen a vision of  senturies walking with us as we entered Japan, they had laid out a red carpet, our way was paved and our mighty God was protecting us!  What an amazing vision!

Sentury

noun, plural sentries.

1.

a soldier stationed at a place to stand guard and prevent the passageof unauthorized persons, watch for fires, etc., especially a sentinelstationed at a pass, gate, opening in a defense work, or the like.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sentry

 

We arrived at our apartment around 2 pm.  It is spacious, with lots of windows, 2 balconies and 4 bedrooms.  It’s huge for Japan standards.  I am so glad that Caleb found this place.  James and russel from Japan Relocation were here to greet us and let us into the apartment.  The apartment manager went througn things with us: where trash goes, how our keys work, how to control the ac units, and told us about 2 alarm buttons we should never touch.  She spoke in Japanese and Russel interpreted for us.  The internet service people were alreay working on the installation and our temporary furniture had already been delivered and set up.  It was kind of like walking into a hotel.  It is mostly furnished, and we have temporary dishes, kitchenware, towels to use for the next month.  So helpful!  There are still many things to figure out like what do all the buttons for the toilet do.

We worked for a couple hours unpacking our suitcases a bit and made the beds.   Caleb walked to the “Family Mart” a convience store located just a block away and got us some food for dinner.  For our fist meal we had some breaded chicken, Rice balls, a pastry and spaghetti.  All the food is premade and packaged we didn’t have to cook!  The long day and travel were catching up to us as we were all about to fall asleep at the table.  We got the kids tucked in and Caleb and I sat down as he had a little work to do.  As I was talking to him I was literally falling asleep as we were talking.  I don’t recall ever being so exhausted in my life.

It has been a wild frenzy of activity, packing, sorting, house projects and saying good-byes to dear friends and family.   Today at 11:40 AM CST our family of 4 departed Minneapolis International Airport with our 8  checked bags in tow.  Believe it or not I am writing this blog post from 38,000 feet in the air!

After just 3 hours of sleep last night, we actually made on the plane with all our stuff (Air shipment is coming within a week hopefully, more on that in another post)  At 9 am we pulled away from our Shoreview home.  Our business class seats are providing a great experience for our 12 hour flight.  With quite the extensive menu choices we will eat 2 meals, snacks, and get unlimited beverages and use of the tv and entertainment system.  The best of all is that our seats recline to lay flat.  We all slept 4-5 hours. Due of the time zone difference we will arrive  in Japan 26 hours after we left Minnesota. We will arrive in Tokyo on Tuesday afternoon.

With tremendous support and help from Caleb’s parents we were able to get our home rent ready.   There was such a large list of projects to get done in addition to the sorting and packing of our items. We got to spend 6/12  at Valley Fair Amusement park together.  It was a good stress reliever for ALL of us to ride roller coasters.  Yeah you read that right…. 3 generations all on roller coasters together.  Lots of laughs, squeals and screams as we rode the “Wild Thing.”

We have officially passed on the property management to a local agent who will work with Boston Scientific’s preferred Property Management company.  The agent will continue to show the home, get a signed lease, and will also check in if issues arise in our absence.  I should have passed all of that on to the property management company much earlier.   Lessons learned!

Coordinating travel logistics with travel has been interesting. On 6/18 the kids and I met my mom, dad, and brother in Madison, WI do drop off our van.  We just paid off our Honda Odyssey and didn’t want to part with it.  My dad generously offered to store the van at my grandma’s house.  We met at an Enterprise car dealership in Madison so they could take my van and I could take a rental van back to Minnesota, and have a vehicle to get us to the airport.  Things worked out well and we had Pizza lunch before Nick had to take off and head back to Illinois with my van.  My parents, the kids and I headed to a nearby hotel with a  swimming pool, real bed and real food; all things I  was beginning to miss in our current state of moving chaos.  Caleb stayed home to wrap up some projects, he made great progress paining ceiling and walls of the kids toy room, draining the hot tub, installing a door.  Its amazing how all the projects at the end are so time consuming.   We even found a Japanese restaurant to eat dinner.  My parents first time trying sushi and they did great!!! Even used chopsticks with the help of “trainers”  We had a Dragon roll, spicy tuna roll, BMW roll, miso soup, and a chicken dish.  No one particularly liked the eel wrapped roll though.  The flavors and texture were just a little much I think.  I am so happy I got this chance to connect with my parents and brother before we took off.  We missed my sister but she is awaiting the arrival of baby #2  very soon!!!

I think I will wrap up this post for now.  As always thanks for reading.  I have our official mailing address please send me an email if you would like me to send it to you.   It may have been the wrong format if I gave it to you previously… oops.  More posts coming soon …..