We are approximately 1/2 through our trip to Japan. The boys are getting a little too used to being treated like royalty and it all started with the flight over! They LOVED 1st class!!!
The first thing we were offered on the first flight was OJ (they also had champagne, but I wasn't offered any ~ maybe they thought I looked too young LOL!!!!) This was followed by breakfast which was a choice of an omelet or something lighter (I don't remember what that was, but the boys both had the omelets and thought they were the best they had ever had! Brayton wanted to know if the omelet would have eggs in it ~ LOL!!!) We were fed all the time (even on the first flight that was only 3 1/2 hours we were fed a snack before arriving at San Francisco!) and the flight attendants called the boys "Mr. Heinz" or sir. :~) This is a picture of Bray on the shorter flight to San Fransisco. We had an hour or so layover and then left for Japan, which was a 10 1/2 hour flight. Taite was the only one who couldn't sleep on the long flight because he was so excited. Of course he fell asleep for only an hour or so before he had to get up for landing. . . Not a perfect way to start this trip.
Chris tried to catch some 'zzz's on the first flight because if you know my husband, he hasn't slept well for weeks anticipating how poorly this trip could go with the boys trying to adjust to the time change and traveling to a foreign country with your whole family (not to mention visiting 4 cities in 7 days and only two nights are consecutive stays in the same hotel).
Not sure what that look was for :D
I think these are some mountains by San Francisco? It was just neat to see how far you could see when we were getting close to landing.
Brayton had the camera and took a self-picture.
Chris and Taite are looking over the menu. . . (this is now on the flight from SF to Tokyo's Narita airport)
I had the camera out and the flight attendant took our picture.
Each seat had it's own little water bottle sitting in the console before we even boarded the plane.
You can see in the top left of this picture the stuff in the back of the seat. There were slippers for each person, a personal care pack that had a pair of socks with grippers, toothbrush and toothpaste and a pair of headphones ~ no buying them when you are in the front of the plane!
Each seat had it's own TV. You can see Bray's foot rest is out and they sat like that for most of the flight. We even had to make them sit up to eat because they ended up wearing a LOT!
Brayton has definitely had his quote of orange juice on this trip. They are surprised if we ask for water with a meal. Most times they have Coke (Pepsi is very rare to find), grape juice or orange juice.
This is the snack we received of mixed nuts, soda or beer/wine :D They came many times with refills for the nuts, if needed.
Here's what my snack looked like :D
This was the appetizer tray (I thought we had to choose something from the menu. . . nope, we got it all!):
FIRST COURSE
A Tasting of Two Appetizers
shrimp with lemon grass and marinated hearts of palm and roasted beets with crumbled blue cheese
Tomato Florentine Soup
Mixed Green Salad
topped with jicama, yellow pepper, cipollini onion and roma tomato
(Brayton put a part of the "heart of palm" on the "beet" and created a "heart beet" :~)
Close-up of the appetizers (really the size of a meal should be!) Oh and they came around with bread (like a crusty bun, that's what the fancy butter is for) which was very good and if you wanted more bread, drinks, etc., they would bring it right away.
Brayton's Heart Beet:
I take it back about the previous picture, the salad was not on the first tray of food that we received. This plate was too big to fit on the tray with all that other stuff. . .
For our main course we had 3 choices:
Salmon Francaise
topped with crispy garlic and citrus mojo sauce offered with boniato puree and asparagus
Fillet of Beef
with grain mustard sauce, sweet potato wedges, zucchini and squash
Roasted Chicken a l'Orange
served with celery puree and stir-fried green beans
(I chose the salmon)
Brayton and Taite had the chicken:
Dessert ~ they had sundaes, fruit & cheese or cheesecake (Taite chose all of them. . .)
I had the fruit & cheese with a dessert wine (similar to ice wine) :D I had a stomach ache by the time we were done eating! We never eat that much (except for our meal last night . . . traditional Japanese dinner ~ eating for 3 hours!)
Our first view of Japan! VERY tired at this point. . . I kept dosing off and Chris kept stressing we needed to stay awake, but oh so difficult!
All of the taxis have these seat cover type things. They are lacy and are only on the head rests for the most part. Some have full seat covers or just on the top and a separate cover on the seat.
This was the view from our Hilton Disney Hotel we stayed in the first night. It's a view of the ocean.
Monday morning we left the Disney hotel and went to Tokyo station so we could wander around a little and eat lunch before taking a bullet train to Utsunomiya where Nisshin Shokai's head office is located. We did a LOT of wandering around in Tokyo station because we were lost, but everyone kept their spirits up and it was a memory we'll have :D This was the one time we wandered outside, but it was so hot and humid we went right back inside. They are entering the rainy season here and it's very VERY humid. The hotel rooms have adequate air conditioning at best and last night we had an excellent air conditioner, but the beds were so hard they felt like sheets on a piece of plywood LOL
In each hotel, they have a space on the mirror that is heated so when you get out of the shower, you can still use a portion of the mirror. They have hot, hot water here and no fans, so to get the wrinkles out of your clothes, in a matter of minutes, you can have the bathroom so steamy, you can hardly breathe in there when you go to shut the water off!
This is the ancient Shrine we visited in Nikko (not to be confused by Niko our "day-dog" ~ the neighbor's dog who visits once in awhile :D) One of Nisshin's salesmen gave me a book about this shrine the night before so I could read about it before going ~ such a thoughtful gift!! We have many thank you's we need to write when we get home!!
We stayed in Utsunomiya one night and then Maeda (another Nisshin Shokai salesman) took us to Nikko and to the traditional Japanese spa where his wife and son met us and stayed too. Maeda also had to take the boys and I to the mall while Chris was in a meeting that morning and one thing we enjoyed was a 4 way game of Mario Kart at the arcade at the mall :~) Maeda san (means "Mr" or "Mrs") kept telling us that his wife was very excited to meet us. Boy was she ever! She is one of those people you love to have around you because you cannot help but be happy!!! She laughed a lot, was like a kid at Christmas and said "I study English more!" often :~)
The gifts she brought the boys were mostly traditional Japanese children's games! She gave the boys and I some items she had decorated ~ it looks like real frosting applied to mirrors, combs and a picture frame and is a new rave in Japan. When I get home I am going to sew her a bag and send it. She asked my hobbies and we learned that we both like bags!
This is a picture of Tomo showing Bray how to fold the origami papers into a crane.
This is Taite and Reyoske playing a very popular game in Japan with little boys.
Brayton's crane
Maeda san, Tomo and Reyoske
Us outside the hot spa
This is the entrance to the hotel in Villa Fontaine, where I first started this blog. We are now in a Hilton in Osaka and this blog has taken me over one day to finish. I'm too tired to go into the wonderful dinner we had last night, but remind me later and I'll tell you about it. . .
This is some filming done outside our hotel in Tokyo. It went on for hours in the very high heat! We were on the 3rd floor and this view was from a hallway we had to walk through to get to the elevator. Tonight, in Osaka, we are on the 25th floor. . . More to come!
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