5/7/07 - 21st Letter

21st letter
Mon. 5/7/07

Well a ton happened in April. Sunday April 1st we went to church to see a friend’s baby blessed and said goodbye after the first meeting to 2 friends leaving that week. I cried, she cried, and the other didn’t say a word so that she wouldn’t cry. Sheesh, so much crying. Then we walked on over to the train station and started our trip. Bryan taking care of 2 huge, heavy suitcases (one was ALL Brock’s), and I had a day’s worth diaper bag (a big backpack) on my back and pushed Brock in an umbrella stroller. When you’re switching trains and going up stairs and escalators and hopping over the gap between the train and the platform…all these things in tow make it interesting. Not to mention it was pouring when we left and we were all soaked. We finally made it to Tokyo train station – we took a regular train then switched to the infamous bullet train (Shinkansen) to get there – only to spend 2 hours trying to figure out how to find and buy tickets for the Subway (Metro). We couldn’t find anyone who spoke English – besides the girl at Information that gave us WRONG info and didn’t help us one bit and only made our stay at the station even longer. Grrr. Bryan takes off and tries to find it, leaving me with Brock and the suitcases, so we weren’t dragging those things everywhere. I was not so comfortable with that idea cuz this place was huge and I wasn’t sure he’d be able to find me… so ack, we finally made it out of there. Traveling a subway system with so much stuff, plus where you need to switch lines, climb a few flights of stairs – we got our work out. We made it to the right subway station and walked a big city block to the hotel. Phew! We relaxed about an hour or so I think, then Bryan’s parents showed up. Good thing they got in later, with our ‘delays,’ cuz they can’t get into the hotel without Bryan because it’s a military hotel. This place is so nice but so cheap – like Motel 6 prices – and they’re booked way in advance. Little by little I was able to get a night reserved here, a night reserved there. But when we showed up I still didn’t have rooms for the 2nd night, and they still didn’t have an opening! We checked a bunch of other hotels and they were all booked, then one had an opening – for $150/night each. (We were only paying $33/night each here). So the next morning we packed all our stuff up and the hotel holds your luggage for you during the day – and when we came back about 4 or so, we had gotten a room. So we had to check in and out of a few rooms through our stay, but at least we had a room!
One of the nights we paid a hotel-provided babysitter (a little pricey - $8.75/hr) and we all went to the temple, a 10-minute walk from the hotel. We walked around a lot, rode the subway a lot, and we did 2 bus tours too. There were a bunch of restaurants within walking distance of the hotel and they had a Thai restaurant that we all LOVED. But there was a Japanese restaurant – Kikuya’s – in the hotel- that was EXCELLENT. Very expensive though. We had the Japanese version of an Italian restaurant’s pizza, which was pretty good. And a few mornings we crammed our little posse into an itty-bitty bagel shop. Everything’s always so crammed in there that when you try to fit 4 adults and a stuffed backpack and a kid in a stroller – you take up half the sitting space. I miss the space in America!! I’ll attach a bunch of pictures of our trip. We went to the Imperial Palace Gardens where we got incredibly soaked – the Palace land I think they said was close to 300 acres(!)-right in the middle of Tokyo-just for 2 people to live in! We saw a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist temple and got to see a bunch of the city as we drove around on the bus tour- it was cool. We took a seaside bus tour as well – and you’ll see the pictures of all that. I have so many pictures that I might have to send a few emails worth of attachments. We went to Tokyo Tower and have some great shots of the city from way up high. We also went to DisneySea (right next to DisneyLand) and you work it out where once 2 of you go through the line and ride the ride, the other 2 switch with you and go to the front. We went to the Hard Rock Café and finally had some surprisingly good American food – something Bryan and I haven’t had for a long time (TGIFriday’s was disappointing-when we went there in March). We bought some cool stuff there. Bryan got a cool t-shirt and I got an awesome sweatshirt and the grandparents got Brock a little t-shirt. Oh yes, and he got some sweet Merlin Mickey Mouse ears from them (amongst other things) at DisneySea too. We went to Ueno Park where they have a few streets lined with Cherry Blossom trees (white trees) – they’re so pretty as you’ll see in the pictures. I guess it’s tradition to drink and eat under the trees cuz it provides good luck or something like that, so there’s a bunch of tarps lining the side of the street. And they had some weird parade thing going on where a bunch of guys walked by playing a clarinet or something like that….with baskets on their heads…. Anyway, we did a lot of things and had a blast. We were there from Sunday night until we left Friday night. Brock was in his stroller almost all day every day and did really well.
It was fun to have Bryan’s parents finally meet Brock. One time Brock grabbed a handful of Cathy’s hair, one in each fist, on each side of her face, and then rubbed his slobbery face in her face – if you can imagine what that looks like – hilarious. Dennis carried him a lot while walking around – this kid is heavy – and his back hurt for sure by the end of their trip! Back here in Misawa we had them try a few restaurants and we drove out to “Shipwrecked Beach,” about 45 minutes north of us. And come to find out later, we should have driven the beach side a little bit longer – then we actually would have seen the ships!! We went to an Aviation museum here too, that Bryan and I hadn’t gone to yet, and it was pretty dang cool. They had a lot of fun hands-on activities and small rides and everything. They even had a flight simulator that was pretty realistic that Bryan was able to take turns with each of us and tell us what to do. That’s hard stuff! Anyway – the best museum I’ve ever been too! So it was sad to see his parents go, but great to have them here for 2 weeks (April 1-14). It worked out really great to meet them in Tokyo, barely have to spend any money on a hotel (a NICE hotel), and be able to have that experience. We do wish that we could have had another day or two there. Misawa is not all that exciting – just a little farm town, really. Bryan’s dad said that we should never live stateside if we have the chance to live overseas – apparently there are these military-sponsored hotels everywhere and so we could have a lot of really great vacations. It was too bad that my mom couldn’t really see Tokyo when she was here, besides just passing through while switching airports - - it’s a fun place. We were always ‘go-go-go’ there.
Bryan had the interview with his wing commander that he needed for his officer package – and the interview bullets that this guy wrote for Bryan could not have been any better. We were so nervous about this cuz it’s a HUGE deal with major impact on his package. When Bryan walked into the interview the guy said, ‘I know who you are and your supervisors have said a lot of good things about you’ – or something close to that anyway. Some of the good things he wrote about Bryan – an excellent communicator – outstanding/enjoyable interview – most mature/goal oriented airman I’ve ever met – the most competitive OTS candidate I’ve ever interviewed – shows a rare maturity and leadership ability for his rank – etc. etc. Everything has gone really well, and there is only one thing we are waiting on. In 2 weeks we will overnight his package and then we wait til mid August.
So school ended the 26th of April, and MAN was I glad for that semester to be over!! For 2 weeks I was dropping Brock off at a friend’s every day at 10am until Bryan got home from work, just so that I could get it done (no way I could have done that normally, but it was a swap – she had already asked me to watch her 2-yr-old girl for 10 days at the end of June so they could go to Australia). I did alright. Now I have a break until Fall Semester starts.
Brock rolls and scoots all over the place now. As he should now that he’s about 7 ½ months old. We are in search of a good reversible car seat – it’s obvious his carrier is too small. He sits up just great which is so nice (‘bout time – he got the hang of it while Bryan’s parents were here). He likes his saucer and he bounces up and down like crazy in that thing, and he rocks it back and forth too. It’s pretty funny – I have a video of it that I’ll send out. His 2 bottom teeth just poked through and they are sharp! He still sleeps in his swaddler – can’t believe he still likes that thing! And he just recently will roll over to sleep on his side…even wrapped up like he is. We might have to cut his hair a little soon, cuz it’s getting close to being in his eyes. He loves his cereal and jar food – he seems to eat whatever – but maybe has a slight preference for vegetables. He likes to play with his pacifier more than suck on it – it was hilarious – when we were driving in the car he was getting sleepy and just popping it out of his mouth over and over again – you’ll see it in the video. Brock was blessed on Sunday, April 8th – cuz we were waiting until Bryan’s parents were here. Yep, Easter Sunday. We had an easter basket for his parents and everything – and hid it so well it took them awhile to find – we pigged out on candy that week. They brought Brock some pretty cool sports plastic eggs. We were gonna color eggs and Bryan had bought this egg tie-dye kit…but we forgot to buy vinegar. Oops. Brock is in STAGE 4 diapers – I know an 18-mo-old that wears Stage 3! He had the croup pretty bad while the grandparents were here, and we ended up taking him in for the steroid shot for that. Oh yeah, and for some reason the Japanese seem very interested in Brock. While we were in Tokyo at Ueno park a few guys came running up to us and were taking their picture next to Brock – then all of the sudden a HUGE group of Japanese came running up to take pictures of him. We tried to take pictures of this picture-taking episode, but the group was already starting to disperse by the time we got one – but you’ll see the tail-end of it in our pic. Maybe they think he looks like a little Buddha baby or something. It was SO funny though. And he seemed to learn a few weird faces and noises from his Grandma – pretty funny – but stopped doing those. We went and got his pictures taken while they were here – and he got some in a little Buddha outfit. Well the studio asked us if they could put one of his pictures in their display! He also got his picture taken in a dress – a tradition (taking a picture in this dress at 6 mos old – the dress is very old!) in Bryan’s family that has now gone through 5 generations I think.
Um, all else is well. I’m still the Enrichment Leader running 2 enrichments a month, and a monthly luncheon. I finally got released as a primary teacher. I did sharing time my last Sunday in primary and I had my class run the whole thing…it went okay…but it was far too short. I have to teach Relief Society this Sunday – it’ll be my first time ever teaching adults in church. We had to say goodbye to more friends last week and that was sad. It’s getting warmer – today’s high was 67- the bugs are coming out…eeeee. Last week I finally cut my hair, and I got bangs (!) to hide my pokey boy hair that sticks straight up in the front (re-growth of the baldness). Well I will send out 2 emails to divide up the pictures. I can send emails up to 10MB in size – so I don’t know what all your email can handle. And I’ll send out a link so that you can get to the 9 most recent videos (since the last letter).
I think that’s it (finally!). Some of you I am way behind on getting back to personally. I’ll get on it! I’m sorry! I was going to get this out first and then get to that. Well, love and miss you all!!
Julie, Bryan, and Brock Blumenkrantz

For all of the many pictures click on this link for the slideshow:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2t7pqtrs.aifxeims&x=0&y=fynku1&localeid=en_US