I have taken many trips back to my home town of Tokyo since I left in 1983. Each time, I have carried different thoughts and feelings on the plane there and back. It is a privilege and a curse being bi-cultural because you feel you belong to both countries, and neither. I feel a physical shift in my brain going from the Americanized version of myself to my old Japanese self during the long flight. And until I had Philip with me, I used to spend the first hour after take-off crying when coming back to U.S. before spending the rest of the flight trying to acclimate my brain back to my every day life. The flight across the Pacific has been my incubator.
This trip, I had no such time for reflection. The flight was all about how to keep Yuki busy and quiet. FOR TEN HOURS. We strategized for months about how best to survive the flight, without much thought of what the hell to do once we got there. We bought a new carry-on big enough to store toys, puzzles, coloring and sticker books, Play Dough and, most importantly, the DVD player.
Someone told me to wrap every toy so the kid will have fun opening them. We had been buying small, cheap toys for a couple of months and hiding them from her until we got on the flight. We were armed and ready.
It's annoying and amusing at the same time to watch people's reactions when you board a plane with a toddler. People in business class don't care because they are pretty sure you are not going to ride in their cabin. So they smile. Those are the first people to pass by so you feel somewhat welcomed. Then you enter Economy Class to sit with the natives carrying chickens in cages, as it were. The back of the bus. Where the seat in front of you touches your knees. You get the picture. Their faces are altogether different. It starts with "Oh great, there is a kid on the flight." Then it turns into ”You better keep her quiet or I will choke you." I know this because I used to be that person. And I actually like kids. Good times.
But all things considered, Yuki was a champ. She lost her grip at about hour three (shortly after I chanted, "7 more hours!" and got a look of death from Philip-I can now see why she might have cried) but it was short lived. She watched Finding Nemo and ate her snacks, opened some new toys ("presents!") and played with them.
I took about 6 trips to the bathroom with her and about 6 hours into the flight, walked her to the back of the plain to got her to jump up and down for a bit. Quietly. Which was tricky but we managed to do it. We danced in place and froze and repeated that about 35 times, then I picked her up and bounced her, then I just let her dangle up side down. After that, we both felt better for having circulated our blood.
Then at about hour 8 (this would be about 9:30pm Seattle time), Yuki finally fell asleep. Deeply. She slept through "breakfast" a.k.a. crap food by United, and only woke up minutes before landing. Then she totally lost it. She was disoriented and buckled up, which made her panic, and she just went into a spiral of screaming mess. I didn't feel particularly bad since we were getting off the plane soon. She desperately wanted to get the hell out of her seat but we told her to stay in it for just a bit longer and had to physically restrain her because she found out she could slide out the bottom of the seatbelt/strap contraption. Not fun.
Once people started moving, we had the big task of collecting every bit of stuff we pulled out in flight. We were the last people off the plane. The flight crew was waiting while Yuki screamed at the top of her lungs in my arms, and Philip stuffed everything into the various bags we had. Then we got off the plane. Finally.
She calmed down when she saw the moving sidewalk in the terminal. Then she was totally jolly. We rode a couple of those, then down a couple of regular escalator towards immigration and customs . I then asked Philip, "Did you get my purse?" His face dropped. (What I heard, by Philip, "Did you get my purse that has all of our money and my passport and our daughter's passport without which none of us can get in to the country? No? YAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!") I had stuck the purse in the pocket in front of my seat and half way through the flight we switched seats. I checked the pocket of the seat I was sitting in front of as I got off, but not my original seat. My attention was on the screaming kid and getting off the plane. Then my blood drained from my head. Without words, we both turned around and started sprinting back towards our gate. At one point, I think Philip asked if I wanted to just run alone but I couldn't answer. I was thinking，"It will be there still because this is Japan." but then the reality of not having my passport and my green card was starting to set in and I was just trying not to panic. We ran up the stairs and my legs were getting noodly. Like in dreams. Then I realized that I had Yuki in my arms. I had ran up a long flight of stairs with 30 pound toddler and my courier bag. I was totally out of breath and staggering and I looked at her and she had a big smile on her face looking back at me. So I said, "We are going back to get mommy's bag."
But of course we couldn't. The glass door that would get us to the gate was now locked. Then I remembered that we had passes a Japanese United agent announcing the connecting flights. We ran back to her and I told her of our situation. She very quickly got on her walkie-talkie and got the cleaning crew and got them to go to our seats and look for the purse. She smiled in a very Japanese service person way and apologized for the wait (That is correct. It was now her fault.) Then we paced. Me still holding Yuki. Now sweating like crazy.
Then we stopped long enough to notice Yuki's nose was bleeding. As if losing our passports wasn't shocking enough, my daughter now had a small stream of blood coming out of her nose.Welcome to Tokyo. I guess the flight was too dry or something. She was oblivious so I just held Philip's handkerchief to her nose. Then the agent got a radio back and she said "They have located your purse so I am going to go get it now." Then she took off running. About five minutes later, she appeared with my purse in hand, once again apologizing for the wait and asked me to check the contents. I did and it was all there. I wanted to hug her but instead, I bowed deeply and thanked her. Yuki also bowed and the agent giggled.
This was how Yuki arrived in Tokyo for the very first time. I am going to write to the producers of "The Amazing Race" and suggest they make each team carry a toddler, to make the contest harder.
This trip, I had no such time for reflection. The flight was all about how to keep Yuki busy and quiet. FOR TEN HOURS. We strategized for months about how best to survive the flight, without much thought of what the hell to do once we got there. We bought a new carry-on big enough to store toys, puzzles, coloring and sticker books, Play Dough and, most importantly, the DVD player.
Someone told me to wrap every toy so the kid will have fun opening them. We had been buying small, cheap toys for a couple of months and hiding them from her until we got on the flight. We were armed and ready.
It's annoying and amusing at the same time to watch people's reactions when you board a plane with a toddler. People in business class don't care because they are pretty sure you are not going to ride in their cabin. So they smile. Those are the first people to pass by so you feel somewhat welcomed. Then you enter Economy Class to sit with the natives carrying chickens in cages, as it were. The back of the bus. Where the seat in front of you touches your knees. You get the picture. Their faces are altogether different. It starts with "Oh great, there is a kid on the flight." Then it turns into ”You better keep her quiet or I will choke you." I know this because I used to be that person. And I actually like kids. Good times.
But all things considered, Yuki was a champ. She lost her grip at about hour three (shortly after I chanted, "7 more hours!" and got a look of death from Philip-I can now see why she might have cried) but it was short lived. She watched Finding Nemo and ate her snacks, opened some new toys ("presents!") and played with them.
I took about 6 trips to the bathroom with her and about 6 hours into the flight, walked her to the back of the plain to got her to jump up and down for a bit. Quietly. Which was tricky but we managed to do it. We danced in place and froze and repeated that about 35 times, then I picked her up and bounced her, then I just let her dangle up side down. After that, we both felt better for having circulated our blood.
Then at about hour 8 (this would be about 9:30pm Seattle time), Yuki finally fell asleep. Deeply. She slept through "breakfast" a.k.a. crap food by United, and only woke up minutes before landing. Then she totally lost it. She was disoriented and buckled up, which made her panic, and she just went into a spiral of screaming mess. I didn't feel particularly bad since we were getting off the plane soon. She desperately wanted to get the hell out of her seat but we told her to stay in it for just a bit longer and had to physically restrain her because she found out she could slide out the bottom of the seatbelt/strap contraption. Not fun.
Once people started moving, we had the big task of collecting every bit of stuff we pulled out in flight. We were the last people off the plane. The flight crew was waiting while Yuki screamed at the top of her lungs in my arms, and Philip stuffed everything into the various bags we had. Then we got off the plane. Finally.
She calmed down when she saw the moving sidewalk in the terminal. Then she was totally jolly. We rode a couple of those, then down a couple of regular escalator towards immigration and customs . I then asked Philip, "Did you get my purse?" His face dropped. (What I heard, by Philip, "Did you get my purse that has all of our money and my passport and our daughter's passport without which none of us can get in to the country? No? YAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!") I had stuck the purse in the pocket in front of my seat and half way through the flight we switched seats. I checked the pocket of the seat I was sitting in front of as I got off, but not my original seat. My attention was on the screaming kid and getting off the plane. Then my blood drained from my head. Without words, we both turned around and started sprinting back towards our gate. At one point, I think Philip asked if I wanted to just run alone but I couldn't answer. I was thinking，"It will be there still because this is Japan." but then the reality of not having my passport and my green card was starting to set in and I was just trying not to panic. We ran up the stairs and my legs were getting noodly. Like in dreams. Then I realized that I had Yuki in my arms. I had ran up a long flight of stairs with 30 pound toddler and my courier bag. I was totally out of breath and staggering and I looked at her and she had a big smile on her face looking back at me. So I said, "We are going back to get mommy's bag."
But of course we couldn't. The glass door that would get us to the gate was now locked. Then I remembered that we had passes a Japanese United agent announcing the connecting flights. We ran back to her and I told her of our situation. She very quickly got on her walkie-talkie and got the cleaning crew and got them to go to our seats and look for the purse. She smiled in a very Japanese service person way and apologized for the wait (That is correct. It was now her fault.) Then we paced. Me still holding Yuki. Now sweating like crazy.
Then we stopped long enough to notice Yuki's nose was bleeding. As if losing our passports wasn't shocking enough, my daughter now had a small stream of blood coming out of her nose.Welcome to Tokyo. I guess the flight was too dry or something. She was oblivious so I just held Philip's handkerchief to her nose. Then the agent got a radio back and she said "They have located your purse so I am going to go get it now." Then she took off running. About five minutes later, she appeared with my purse in hand, once again apologizing for the wait and asked me to check the contents. I did and it was all there. I wanted to hug her but instead, I bowed deeply and thanked her. Yuki also bowed and the agent giggled.
This was how Yuki arrived in Tokyo for the very first time. I am going to write to the producers of "The Amazing Race" and suggest they make each team carry a toddler, to make the contest harder.
Comments
xo
gibsey
1) Why have I never thought of dangling upside down to get the circulation going after 8-10 hours of flying?
2) Philip, what did I tell you about nasal spray to keep your nose from drying out in flight?
3) I hope you have a wonderful visit and can't wait to hear more.
Ok, three thoughts.
Love,
KT
xo
la
gibs
(i admit to at least one edb commment)