Okay, okay, okay….I know. While I had the best of intentions to write about Tokyo/Fuji/Hawaii/coming home, life happened. Both Ian and I have been RIDICULOUSLY busy since we’ve been home. I’ll get to that in a second, but first I did want to briefly catch up on where I left off.
Leaving Yunomae behind was incredibly hard. Since I’ve been home, I’ve had so many ask me, “Aren’t you glad to be back?” Well, honestly…yes and no. That tiny mountain town gave me so many beautiful memories and allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people. As we left, my students and co-workers lined the street with banners while waving goodbye. Needless to say I bawled halfway to Hitoyoshi before I regained my composure. It was so sad to leave so many good memories behind!
Anyway…we flew to Tokyo and promptly made our way to Mt. Fuji that night. Fuji is the tallest mountain and most widely recognized symbol of Japan. Most people climb Fuji in order to watch the sun rise. We hiked through the night in order to complete this task. I have never felt more like I wanted to die than on that mountain. While the three of us (Ian, Melissa, and I) enjoy hiking, we all agreed that we started the hike on the wrong foot by being sleep deprived, dehydrated, and hungry. Couple that with the progressively thinning air, the despair of hiking in darkness, and all three of us were completely BEAT by the time we made it to the top. While sunrise was absolutely beautiful and an incredible sight, we found it difficult to enjoy as we huddled together for warmth. Even though the temperatures at the base were sweltering and muggy, at the peak it was like stepping into a windy freezer. Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! While the way up was strenuous, the way down was tedious. It was a steep slope of volcanic ash the whole way down, so slipping and sliding was just part of it. I was getting so tired and worn out that one time I slipped, busted my butt, and just wanted to give up on life. I had a little breakdown, to which Ian comforted me with the last of our water, peanuts, and his wise words, “Sweetie, I know you’re tired, but there’s only one way off this mountain, and that’s with your own two feet.” Whenever we reached the base camp, the three of us had a two hour wait before our bus came, so like hobos we laid down on the concrete sidewalk and fell asleep. Yes, we were that tired!
The next few days Ian and I spent exploring Tokyo. Unfortunately, Melissa had to return to Kumamoto since she only had so many vacation days to blow. Ian and I explored well known tourist attractions like Tsukiji fish market (the largest fish market in the world), Sky Tree (the tallest tower in the world), Madame Tussand’s wax museum, Odaiba’s waterfront, the Rainbow Bridge, Asakusa’s trendy neighborhood, Shibuya crossing and Hachiko’s statue, Ginza’s ridiculously overpriced shopping district, and several other fun things. While Tokyo was super fun to visit, I would never, ever, EVER want to live there. I felt like I couldn’t stretch out my arms out without touching people. The metro-Tokyo area has over 35 million people living in it. Waaaaaaaaaay too many people for me to feel comfortable!!
After our few days in Tokyo, we kissed Japan goodbye and headed back to the USA! The most exciting part of our journey was the three day layover in Hawaii. If you are traveling to or from Asia, I definitely recommend trying this! Not only was it a wonderful way to break up the long journey, but IT’S HAWAII. (Added bonus: jet lag never affected us!) I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to the islands, but if not, we can at least say that we’ve been! Three days was barely enough time to scratch the surface, but we made sure to squeeze every last little bit out of it that we could. As soon as we got there, we checked into our hotel, grabbed lunch, and hit the crystal clear, warm, and sandy beaches of Waikiki until sunset, where we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. On our second day we took an island tour in which we visited Pearl Harbor, Dole’s pineapple plantation, the famed North Shore beaches, the ranch where Lost and Jurassic Park were filmed, a macadamia nut and coffee bean farm, and Pali lookout (the best lookout spot on the whole island). I felt like we saw a ridiculous amount of things in just one day! Our final day in Hawaii was spent hiking Diamondhead, the volcano that towers over Waikiki’s beaches. I hiked past people who were pulled over to the side of the trail huffing and puffing. After Fuji, Diamondhead was basically like walking up a large hill. That afternoon we laid on the beach wishing that we had a few more days in Hawaii but knowing that we had a plane to catch.
I was hoping to sleep a little bit more than I actually did on our overnight flight to Las Vegas. After that, it was Vegas to Dallas, and Dallas to Nashville. I really enjoyed flying across country and seeing the landscape change from the jagged West Coast to the tall peaks of the Rockies to the desert of the southwest, across the brown plains of Texas, and finally to the green woodlands east of the Mississippi. Our friends, Adam and Alison, picked us up from the airport in Nashville. Apart from them, only two other people (my sister, who lives in Lexington and Ian’s dad, who lives in Boca Raton) knew that we were coming home on that day. SURPRISE!!!! We told everyone that we would be back on August 15th when in reality it was August 9th. When we bought the tickets in January, we decided that it would be incredibly fun to surprise everyone. By far, going around town and surprising everyone is one of the BEST memories I’ve made in my life. Instead of deciding whose family should be the first to see us, we decided to surprise our friends. They were in shock to see us, and there were hugs and lots of chatter.
We spent the night with David and Lucy. The following morning we woke up early to surprise my family. Since it was a little after 7 AM, I wasn’t sure if Mommy and Daddy would be up, so we went to Grandmother’s. We rang the doorbell, and Grandmother came to the door in tears. She squealed, hugged us, squealed again, and told us what a blessing it was to have us on her doorstep that morning. I’m pretty sure that she hugged me about twenty times that morning. She’d start talking about the weather or some distant family member and then stop what she was doing to hug me and tell me how much we were missed. Daddy and my brother, Aaron, also popped in for their morning coffee. Both of them stopped in their places when they saw Ian and I at the kitchen table. Aaron froze, looked down at his phone, back up at us, and said, “What day is it?” Ha, ha, ha! Those surprises were priceless! The best surprise of all was Mommy. Ian and I wandered across the yard to my parents’ house and found Mommy in the living room on the phone with my sister. I strolled up in the kitchen like I owned the place, and once she saw me, she freaked out. (I wish I could share the video with y’all, but I have sworn to Mommy to not post the video online because she thought the way she reacted was embarrassing.) It was rather hilarious! As soon as she saw me, she disregarded the phone conversation she was having and screamed, “WHAT? WHAT? WHAT IS HAPPENING? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? WHAT?” Honestly, the video is HILARIOUS. After that, it was off to the Reeds, who reacted with the same amount of disbelief of everyone else. We surprised Ian’s sister, Bridget, at the boutique she works at. She began greeting us like regular customers, “Hi, can I help you—HEEEEEEY!!!”
I think I’ll stop here because this concludes our journey home, but there’s so much more to write about. A LOT has happened in the last two months!
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