A Busy Week!
Wow, what a week! As you can see above, we had another photo shoot this week, this one for Chloe's passport photo. Picture number one was the winner, but we got lots of fun expressions! I think that this outfit is courtesy of her great-grandma Zoet.
Tuesday promised to be a great day! Mike had an early meeting and was going to pick up breakfast for us at McDonald's before coming home to drop off the car and continue on to the office. I got a call around 11:00 a.m., just when I'd begun to wonder where he was. Unfortunately, he wasn't at the gate... he was still in Toyota City, at a gas station asking if he could eat my breakfast for lunch while he waited for the tow truck. The day lost a bit of its promise right about then. Getting gas in Japan is complicated a bit by the fact that everything is written in Japanese, and we've only recently become bold enough to use self-serve (the vast majority of stations are still full-service, anyway). Mike looked for the cheapest price and concluded that that must be regular and pumped $50 into the car. Turns out it was diesel. Turns out that regular cars don't run on diesel. Ooops. Oh, well, at least it wasn't kerosene, as we thought it might be at first! The engine has been flushed and the car is back in the garage, so no harm is done - and actually, the car runs a lot better now!
On Wednesday, we got up really early after a rough night with Chloe in order to take the shinkansen down to the American Consulate in Osaka to apply for her passport. As we got off the subway in Osaka it occurred to us - it was Vernal Equinox Day, a national holiday in Japan! The consulate was closed. Since Osaka is just an hour but a couple hundred dollars away by bullet train, we decided to get a hotel room and spend the night. After a few minutes of annoyance at the inconvenience, I have to admit I was quite gleeful at this forced vacation day. We had lots of fun hanging out in a department store and rode a ferris wheel that was about thirty stories tall. Wow! We went to the consulate first thing Thursday morning and were in and out in about forty-five minutes, including security clearances.
All in all, a good week! And now... it's time to collapse into bed!
posted by Meika at
Sunday, March 25, 2007
5 Comments:
Sooo cute! What an exciting week!
Chloe seems to be getting much more alert and expressive! Is that what you think at night?
Maybe you need to print out a card to keep in the car that gives the kanji for Unleaded. Dad wanted me to ride the ferris wheel in downtown Nagoya. I thought it would be too scary. He thinks I'm a wimp.
thanks for the pictures! They are so sweet and she is sweet too. she sure is growing. Wow!
take care
gramma f
Meiks,
I like hearing about Chloe getting a passport - because that means that she'll be traversing the ocean and that I'll get to meet her! :-) Can't wait. She's gorgeous - great outfit. And thanks for celebrating S's cancer-freeness with us!!
Love,
Heidi
Hi Meika --
Chloe's latest pics are very cute!
My kids just love to see the baby pictures. I often look in at your blog from work and then pull up the pictures for them at home. :)
Sounds like you're preparing to come back to the U.S.?
What is the status of Mike's job?
Hope you are well and continue to be.
Take care.
Love,
Michelle (Dale, Grace and Nathan)
We think she's getting cuter all the time! :) She's definitely increasingly responsive to what's around her.
Heidi - we're looking forward to it, too! Four months to go!
Michelle - How fun! I'm glad the kids like the pictures. We'll be leaving Japan on August 2 and returning home in mid-month. Mike is supposed to continue working at the Holland office, though I'm not sure his exact position is set yet.
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