Wednesday April 2nd 3:00 AM 

I lie awake and hear the first signs of life in the house, Kyle getting up and jumping into the shower. Slowly the rest of us get up and start getting ready. We leave the house just before 4:00. The airport is sleepy when we arrive, except for our check in area, we somehow skipped the long line by a lucky accident and got our bags checked in and boarding passes printed-all 12 of them! Our first flight from Charlotte to Houston went without a glitch. We were able to use the United lounge at the Houston airport because of our Premium Economy tickets through ANA to Japan, which was nice to have free food and drink and nice seats. We spent our 3 ½ hours of layover comfortably. Of course we should have been getting some steps in before our long haul, but Paul is the only one who was smart about that. I missed it, but Paul said the flight crew of our ANA flight all stood in front of the check in counter and bowed to everyone before boarding the plane. I wish he had gotten a photo of it. Anyway, we were all very impressed with our upgraded seats on the plane. A bit more leg room and more recline to our seats with foot/leg rests. We were like kids in a candy store looking at everything, ooh we got over the ear headphones, ooh we got slippers, eye mask, ear plugs, blanket and pillow. Over the 14 hour flight, they fed us a lot, I think we started with a dinner, then had a snack/lunch, then had breakfast. Plus we could always get up and help ourselves to a few snacks they had sitting out. We all watched several movies and attempted to sleep, but we were mostly not successful in the sleep department. Arriving in Tokyo was cloudy and rainy so we couldn’t see much out the windows until we were touching the ground. Then the dreaded customs/immigration lines. It took us about two hours to get through. Boy they had a lot of steps to the process, first we had to fill out all this information online and receive individual QR codes, then pictures, finger prints, passport showing to one person, then QR codes, passports and I had to do the picture/finger print thing a second time with him, then we had to get our luggage, then scan QR codes and passports and take pictures again at another machine, then walk through a line that takes your picture and gives you a green check mark or red X to tell you if you made it through or not, then last step walk through the Nothing to Declare section of customs with probably one last picture! We did realize that when Paul was filling out the QR code info online, he mistyped Braydon’s birthday, so we got stopped for that, but luckily Paul was able to edit the online info and show it to the officer again. No harm no foul! After the Customs/Immigration process we had to recheck into our next flight and go through security, but luckily it was completely empty. Then they took us on a 20 minute shuttle bus ride around the airport to get to the domestic terminal, where we just barely made it before they started boarding our flight to Nagoya. We originally had a 4 hour layover in Tokyo, but we arrived slightly late so we had a little less time, but we used it all just getting to our next flight. Here we got onto the flight and all promptly fell asleep! The flight was only 1 hour though, so we didn’t sleep long. Arrived in Nagoya, grabbed our bags-oh it’s true they have a person standing at the end of the carousel to make sure luggage falls down nicely, and not on top of other’s people’s luggage! We were able to walk to our hotel from here, which I believe the sign said was 450 meters. It was cold and windy. We arrived to our hotel about 9:00 PM Thursday, April 3rd. 29 hours after we left our house in Charlotte. 

Friday April 4th 

Paul and I woke up bright and early at 4:00 AM not able to sleep anymore, so we were the first ones to breakfast at 6:00 and ended up sitting there for 3 hours! I bet they wanted to kick us out, constantly refilling our coffee/teas and occasionally getting more food. The boys joined us around 8:00, with Braydon having exciting news about getting into the high school he applied to for next year, which we were all very excited about for him, so sat chatting/eating for a while. Afterwards we walked back to the airport where there’s also a train station and figured out the trains! It’s very easy for the boys and I who all have Apple I-phones, since we were able to download the train card straight to our Apple Wallet and just tap in and out at the stations. But Paul recently switched to a Samsung and needed to buy a physical ticket. Luckily the train station has everything in both Japanese and English, so we were able to figure out where we were going pretty easily. We weren’t going far for this outing, a 3 minute train ride over a bridge (the airport area is it’s own island). We went to the village of Tokoname where centuries ago they began making pottery. The town is lined with clay pipes and pots everywhere, oh and cat figures. The Pottery Footpath begins next to this wall with all these cat figures carved into this giant wall, each cat figure symbolizes a different fortune, such as healthy life, happy marriage, getting good grades, parenting, etc. We continued this pathway around the town, going past current and very old homes, seeing some pottery shops along the way, we even stopped at a coffee house that was very eclectic! Inside this old town and eclectic coffee house was a very modern toilet. A toilet that reduces water waste. The tank is refilled by the sink above it where you wash your hands. A very efficient toilet, but don’t let that fool you, all the toilets here also have heated seats, and bidet functions. I have to tell you waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom in a cold hotel room and sitting down on a heated toilet seat just makes everything ok. 😉 Anyway, back to Tokoname, where pottery began. We also saw a huge kiln that was previously used to make the pottery. Exploring this little town was a very peaceful start to our Japan trip, since the rest of it is going to be in big cities and crowded with people. After returning to the hotel, we gathered our stuff, walked back to the train station at the airport and took a very crowded train, where we were huddled in standing with our suitcases by our feet for 40 minutes to the big city of Nagoya. We decided to take a taxi to our hotel from the main train station, which was a little difficult explaining where we wanted to go-I should’ve just put it into Google translate, but I didn’t think of it at the moment. Anyway, we made it and only had to pay like $7, not bad. Once again, we have two hotel rooms here, we’ve outgrown the days when we can share one! We have two full sized beds in our tiny room, but it works. We spent the afternoon/evening wandering around a shopping district of many interconnecting streets that are covered and lined with shops, restaurants, and gaming establishments. We had to separate here, the boys spent their time playing with capsule machines and claw machines, and buying Pokemon cards. Paul and I were in awe of everything but after walking a bunch, we stumbled upon a Belgium pub/Turkish restaurant, that Belgium beer was calling Paul’s name! We sat inside this little pub with bright red bucket chairs and lots of paraphernalia on the walls having a drink. Afterwards we reconnect with the boys and started discussing dinner, we ended up splitting up and Braydon and I sat at counter seats in a 8-seated Indian restaurant, while Paul and Kyle grabbed kebabs from a Turkish restaurant. I feel with my gluten intolerance and picky eating habits, we may have to split up a bunch, plus the restaurants are small, finding seats for 4 people may be difficult. We were all asleep by 8:30 PM!! 

Saturday April 5th 

Paul and I woke up at 1:20 AM, and I immediately handed out melatonin to both of us, luckily we both got a few more hours of sleep after that. The boys apparently were not as lucky and were up by 3ish. Ugh. We all found stuff individually at the 7/11 around the corner for breakfast. Man, they have a lot of choices! Luckily most items have a tiny very basic English description on them, so we can read them. If you want any more information, we have to break out Google Translate. I know I’ve mentioned this previously, but for anyone reading this that doesn’t know Google Translate App has a camera feature, it’s amazing, you just hold it over the words and it translates for you. Get it now for your next international trip. (sorry that was my ad, too bad I don’t get paid!)We had some time before qualifying race started at the Grand Prix, so we took a taxi up to Nagoya Castle to walk around and see the beautiful Sakura (cherry blossom) trees. Inside the castle walls they had some sort of festival or farmer’s market, there were lots of food vendors set up, a stage with performers and everyone sitting under the beautiful trees eating, drinking and being merry. We walked around the castle grounds just admiring the architecture of the castle and the pretty grounds. The line to get into the castle was quite long so we did not go into it, we grabbed some food and sat outside for a bit. Then jumped into a taxi and off to the train station. It took us a bit to figure out the correct tickets to buy for the train, then we went and stood in a very short line to get onto the train. It was a rapid train and we luckily got seats, 45 minutes later we arrived to Suzuka Station. There we walked the 15 minutes up hill to the Suzuka Circuit, basically just following the crowds. Once there we found our seats and checked out the Fan Zone, bought some merchandise and watched the qualifying race. Suzuka Circuit is huge and walking from our seats to the fan zone and the main entrance was a long way! When we were leaving, we basically got swept up in the crowds and went out a different entrance, which dropped us into the attached amusement park area. It took us a bit to get out to the street again and this time we were 25 minute walk from the station. All of a sudden a line appeared before us on the sidewalk with a sign saying Nagoya, which was our destination. Thousands of people were in front of us in line, and it wrapped around a parking lot, up and down, up and down. We had no idea how long this was going to take us. There was no restroom in sight either! The sun started to set and the wind picked up and we were all hungry, cold, tired and had to pee. We only ended up waiting for 1 ½ hours in this line, but once we got on the train, it happened to be a local train stopping at every station and then all of a sudden, everyone got off and started running across the station to another train-so we assumed we had to switch trains here! Follow the crowd was our motto, since we couldn’t understand the announcements in Japanese. These trains were obviously very crowded and we had to stand for the second half of the trip. It ended up taking 4 hours to get back to our hotel after leaving Suzuka. We were exhausted, so ended up grabbing to go food in 7/11 and crashing. This put a damper on our excitement for the next day, actual race day, but we planned to go in early. We saw there was a 9:37 AM rapid train the next morning, and with the race starting at 2:00, we figured we’d be good. 

Sunday April 6th 

We were mistaken! We were heading to our track number and noticed they had it roped off, that’s when we saw the line all the way down the station wrapped twice! We got in line and started to fret, but amazingly we made it onto the 9:37 train. After a slight mishap. We were shuffled in our line onto the platform, but on the other side, so track 13 instead of track 12. We figured they had two trains coming and you just had to get on one. Well we got on the train at track 13 and then realized it was a local and possibly a transfer, although we weren’t sure. At the last second before doors were closing, we jumped off and ran across the platform and got on the rapid train. We were smooshed in, but we didn’t care, we knew this was a 45 minute ride, we could handle it. Then about half way we stopped at a station and more people were shoved onto the train, I literally was pressed flat up against a half wall leaning over a seat. None of us could move our arms or feet for the rest of the trip! But we made it in time to meet up with the Alpine partner rep for Paul’s company at 11:15. Her name was Lauren and she was super sweet. She gave us a tour of the Paddock area and the Alpine Garage, where we got to see and hear the race cars up close and personal as they were doing some last minute tests on them. Then we were able to walk pit row and see all the F1 teams’ garages from Pit row, many of them were doing tire change drills we could witness. They are so fast!! There were dancers and a Japanese band performing down the street which was fun to watch. Afterwards we were treated to a fabulous lunch in the hospitality area for Alpine. Being a French team, they had champagne and a gourmet lunch, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Leaving the luxury and the VIP treatment behind, we made our way to our seats to watch the race. We were seated at Turn 2. We ended up leaving the race before it finished to try and avoid some of the crowds we witnessed the day before. We were much closer to the front of the line when we got to the parking lot area, so we were excited, but no trains arrived until all the crowds did, so we ended up waiting a bit anyway. We got onto the train and got seats, by some miracle, but then we had to switch trains again. This time we had to line up on the other side of the platform and wait for a train. The first one that arrived was completely full and we were so upset. Luckily the next train began at that station and we jumped on, the boys quickly got seats and Paul and I were about to miss out when two Estonian guys said we could sit with them. We chatted the entire long local train back to Nagoya. Very nice young guys who travel a bunch and told us how great Estonia is. Meeting them certainly made the train trip more entertaining. Since we left early, we ended up getting back to our hotel around 5:30 or 6, so we still had the evening ahead of us. Kyle really wanted sushi, so Paul and both boys went to one of those conveyor belt sushi places and really enjoyed it. Kyle's description of their night: As we got to the restaurant, Sushiro, we noticed the line that was out the sliding door. Paul walked in and asked one of the workers the wait time. Turns out, it was only 20 minutes. Braydon and I left the restaurant and began walking around the mall that was located ajar. The vast expanse of the building was our first thought, and soon left due to the large size. This was my first opportunity to walk around the city of Nagoya. I enjoyed this due to the freedom it allowed me. We passed hundreds of teenagers enjoying the city, something I would never have had in the US. Within this short time, Braydon and I traversed into three different shops that sold a variety of attire. Soon after, we headed back towards Sushiro, in which our number was called shortly to our arrival. We walked over to our table in the far back, observing the hefty number of stacked plates on the tables of our neighboring customers. We had no idea of what we were getting ourselves into. As we sat down, we looked up to the screen that was our ordering station, and chose between two modes, the regular mode, and the game mode. Obviously, we chose the game mode. We both opened our respective menus and picked sample sized dishes, and at a maximum of four dishes per ordering round, we filled our bellies with a variety of different foods. Including dishes such as sushi, nigiri, ramen, soup, a selection of meats, desserts, and beverages. I disliked the fact that they didn’t have any cold water, and had to improvise by cooling down the hot water that was supposed to be used for Macha Tea. Other than that little issue, I personally greatly enjoyed my experience, loving the crunchy tempura shrimp and the creamy vanilla ice cream served with a lid that had a panda on top. Overall, this experience was delightful, and it shows the amazing experiencing that one can do in a single night. 

(Back to Kristin) I don’t eat sushi and I’ve heard the Japanese don’t like people coming into restaurants who don’t order anything, so I didn’t tag along. I walked around and ended up grabbing food from a 7/11 and a bottle of wine to have in my hotel room. I was exhausted anyway, so didn’t mind putting my feet up and reading.