Off and Running

We're sitting in a hotel restaurant at 11:30 p.m. waiting for fish and chips and a Heineken. It's our last ounce of energy before we crash completely out. 

It's been 25 hours since we left our house and I snapped this picture before getting in the cab to the subway station...

Our flight out of Sendai was in the late afternoon so we had all morning to pack and prepare, but somehow we just barely made it out of the house in time.

I'm trying to beat the boys at their own game by outdoing their crazy faces when we take photos, but I'm losing apparently.

Kenzo and Osamu were excited to pack their own backpacks for the trip. Kenzo packed exactly what I thought he would: his monkey, a Pokemon monster ball, a robot pterodactyl, and his pencil case.

Osamu packed light and pragmatically; just his magic wand, made from a piece of rolled up paper.

Makes sense. If you forget your toothbrush just wave that wand and conjure one up.

When we checked in we bumped into our neighbor's sister. She works at the airport. I told Eri I didn't know she worked here and she said how could you not know everyone knows.

I didn't know.

We had a little time after all so we headed up to the roof where they have an observation deck that the boys and I have visited before. This time Kenzo lucked out with the telescope because mama put money in it for him. Papa never does.

After watching a bunch of planes take off and land it was our turn to head for the international gate.

I pre-ordered our meals online when I checked in. What a world we live in. I got kids meals for the boys and they were good... for me. I ate pretty much all of them, plus my dinner. The boys ate their fruit and bread. Maybe it was the excitement or the totally different tastes or the nervousness of being on a long flight, but they rejected the chicken and noodles. I can't let food go to waste so I did what I do, which is stuff it all down and feel terrible later.

They're like petting zoo animals.

By the time we landed in Taipei I was full and lethargic.

Kenzo and Osamu immediately found a playground and they were off and running, literally. Eri went to a nearby gate that didn't have any flights leaving for a while and staked out a quiet spot. I started talking to a nice couple from England who have a daughter around the boys' age and they were playing together. They were on a layover from London to Brisbane to visit family. 

The boys were incredibly hyperactive. It was 10 p.m. in Taiwan, which means it was 11 p.m. where we just left. Eri called me so I said excuse me to the nice couple from England. I said hi and Eri just said, "I can hear the boys all way down the airport corridor."

In-flight entertainment has come a long way, so the boys were mostly occupied in between sleeping and eating. It made the 12-hour flight a little easier. Kenzo watched Spider Man over and over. Osamu found the Paw Patrol movie. I was sitting across the aisle and ordered myself a whiskey on the rocks and promptly fell asleep after the high school kid next to me finished talking my ear off.

We made it. Let the American-style shenanigans begin.