Our last week in the States was highlighted by an event we entitled “Monday Night for the Maloneys.” Our friends and family gathered to give us one big “goodbye”. It was wonderful and we would like to thank everyone who attended. Here are some of those people…
That Tuesday we both had to give up our iPhones, which I do not really want to talk about. Moving on…
We spent Wednesday night in Dallas because our flight left at 6 the next morning. Thanks to the advice of an employee of the airport we arrived three hours before our flight left. Here we are at 3 in the morning ready to go…
The counter opened and we soon found out that all three of our checked bags were over the weight limit. Since a few pounds were the difference between $25 and $150 we quickly redistributed our belongings.
Our first flight was from Dallas to Chicago. Not super exciting. But Chicago to Tokyo, a 14-hour flight, was…interesting. First, the flight attendants had 4 outfits that they changed to and from during the course of the flight. After several movies and a couple of meals we landed and trudged through the infamous immigration office.
Our boss met us at the airport and helped us take the 2-hour bus ride to Mito. I slept. Staci didn’t. We arrived to rain, 30-degree temperatures, and Oklahoma-grade wind. It was very confusing, but eventually we ended up in the car with someone who took us to our apartment.
And that’s when we met…the Kajiyamas! They are a wonderful couple that has basically adopted us as their own children. We stayed with them our first night, which was a good decision because we had no heater and it snowed. But before taking us home they proceeded to fill our apartment with everything but the kitchen stove (which they bought later). We had dinner and later breakfast at a table no more 6 inches above the floor under which my legs would not quite fit.
The Kajiyamas bought us many things for our apartment and we managed to purchase at least a few things without them paying (next post we will just give a tour of the apartment). Here’s the view from our front door (please note the cows)…
We are both quite happy right now though the language barrier is not great. Also, we have no phones or Internet, because we have no alien registration card. Usually it takes a week or so, but this year it is taking a month...
