House Hunters Lambernational

The day I had been dreaming about had finally arrived -- it was time to go house hunting in Japan!  After watching about 3 seasons of House Hunters International (HHI) on HGTV, I had all my lingo down (e.g., Oh, this is a nice space.  Oh, nice on-suite, eh (for all the Canadian shows).)  Our plans were almost foiled by the damn overpriced (with the discounts, $31/hour!) Japanese baby-sitting service that suddenly told us that no one was coming to watch the boys that day.  THERE ARE NO CHILDREN ON HHI.  For a reason.  Max and Zac on a househunting trip...hahahahahahahaha.  Right.  But, all was saved by my powers of international bitchiness, and we got a sitter...just a little later than expected.  So, we were off with Takai-san and Endo-san, who spoke great English.  We saw about 8 places that day I think, and it was a wide variety in several different neighborhoods.  In true HHI style, we had narrowed it down to three completely different places OF COURSE.  Will Jenny and Greg choose the high rise tower with amazing city views and modern amenities, but in a more commercial location?  Will they choose the swanky updated apartment, but a far walk from the grocery store and parks?  Or, will they choose the older apartment with not as many updates, but in the desired, family friendly neighborhood with an outdoor play area and pool?

And....dramatic pause and commercial break for paint and the fourth series given to The Property Brothers....The Lamberts chose Apartment #3!

We put in an "application" at Apartment #3, Hiroo Towers, which is in Minami-Azabu/Hiroo area, which is in my favorite area of Tokyo -- so many cool shops and restaurants, and it has lots of stuff for kids like a big park and even a Gymboree.   That pool is gonna be awesome -- it has a kiddie pool, so the boys will love it.  It's also home to many expats, so it has a large (i.e., for Tokyo, the size of a QT) international grocery store, etc.  Yes -- we're in a foreign country, but a few creature comforts from home won't hurt, right?  Here's a link:

http://www.realestate-tokyo.com/rentalapartment/B0000157/hiroo-towers/

Not sure when we can move in yet, but we should find out soon I hope.

Traveling to Tokyo

We arrived at the new international terminal of the Atlanta terminal with 5 (oversized) suitcases, two carseats, two backpacks, a computer bag, a double jogging stroller, a rental mini-van and two little monsters.  We like to travel light.  :-)  While Greg returned the rental car at a glacial speed, I wrangled the boys and all of our stuff.  Watching all the planes taking off did fascinate them for all of 15 minutes, and the rest of the time, I just tried to keep them from not getting arrested by TSA.  Max diving behind a ticket counter didn't help!  I did get an update on his weight though, which is good -- 35lbs!  When Greg finally returned, we ate at the airport El Taco (not as good as the real El Taco), and then boarded the plane.  The 12.5-hour flight was pretty exhausting with the boys as predicted.  We tried to entertain and feed them for about 5 hours and quelled a few meltdowns before "bedtime".  When it was time for "bedtime", Greg finally got Zac to sleep on the floor in front of us, but Max couldn't get comfortable.  Max slept a bit in the carseat, but not for long.  He proceeded to watch several hours of Caillou (with no sound), but just wouldn't fall asleep!  He finally was so tired that I put him back on the floor with Zac, and he fell asleep.  All in all, Zac slept for about 7 hours, and Max, maybe 4.5.   I didn't sleep a wink!  Ugh.  The flight attendants kept trying to get us to get them off the floor, but we just looked at them like they were crazy, and ignored them. :-)  The pilot himself would have had to make us move those two when they finally got to sleep!   It was so cute, at one point they were sharing a little airplane pillow.  When we finally got off the plane, getting to our corporate apartment was very smooth -- it took a large van and another car to get all our stuff there.  That night, we walked around our cool neighborhood in Akasaka, ordered an overpriced pizza and pasta dish because they delivered and took credit cards, and went to sleep!  And then...woke up 90 minutes later when the boys woke up since they just thought it was a nap.  Nightmare.  More on de-jetlagging later.