Saving Up My Miles for Business Class Tickets to Japan

It's taken me over five years, but we were able to get business class tickets and most of our hotel rooms on miles.

Flying business class to Japan was amazing. We flew in a Boeing 777 and got to enjoy seats with ridiculous amounts of leg room. Our seats had 3 modes: upright, relax and bed. It was ridiculous. For once, I got a few hours of sleep because I put my seat in bed mode and got to actually stretch out. How awesome is that.

Where Are We Going in Japan?

This will be my fourth trip to Japan. For this trip, Maki and I decided to go south. We will visit Nara, Hiroshima and Tokyo. While down south, we are hoping to visit three sites that are in my 100 Man Made Treasures of Civilization book.

My mom, sisters, and Alex each own this book and we've been checking off items as we visit them. Alex has visited the most places at 64. My mom has viited 50 places, while I've only visited 24. If all goes as planned, I'll be able to check off:

• Tedai-ji Temple in Nara
• Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island, close to Hiroshima
• Seto-Ohashi Highway, which connects the Okayama and Kagawa prefectures

While in Tokyo, I want to see the Imperial Palace, Akihabara (electric down), the Asakusa Ninja, and the Myth of Tomorrow mural at the Shibuya metro station.

Perhaps most importantly, we want to great food, starting with sushi of course, but also lots of ramen, soba, udon, unagi, and on and on and on.

Preparing For a Trip to Japan

Going halfway around the world is a big deal. Going with kids, including a two-year old in diapers is an even bigger deal. So when we booked our tickets for our trip to Japan in November, I knew that the planning had to start way in advance.

We used miles to get our plane tickets. Thank goodness we were able to get business class tickets on miles for the dates we wanted. We were also able to use miles for most of our hotel rooms. It was a little challenging navigating the American Express travel site but it all worked out.

Packing is always hard but when I do it right, the rest of the trip goes swimmingly. Here's what I do:

• I prepare outfits for each family member by day, and then I make a stack of clothes for each day. It's a LOT more work to pack this way and it's not the most space-efficient way to pack. BUT it means that every morning, I just have to pull out a pile to have clothes for everyone. Everything else stays put. No piles everywhere to put outfits together. At the end of the day, I put all of the day's dirty clothes in a plastic and the bag goes into the empty space.

• I carefully pack my carry-on bags. For Japan, I opted for a backpack with a lot of pockets and my diaper bag. The backpack holds mostly my things, including reading materials for the plane, my wallet, our itinerary, copies of our passports, etc,

• The diaper bag includes diapers, wipes, extra clothes for me and MJ, snacks, a sippy cup, kid spoons, books and toys.

• CJ has his own backpack, which includes his DS, a magazine, a few books, his homework, some snacks. 

• Even our printed itinerary is carefully researched. For every city we're visiting, I visited fodors.com and found recommendations for the top sights and restaurants. I only have a few must see places on this trip, but it's always good to be prepared with suggestions when the group gets together in the morning and starts to organize the day. Our itinerary also includes all flight and hotel information, important phone numbers, gift requests, and addresses of people to whom we want to send postcards.

It's a lot of planning and I'm working with lists for weeks, but it's worth it!

Bye, Bye, High Chair and Playpen!

Some time in early August, our yaya announced that MJ was no longer using the high chair and playpen. What? How could this be? MJ wasn't even 2 while CJ used the high chair and playpen until he was 3!

The playpen was a great place to put MJ when I was alone with him and I needed to go to the bathroom, if I was cooking and needed him to be safely away from the stove, or if I needed to go upstairs for a few minutes.

The high chair was a great way to keep MJ in his chair during meals, it was easy to clean, and it was a nice, wide surface that MJ could play with.

But yaya was right. MJ wanted to sit at the kitchen island with us. He liked to sit on a bar stool, just like me, Maki and CJ. He also now hated being confined in the playpen. Where he used to play by himself in the playpen, especially after being in the company of others (he liked a little alone time), now he tried hard to pull himself up and out of the playpen.

So on August 11, Maki and I took our last photos of MJ using the playpen and high chair, then we put them away for good. No more baby gear in the house! We gave the highchair to a co-worker and we just tossed the playpen.

I was a little sad about getting rid of these things. It was another sign that my baby was no longer a baby. MJ is my second and my last and I don't have a baby anymore. I have a full on, energetic toddler!

CJ Got His Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do

CJ has been taking tae kwon do classes since June and he's now advanced to the third belt. He started at white, then advanced to orange, then advanced to yellow.

In order to advance to the next belt, the students need to:

• Get a red stripe for knowing their kicking combination (there's a different one for each belt)
• Get a blue stripe for knowing their form (there's a different one for each belt)
• Get a yellow stripe for breaking a board (it's a different kick for each belt

In addition, kids need to get a white stripe, which they get when their parents fill out a piece of paper saying they've been good at home, doing their homework, being helpful at home, getting good grades, etc. I love this stripe because it definitely keeps CJ in check. When he's acting up, I say, "I guess you don't want that white stripe very much."

At the end of September, after completing his stripes, CJ took the test to advance to yellow belt. The tests happen every 2-3 months and you can't take a test unless you've achieved all of the stripes. You have to show Master Yun that you know your kicking combination and form, and you can break an actual wooden board.

CJ had a tough time breaking the wooden board to advance to yellow belt. Breaking the board seems to be the toughest part of any belt test.

It's so great to see CJ so excited about tae kwon do. He begs to go to class each week (he goes about 3 times a week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday), he practices at home, and he has made good friends in class.

 Here's CJ with his fellow orange belts before the test.

 Here's CJ during the test. He's setting up for his kicking combination.

 Here's CJ breaking the board.

 Here's CJ getting presented with his yellow belt.

 

Master Yun loves to mess around with the kids!

What is MJ Saying These Days?

MJ is clearly relishing his ability to talk and communicate. He was a pretty good signer, which was a godsend when he wanted more of something or he wanted to go outside. Perhaps more importantly, Maki and I think sign language made MJ realize that he could communicate with us and this motivated him to sign and speak.

MJ signed: more, change, mama, dada, please (very popular), bath, music, eat, milk, thank you (very popular), bye bye.

Today, as MJ's verbal skills improve seemingly every day, he's abandoning signing and talking -- a lot.

He calls Grandpa Tak "pa"

He calls Grandma Linda and Grandma Josie "ma"

He calls CJ "ceej"

He calls Goring "yaya"

He knows how and when to use outside, upstairs and downstairs.

Interesting, he never asks for food. He just points at food and says "um." He will ask for "wa" (water).

He's starting to string together words to form simple sentences. CJ gets a little offended because MJ's sentences sound like orders. He likes to say "read books," "sit down" and "come back."

He just loves, loves trucks of all kinds. He likes to say fire truck, dump truck and digger.

He's starting to copy us when we say words slowly or read simple books.

My friends Alyson and Kathleen, who see him every few weeks, say that MJ's verbal skills seem to be increasing by leaps and bounds. I know that this is the age when communication skills really blossom and it's been so fun to watch and help MJ learn to communicate with us using language.

We Made It To St. Louis and Saw the Arch!

Many years ago, my mom bought "Wonders of the World: 100 Great Man-Made Treasures of Civilization." She bought copies for me and my brother and thus began a quest to see as many man-made wonders as possible.

Brother Alex went on two round-the-world trips and has seen nearly 70 wonders, including Potola Palace in Tibet and Machu Picchu in Peru. Mom retired from United and has seen 50 wonders. Me, I've seen a paltry 20 wonders and I consider myself well traveled!

The St. Louis Arch was the last US wonder that mom had not seen. So when I had the opportunity to do a sales presentation in St. Louis, I jumped at the chance. Alex was scheduled to come with as my Creative Director. Orbitz was good to us and I was able to get mom and CJ relatively inexpensive tickets. We just got lucky that CJ didn't have school on Friday because of a teacher workday.


So last Friday and Saturday, we got to visit the St. Louis Arch. It's big, really pretty, and really impressive. We saw it during the evening and during the morning. CJ, Alex and I took the little ride to the top of the Arch, but mom declined because of her claustrophobia and she was afraid the stairs.

We visited the museum, which had a terrific exhibit on the Lewis and Clark expedition. And we visited the museum store, of course!

We didn't get to try toasted ravioli, so maybe next time!