Mothers Love Their Daughters:

The proof is in a trip to Tokyo!

I love my daughter!

I traveled to Tokyo, Japan in September 2015 to prove it. She and her husband had just moved from Texas to Tokyo in June 2015 for work. It was a huge adjustment for her being away from us with a young child, and it was a huge adjustment for us being away from her for the first time.

I truly love my daughter!

I traveled to Tokyo again in May 2016 to visit and support their growing family as they welcomed their second daughter into the world!

I really, really love my daughter!

The proof is in my trips to Tokyo. Let’s count down the proof!

 

PROOF #5: MISSING AND GAINING DAYS

They are 14 hours ahead of us, so to visit by Skype I always have to stop and figure out the time zone difference. If it is morning for me, say 7 AM, then it is evening for them, 9 PM. If it is evening for us, say 7 PM, then it is morning for them the next day, 9 AM! I must have a mental block, because I am forever getting it backwards and making assumptions and missing phone calls and precious visits.

 

PROOF #4: JET LAG

Let me see if I can get this one right! I left on a plane at 7 AM on a Sunday. The flight took 13+ hours. They are 14 hours ahead of us. So I arrived in Tokyo and fell into her welcoming arms – including one layover and checking in and finding my baggage and exchanging money and finding a bus and meeting my daughter’s husband at the bus stop and walking forever and finding a taxi and locating our hotel and checking in and dropping off the luggage and walking to their apartment… – at about 4 PM on a Monday! But coming home I am told I will arrive in the United States before I left Japan!

 

PROOF #3: OH MY, THE FOOD

Now, I like just about everything, but… a girl has her limits. I don’t know if my daughter just wanted to take me to “the next level” since this was my second visit, but one bowl full of noodles had a bazillion little fishes with eyes looking up at me all over it! And another bowl of noodles had fish flakes (or so I am told) sprinkled on top and they were literally moving! She swears they were moving because the heat rising from the noodles made the fish flakes move. I traded meals with her and had a wonderful noodle and salmon dish with a creamy sauce throughout!

PROOF #2: CRAMPED LIVING QUARTERS

I’m a little bit ashamed of the amount of space we use in the United States. But I love our home and looking out over 25 acres of beautiful land covered with trees and running water and beautiful fields and “expensive yard art” (horses)! I promise, to get around my little hotel room, you sometimes have to walk sideways around the bed! I made a pact with my personal fitness trainer that I would walk and keep up with my planks, at least… Well let me tell you this has really been a challenge… as there is barely enough space on the floor of my hotel room to do a plank!

 

 

And finally…

PROOF #1: OH, THE PARKING GARAGES

Thankfully, I have yet to be run over by a car in Tokyo! But I have had about seven heart attacks in front of parking garages! For before a car even gets remotely close to an exit, the loudest and most irritating alarm will blare, practically blowing a pedestrian off the sidewalk and causing the most distressing heart palpitations I have ever experienced!

Just in case anyone needed proof that I really love my daughter!