Hope's Arrival

So I want to recap the an amazing Thanksgiving week!!! My fiance Hope came out to visit me. We hadn't seen each other in 3 months so it was much anticipated to see her. She left Saturday morning for her and got her Sunday night. The most difficult part of her flight from South Bend to Detroit was security in South Bend.....what?!! Yeah, somehow the security in South Bend took her quite a while to get through because some lady there was trying to make sure there were no terrorists coming out of the South Bend Airport evidently.

Her flight from Detroit to Tokyo was about 14 hours and on this flight there is nothing more important than the seat you are in. Her seat was good, but the people next to her were well ok. She said the one lady to her left was really nice and sweet. Then there was the stereotypical worst guy to sit next to on a plane. He had on a huge coat that took up a seat and a half. It sounded like something an eskimo would wear on an Antarctic excursion. The plane wasn't cold, but he fell asleep with it on and my little 5'3 fiance was feeling crammed in her seat because of this man's coat. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, but on a 14 hour flight the littlest things will bug you to no end and test your patience. I completely understand and feel for her.

Then she had to switch terminals in Tokyo, Japan for her flight from Tokyo to Osaka. She said this was actually the worst flight because the girl next to her fell asleep on her. After traveling for that long that is the last thing anyone wants!!!

She finally got to Osaka and then she had to go through customs again. The problem here is that in Tokyo they made her go through customs and had taken her entry papers. She had to fill them out again and get escorted into an office to talk with someone. The pilot from her flight came up and asked her if everything was ok. She explained and he said well you do look suspicious as sarcastic as possible. She is a beautiful 5'3 cheerleader with a couple of huge bags of surprises for her lonely fiance in Japan (more on that later)

Finally, she made it to her fiance who was waiting outside of the baggage claim for her. Now as for me, I had my own story of events that day to get to that point.

I found out that the closest place she could fly in was the same place I came in - Kansai Airport in Osaka - an hour away from my apartment in Otsu. Our Assistant GM/player personnel coordinator/travel agent/translator/assistant coach...sort of/anything else was going to go with me on the train to pick her up. Well, she was coming in on an off weekend and evidently he had more important people and places to see. He printed out a sheet of train schedules and told me that it was easy. That was comical to me - a guy whose train experiences had not boded well in the past. In Taiwan I rode my first train/subway to go to the Zoo on the only off day that we had there. We went with our translator and at one stop he panicked and said, "get out get out get out!!!" I got out with my catlike quickness (a 14 year old cat that is). Then as soon as the doors were closing my translator Max told me that I should get back on because it was the wrong one. There I was in Taiwan stuck with no idea what to do. I waited and then took the next train that got there - thankfully it worked out and I made it to the zoo. The other train experience I had was in New York City. I was with my friend from Colombia's football team Jon Rocholl. Surprisingly, I didn't get lose this time, but I did hit my head so incredibly hard twice walking down to the subway.

So with just a sheet of directions and most of it in Japanese for the train schedule. I was a little worried, so I went to the Kyoto game the night before to practice. I felt much better then. I got to the train two hours before. I decided since Hope would have to go back on her own on Saturday morning I would take copious notes on each and every detail of the trip. I had my ipod in and was so excited to see my fiance!! I had cleaned the room up the best that I could. I had down laundry and bought some air fresheners to make it not smell like a locker room. I was on the train writing down each stop. I knew where I was supposed to stop and we weren't there yet. A lot of people were getting off in Kyoto. I knew that I was supposed to continue going. People were saying something to me in Japanese as they got off. I just kept on saying Shin-Osaka because that was my stop and I was sure that train had about 40 minutes to still get there. Finally I was the only one on the train car. Someone came back on and said train break. It was not good at all. I got off the train and then waited 30 minutes at customer service. I tried writing down where I was going and tried talking slowly, but it was difficult. Finally I got the station number of another train to Shin-Osaka and took that train to get there. I enjoyed that ride. I noticed a guy that was looking at the train schedule on the wall and he looked American. I asked him if I could help him. He said yes and I helped him the best that a directionally challenged man like myself could. We began to talk and he was from the University of Portland. He was with a program through the University of Virginia called semester at sea. He had been at sea since the beginning of the school year. Japan was his 12th country he had been to. He was meeting up with his cruise ship in Kobe, Japan to head back. He had been so many places it was really cool to talk to him and helped to pass time on the train. It was very refreshing to have an English speaking person here to have a casual conversation with.

Finally I got to Shin-Osaka and then got on another train to go to Kansai. It was about a 45 minute ride and I saved 500 yen (about 5 dollars) by getting unreserved instead of reserved. I didn't pay as much attention as I should have as to which cars were reserved and which were unreserved and after getting on the train I had to move about 4 trains forward. That was interesting, but not traumatic. I sat next to a sweet older lady. Well, she seemed sweet. I never actually talked to her. Then I finally got to the airport and it was about an hour before Hope was supposed to get there. I ate a panini right outside of where Hope was going to come out just in case she got there early. It was a great panini and reminded me of the ones I used to eat at the Barnes and Noble in South Bend.

Finally - Hope got there carrying her two huge carry-ons and two checked bags looking beautiful even after traveling for over 24 hours!! It was so great for her to finally get there! The anticipation and anxiety over missing the one person that I want to spend the rest of my life with was tough, but to see her reminded me very quickly of how worth it she is to be waiting on. I love her so much and can't wait to spend the rest of my life with her. She is worth waiting every moment for her. No matter how tough it gets, how lonely I get here, how monotonous life might be here, or how small my apartment feels to me, she is so incredibly worth enduring all of that because I know that spending the rest of my life with her will be to spend my life in pure happiness and joy - no matter what we endure and how tough things get.

The train ride home was much smoother. If she would have take about 30 minutes more it would have gotten interesting once again, but we caught the last train to Kyoto and then switched to the train to Otsu. It was so great to have her here!!! It was an interesting journey here both to Japan and to use being in love and engaged. We know that both were watched over and guided by our Creator and that is the reason that no matter how many bumps and crossroads we meet, we always find the right way and enjoy it together. I love you so much Hope and can't wait til the day we finally get married!! August 14, 2010 can't come soon enough!

Sorry for the Delay

Sorry for the delay in the posts. I have a bunch of them written down and will be posting them all soon. My beautiful fiance Hope was here to visit me last week for Thanksgiving and brought me a new computer. I can now post them. I am headed to do a radio interview here in Japan. It will be interesting as the radio is all in Japanese and I know very little Japanese. We will see how it goes. Thanks for all the messages and for all of you that have been asking my family when I will be posting again. Thank you!!

Family Videos

I had an off day today and some youtube videos that I can relate to:

This describes my parents dieting....my dad used to do this with cookies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGWUswIQ020

this is my mom and dad on vacation in Hawaii at the Maui Invitation last year. They stayed an extra day without us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=469GeeqVumY

I have heat!!!!!

Shige our trainer just knocked on my door and came in to translate my air conditioning/heat unit. The only thing I understand on it is the temperature. It is a number that is in Celsius. I just push up on down on it to set the temperature and thought this was all I had to do. It got rather chilly this weekend here and I put the temperature up quite a bit, but it didn't seem to get warmer. I now know why, but this weekend I had to fill the bathtub with warm water and let the humid warm air circulate throughout my apartment to warm up. It worked quite well and worked as a humidifier, but it only worked for a short while.

I am excited that I now have heat as it is starting to get colder over here now. Of course getting colder the first of November is a lot better than how early it gets cold in South Bend and compared to South Bend - I doubt it will ever get cold like that here!!

My computer is broke

My computer is broke. I am borrowing my teammate Chris'. Things have been good here. We are currently number one in the league at 7-3. We leave tomorrow for Fukouka. It sounds funny and is an 8 hour bus trip away. Bus leaves at 7:45, so that will be exciting.

Speaking of exciting. Right now I am looking at Honeymoon spots (Hope has left this task to me with only a few paramaters. The paramaters are a lot easier than her dream engagement so I should be alright) While I am checking out honeymoon spots, I am talking to Hope on skype as she gets ready for work. We talk every morning as she gets ready for work. It is always night for me 14 hours difference now with the time change. So I talk to her from 8 to 10 my time.

She has a lot of things to do in the mornings. It's like watching a behind the scenes episode of an American Businesswoman as she has a fantastic job at Bayer Healthcare in South Bend. (Yes, she turns off the camera for all the parts rated more than PG....guess I'll hafta wait until I'm married for that version) Many mornings she gets up even earlier and does P-90x!! She works really hard at everything she does and I really admire her for that. I help her in the mornings with her makeup and everything (haha...yeah right!!).

I will get a computer soon. Hope is coming out on November 21 and I am pumped!!! It will be our first Thanksgiving together and it just so happens to be in Japan. We are going to try and cook a Thanksgiving meal with what we've got here. It will be tough with a toaster oven, a foreman and two burners on a grill, but I think we can do it. I will let you know how it goes. I am really excited to see her though as it has been 2 months since we have seen each other, even if we see each other on Skype every day and it is tough to be away from someone you love like that for that long. I definitely look forward to her coming out!!! She is staying for about 5 days and it will be quick, but fantastic. We will probably celebrate Christmas in there as well.

So right now I am talking to Hope on Skype, researching Honeymoon spots (it's a surprise and I will be the only one that knows until I tell Hope at Brunch the day after the wedding...so don't ask....but advice is welcome!!), and watching Barnyard (such a great movie...one of Cody and I's favorites!!!) What a life I live...haha.

Will update soon. We were 1-1 this weekend. Here are some pictures.

http://topics.shiga-saku.net/

First Road Trip

We had a two game preseason road trip. We started out on Monday morning and got onto our team bus that is painted out and decal ed so that anyone within a one mile radius knows the Shiga Lakestars are on that bus! It's pretty sweet. It's a nice charter bus and good thing because we spent a lot of time on it.

Evidently it is Silver week here which is a vacation week for all of Japan. They have National holidays a lot here because otherwise people will not take days off. They work incredibly hard here. The front office of our team works incredibly hard and almost lives there. Our promotional manager Buchi had actually been at the office 5 days straight before we had our press conference last week.

Anyway, everyone took vacation. I mean everyone. Our 4 hour bus ride took us about 5 and a half. We got to the gym 45 minutes before the game started. We played like we had just gotten off the bus 45 minutes before. We didn't hit many outside shots and they hit all of theirs. We lost by about 15. Then we had what was supposed to be about a 4 hour bus ride to the hotel for the night. It was about a 5 hour ride. We got into the hotel at about 12:30.

It was a really nice hotel. It had a big bed, but not much else to the room. Then, it had a toilet that looked like the air force one of toilet. You could warm the seat and use the spray that would clean you instead of wiping. That had different pressure settings and everything for it. I opted out of all of them and tried to guess left or right flush for #1 of #2. So I went to sleep that night and then had to get up at 8:30 for breakfast before shootaround.

Then after shootaround we came back to the hotel for a little while before heading to the game. The game didn't go real well. I didn't play well, but ended up with 17 points. We lost by about 20. We are still in preseason form for sure and have a lot of things that we need to work on, but that is what the preseason is for. Then after the game we supposedly had a 6 hour bus ride. The ride ended up being much longer than that. I'm not sure how long but I'm going to guess about 9. It was a long time. I read an entire book on the way up on the bus trip and on the way back watched Braveheart and the Bourne Supremacy so I was very productive just in different ways.

Thanks to everyone for the emails and messages on facebook!!! It has been so good to keep in touch with you and I appreciate it so much!!