After fifteen years of Brynn trying to convince us that Japan was the ideal holiday place, BBM agreed to meet us there after we went to a family wedding in LA.  Brynn stressed and carefully checked with the travel agent to ensure we arrived at Narita before BBM.  She was afraid he would get lost in a train station. We understood her angst once we were standing on one of the many levels of the Tokyo train station with signs and platforms stretching as far as we could see in every direction.  Thankfully toilet signs are the same world over. In Japan even toilets are cause for entire conversations.  Do you prefer your seat warmer or cooler?  Do you wish the jet of water to be more forward or behinder? Stronger stream of water or more gentle? I’m sure I’m not the only westerner who has tried to look while the toilet was operating. I still don’t know where or how the water came out.

Trains stations turned out not to be a problem since Brynn is tall, blond, and was wearing a bright red jacket she had purchased in LA.  Everyone else, thousands of commuters, were dressed in black and white office clothes.  We followed our bright guide and never got lost.

So BBM set aside his boat once more for the sake of others, and came prepared to help celebrate Brynn’s 30th birthday.  We did the requisite Tokyo visit to electronic stores because my mobile phone face was cracked.  There were too many shops, and within half an hour we had decided I would buy a new phone when we returned home.  Instead we found a restaurant to try another new dish.

Since cherry blossom season was almost over, BBM suggested we chase the cherry blossoms north.  Brynn was thrilled to think that she not only got to see the cherry blossoms, but BBM also got to do something near and dear to his heart.  Across the street from our Sapporo hotel we saw tents going up and asked what was happening?  A sake and beer festival? Really?  And what time would that start?  And what time would it end?  So we arrived early the next day for an initial tasting with local foods, walked all day, saw cherry blossoms at a temple site, and ended up back tasting sake and local foods.  What a perfect day.

During the holiday we had fish prepared just about every way possible.  Grilled, baked, raw, pickled, dried, smoked, whole, filleted, minced.  And, we are fish eating people.  This is important to understand when considering a comment BBM made on the way to the airport to return home.  At any rate, Brynn, our Japanese guide, ordered our final meal for us. Three hamburgers please.

That last evening, BBM finally gets a message that something has come through email which he had been waiting for the entire time.  In fact, it was the sole reason he lugged his laptop in his backpack the entire time. Three o’clock in the morning he wakes me to ask for help with something.  I recognise a stressed husband when I see one.  I help with something minor then wonder down to the all-night shop in the hotel to get coffee and pastries for us.  I pass a gentleman coming off the lift and we say hello in English to each other.  I get up to our 12th floor, come off the lift, and barely miss stepping on my very own multi-coloured panties! I look at them in a sleepy daze, consider how they got there, consider walking off and acting like they’re not mine.  I sigh, pick them up and carry them into our hotel room.  BBM thanks me for the coffee.  His eyes go wide as I hold up what I found in front of the lift.  I can only assume that they fell out of my jeans leg.

I go back to bed and sleep until BBM wakes me again at 5.30 am for some more assistance.  By this time, he’s stressing also about the fact that he needs my help. What is wrong with him that he can’t remember these simple things?  Nothing can stress me now.  I lived through knowing there was a camera on the lift and someone on night shift would have seen me collect those knickers.

So, we’re finally on the way to the airport, BBM turns to me and says, ‘I wonder if we can actually stand to eat as much fish as I had planned on catching on the boat?’