We had an uneventful flight from Hakodate to Tokyo this morning. After flying so much on the trip, domestic flights are a walk in the park. No customs on either side? Even Millie noticed as we were leaving and said “that was fast!”

She was excited from the moment she woke up because Tokyo meant meeting up with my parents. She has been ripping a little paper off her countdown calendar every day and today was the day. She could barely contain herself in our taxi. I remember the pain of impatient excitement from childhood. She took this photo in the taxi of her “excited face” when we were two minutes away.

The reunion was as sweet as expected. She ran into my mom’s arms and then refused to leave her side until bedtime.

Our room wasn’t quite ready so we hung out in theirs, took a walk through the garden downstairs, and had lunch at the hotel cafe.

Millie showed them every one of her belongings and roped them into playing various games and reading to her. Nick headed out for the afternoon for a long awaited but ultimately unfruitful appointment to get his watch fixed at the Apple Store.

My parents somehow fought through jet lag and we went out to find dinner at 6pm. We walked back through the garden and struggled a bit to find somewhere.

We eventually found ourselves in a small little upstairs restaurant. We had to use our translation apps to order and probably got too much food, but it felt very authentic for our first night together in Japan.

Millie had a brief freak out and we had to leave dinner early. I think the excitement of the day caught up with her. By bedtime she was in great spirits again and like last night, did an “I’m so excited!” squeal as we tucked her in.