We got up at 4:30, got ready and were out the door an hour later. Rie and I each had one small bag for the weeklong trip, while Mia somehow required three. In her case it’s not the size of the clothes, but the many, many layers.
Kazu (the father-in-law) was parked downstairs, and his Harrier sat gleaming and steaming in the crisp light of this cold Wednesday morning. He was grappling with the new child seat when we arrived, fumbling with the various straps and levers in a clearly trial-and-error fashion and mumbling under his breath about this or that thing being strange. Somewhere a four-page manual lay folded and taped inside a clear plastic pouch, I was sure, never to see the light of day.
We loaded the car, climbed in, and sped off before screeching to a halt and heading back for Mia. She lay in the middle of the living room floor, absently sucking her pinky and waiting for the next bit of fun.
We bundled her into the car and strapped her into the child seat. She didn’t warm to the concept of complete immobilization right away or, for that matter, ever. But at least she didn’t start crying about it until much later in the day. We pointed the Harrier in the direction of Kumamoto and sped off into the morning.
The distance between Tokya and Kumamoto is over 1200 kilometers, or about 800 miles. We made the trip in only 16 hours, which is pretty good when you consider that most of the “highways” between here and there have only four lanes (total) and are typically congested. We stopped often but briefly at the regular and identical rest areas that line the highway here. Rie had to nurse every two hours or so, while the rest of us made due with the low-grade rest stop fare and assorted snacks we brought along for the ride.
Kazu and I took turns driving and sleeping thoughout the day. We sped through Shizuoka and Nagoya, Osaka and Okayama, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi before finally getting down into Kyushu. By evening the drive was beginning to wear us all down, and Mia finally decided she had had enough and launched into a screaming fit that wouldn’t subside. I tried all of the tried-and-true means of placating her–the orange rattle, the foot massage, the (Day-O) Banana Boat Song singing, the Big Smile, everything–but to no avail. She wanted out of that seat and nothing else was going to please her.
Unfortunately there were no rest areas for another 30 km, so we raced along at 130 kph with Mia’s wailing rattling the windows, trying to get there as soon as possible. By the time we did arrive Mia was completely red and tears streamed down both sides of her face. It broke my heart to see her like that, and we took a longer-than-usual break while I walked her around and chanted non-sensical things about it going to be alright.
We finally arrived at the homestead at around nine-thirty in the evening. We were all wreaked, and お母さん had prepared dinner for us so we relaxed and drank beers and talked about what a tough trip it had been. I had only had three hours of sleep the previous evening and brief bits here and there throughout the day, so when it came time to retire shortly thereafter I crashed hard and stayed that way. Until Mia woke up at dawn the next morning.
How nice it is to finally be on vacation…