Zietlow Family Japancation

One of the great things in life is family. Its something, I've learned to appreciate more when I moved 6000 miles away nearly 3 years ago.  As kids, we went on two vacations that I remember. We went to Sea World in Ohio and then Chicago the next year. Nothing too crazy. This summer I got the chance to spend vacation in Japan with my family. As most people that might read this know, my brother, Ryan and his wife and 3 year old son also live here. I never thought I'd be able to talk my parents into finally coming to Japan but they made it!

We spent the weeks traveling around Japan and seeing the beauty of the road trips and flights that I had never taken the time to see. On the trip, there were many little hiccups in the road. Traveling with me is always an adventure.  Some people are even afraid to travel with me because they think I'm cursed. I disagree, sometimes the best stories are the ones when things don't go according to plan. Its easy to get frustrated and down when things don't fit your exact plan but really what can you do about it? So instead of a long wordy blog about my vacation, I thought I'd share the "interesting parts" and the glass half full way of looking at it. 

Wave 1 Greg 0

1. The very first day of vacation, I decided to go surfing.  This particular day had some monstrous waves. On that very first wave I took, I fell off my board and slammed my head into the shallow sand as the wave dragged me. I ended up with a huge gross looking cut. Glass half full: Outside of pain, my head and neck were ok and my face healed relatively well in a few days. Falling on my head could have ended a lot worse.

2. That Saturday, we decided to go to the beach in Yunohama on the other side of the island. On the way back, we got on the highway and started to run out of gas as there were no gas stations around. We were weaving in and out of mountains dreading the idea of pushing the car somewhere. Glass half full: We never actually ran out of gas and made it to a gas station.

3. Sunday afternoon, after the issues of Saturday we decided to take a road trip 5 hours away to Yokohama. I still can't believe we decided to do that! I packed my bags quickly making sure not to forget anything...only to get to Yokohama and realize I left my bag in another car. I had nothing but the clothes on my back for 3 days. Glass half full: There are lots of great department stores in Yokohama and I could also borrow clothes from Ryan (even if they were a little big haha).

My parents came in Tuesday night  and had no problems getting through customs aside from almost leaving their bags at Nagoya! The next few days we spent around Sendai with no major issues I can remember.

Temporary Housing for 100 families.

4. Saturday morning, we had planned to go to Ishinomaki  for a party with people in temporary housing from the tsunami of 2011. Its about an hour away.  As we got on the highway, our van started to fall out of gear. It was just the opposite of the movie "Speed" we couldn't go faster than 50 KMH. So we had to pull over and then drive the car slowly back to Takamori. Glass half full: The car didn't completely break down.. We took another car and made it out there after lunch.

Monday was great! We had no problems and just relaxed.

5. Tuesday, we were planning on flying to Osaka for a few days. My dad had to stay with me because we couldn't all fit in my brother's car. Our flight was out at 9:15 AM. We got a later start and nearly missed our subway to get us to the train we needed. Because we were late there was only one train that would get us there on time, if we missed it we were screwed. We had to sprint across traffic in order to make the subway. Then we got to Sendai station, got a little lost. We should have actually missed the train but it was inexplicably delayed 10 minutes. Because of the delay, we missed the train to the airport, the next one would have got us there too late so we took an expensive taxi. Meanwhile, Ryan drove what should have been an hour car ride in two because of traffic. Glass half full: Even though at the time it didn't feel like it was going to happen, we all got there in plenty of time for our flight.

6. Upon getting on a 90 minute train ride from the airport to our hotel, we realized that theres no way we would make our 7:15 AM flight Thursday morning with this train. Because of this we had to cancel our last night in the hotel (a pain) and then book a hotel at the airport. This also meant that we had to bring our bags with us the next day wherever we went. Glass half full: This one was pretty annoying. But we did get to get a glimpse of Osaka Castle, Universal Studios, and Osaka Aquarium. 

The moral of the story is that life is always going to throw obstacles in your way. Its easy to sit back complain and say "whoa is me." But ultimately, that just keeps you from experiencing anything. For some reason, I tend to experience more travel issues than most but its taught me great lessons on both trusting that God will get you through anything and worrying and complaining doesn't stop what happened. So you might as well keep pushing forward. I'd hate to not travel out of fear that an issue "might" happen.

I remember vividly, when I went home for a friends wedding and my flight was cancelled on my way back to Japan. I was so annoyed and upset that it completely ruined my day. Instead of enjoying a great day with my family in America, I was upset I couldn't get back on time and there was nothing I could do. I felt horrible that I wasted the day God gave me to be with my family in America because I was annoyed I didn't make my flight. Of course inconveniences suck. Life doesn't go exactly as you plan it. But if you embrace those moments that life hands you, you'll be stronger for it and have a great story in the end. As John Lennon says "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."