Recently, my day looks something like this:

I’m awoken about 4 AM by Jerry. Eriko has fed him, but he’s still restless so she asks me to hold him. I bounce him for a bit and then lay in bed holding him. I can’t really fall asleep like this, but it is better than sitting on the couch. Eventually I start to doze, which causes me to shift my body position and Jerry wakes up. This repeats for an hour or more until Eriko feeds Jerry again. I sleep for maybe an hour before the alarm goes off - recently at 6:45 (although I’m aiming for 6).

Since our return from Nagoya, Jerry has been on a radically different clock. To make matters worse, Eriko is on a slightly different clock. The net result is that Jerry wakes up several times during the night and Eriko is often too tired to take care of him without my support.

The net net is that I’m averaging less than 6 hours of sleep (probably more like 4). I’ve done my best not to take any naps so that my schedule stays on Seattle time. I’ll probably have to throw that goal out the window, although I’m not very good at taking naps. Right now, there’s a lump in my throat the size of a marble and I have aches and pains all over. Oh no!

We returned from Nagoya on Wednesday. The flight was long - we woke up in Nagoya about 7 AM, arrived at the airport about 10:20, and boarded our first flight about 11:30. We went first to Narita, where we changed planes and had about 30 minutes before boarding our next flight. Narita is a real pain to travel through these days - you have to go through an additional security checkpoint whenever you transfer between flights and it is always crowded. The flight from Narita lasted about 9 hours. We had expected Jerry to have a poor flight (as the way over he had some trouble) but he actually did quite wonderful. He fell asleep right after take-off and slept for a few hours. Then he woke up and we had to dedicate some attention to him, but he didn’t get upset and we were able to keep him happy. The airline baby food meal was actually quite good and Jerry ate a lot. He fell asleep again for a few hours, although this sleep was a little more restless as he was getting quite hot.

I am sitting in the hotel room, which I will soon leave. My ride to the airport doesn't happen until 4 PM and I have to check out of the hotel at noon. I'll ask the staff if they'll keep my luggage so I can walk around downtown, but failing that I'll just wait in the hotel lounge.

This was the best trip to Moscow I've had so far. There were several factors:

1. Eriko was in Nagoya, where she had the full support of her family.
2. I was able to see Eriko & Jerry every day using video Skype.
3. I came here alone. That gave me lots of personal time (mainly spent working on my own computer projects in the hotel room - I facilitated a dramatic increase in the amount of spam the family receives.) I typically went to bed on a relatively light stomach (instead of being stuffed) and not drunk. Riding the metro by myself was a nice feeling of accomplishment.
4. Dmitry dedicated lots of time to me. He picked me up at the airport, we spent the Monday touring, we had lunch together every day, he gave me rides to the hotel several times, and we went out to dinner on Thursday.

It started at 5 AM. All my items were downstairs in the entrance, so Eriko and I spent some quiet time together before heading down. The "airport limousine" (shuttle van) was right on time - 5:30. It picked up three other passengers, although I wasn't awake for the last one. We arrived at Japan's Central Airport about 6:30 - plenty of time to make my 8 AM flight. I waited for about 15 minutes in the check-in line for ANA. After I arrived at the counter, I found out my flight had been cancelled! The airline refunded the ticket and gave me instructions for taking the shinkansen to Narita. Of course, those instructions had me boarding a train that left in 10 minutes! I hurried to find the train station and bought myself a ticket to Nagoya Station. That was no problem. The instructions, however, said that I should take the shinkansen which left at 7:58 - but the first train didn't arrive at Nagoya until 7:49. Alas, I could have purchased the entire trip at the CentralAir station but did not - so despite rushing through Nagoya Station at high speed (with my luggage), I missed the desired shinkansen since I had to wait in line to buy tickets.

This year’s resolutions are focused on health - emotion, mental, and physical. Hopefully these resolutions are all measured and attainable.

• JLPT: Level 3 (1409 words, 284 kanji)
• Smaller waist (awaiting initial measurement)
• Running and/or swimming at least twice per week
• At least two hours of exercise per week
• One diary entry per week.