The Japanese Experience.

I apologize for leaving my friends and family hanging from my previous entry. In fact, I had a lot of phone calls, emails, and voicemails from it. Now I feel a little embarrassed because things turned out a lot better than I expected.

I won't hold out anylonger and cut straight to the meat. Quinn's IEP went very well. After using 3 different screening measures, the school district feels that Quinn's diagnosis of PDD-NOS (high functioning autism) is accurate and he is now going to receive special education services as he starts kindergarten. He will be mainstreamed into a regular classroom and receive speech therapy and have a teacher's aid to help him stay focused during class. They also talked about adding occupational therapy to help with his sensory issues (i.e. excessive nose picking) and accomodations such as a special chair that will help him sit still, and a weighted vest. I can't remember what the vest is supposed to do, but hopefully it'll help. The school district was very proactive and I'm excited and nervous about his transition to public school. And, Oh MY GOD, when did my baby become old enough to start kindergarten???

I know I've been back from Japan for ages now, but I'm finally getting a chance t post some pictures and videos of our experience.

Here's a quick re-cap through videos of our trip... Below is my Mom and I in the airport preparing for our 12 hour flight.

Wow we look terrible in this video. This is after we landed in Tokyo Narita and were waiting for the Quarantine officers to screen us.

Then we had our first food experience... This restaurant was so neat. We had to take our shoes off and sit at little tables. The waiters would yell orders back and forth across the restaurant. They used what looked like a palm pilot to take our orders. This is where we ate slimy seaweed for the first time.

Then we went to the busiest grocery store in Tokyo called the Tokyo Food Show. It was literally like a food show.

They had fish heads, fish guts, seaweed, etc. See for yourself...

And then we went to Hakone and took a switch back train. Jeff is trying to explain

what it means when the train switches back. This is how the train goes up the steep mountain

slopes. It was raining that day but beautiful.

And then we went hiking up to the top of an active volcano where they boil eggs in the moisture that bubbles up from the volcano.

This process turns the eggs black and they supposedly give you 7 more years to live. I should live at least 14 years longer because I ate 2 of them.

Then we took a bullet train. They go up to 180 miles per hour. It's amazing how comfortable they are at such high speeds.

We also visited a very traditional town called Takayama. Check out the coy just swimming around in the middle of town.

So Japanese women use some interesting beauty products. I found this one a little titilating. ha ha ha.. Ok, bad joke. I know.

Before we left Tokyo, we had to experience the busiest intersection in the world probably. It's located in the Shabuya portion of Tokyo. Nicknamed Tokyo the "City of stimulation"

Watch this and see what I mean.

So that's my trip in short video clips. I'm trying to put together a more comprehensive trip video wth pictures and videos together. I'm sure I'll have it done within the next 10 years.