Here is an experience that we had on our return trip home as told by Alyssa's Father. It will forever be shared as part of our family history.
I will preface this by saying this will be a long post. I felt the impression to share it with my social media friends, so here goes. What follows is what will now be a family legend that we call "The Miracle of the Katanas". This is the story of how we got home from Japan with our daughter Alyssa Pickering after picking her up a very short time ago. If you read this, I promise you will be entertained and uplifted, but you have been warned.
I need to start by saying that I have always loved Japan from when I was in elementary school. Read Shogun a couple of times and once Alyssa got called to serve her mission there, I was so excited to possibly be able to pick her up. Once that was confirmed, I was so excited to go and buy an OK set of decent swords to display in my office. A katana and wakizashi would be perfect.
On our first real day there in Kyoto, we found many shops there that sold them. I found a set that I liked, bought them, and life was good, or at least better. Now, as soon as I got them, I did the math in my head and figured, "There is no flipping way the katana will fit in a suitcase." So my mind was occupied with trying to figure it out, but in the absence of a solution, at least ignoring the impending problem of getting them on the plane. I figured we would work it out.
As we got closer to leaving, I kept trying to figure it out. I looked all around in the shopping areas for a bag or even a box that would be big enough. No dice. The last day, with still no real solution, we found a bunch of boxes ready for recycling outside of a convenience store near our apartment in Osaka and with some tape and a can-do attitude, I crafted a long box with 3 of them. I taped them together like a boss, too. We stuffed the box full of all kinds of other stuff and felt pretty good about myself. I even made a handle for the box out of duct tape. Nice. Mission accomplished and we are ready to depart.
The next morning, we leave the apartment about 5:15am and immediately find 2 taxis to take us to the airport. We are feeling great about things at this point. We arrive at the airport in amazing time, about 20 minutes. Unload, grab our things, and begin waiting in line for the counter to open so we can check our luggage and check in. We are 2nd in line and in great shape.
6am, JAL opens their lines and we walk on up. The lady helping us, obviously new from what Alyssa tells us by how she is asking questions of others, checks our suitcases, then begins sizing up my homemade sword box. After some deliberation with co-workers, we are informed that they will not send that. We will have to take out the swords and put them in a JAL metal strong box. We protest, saying that there is so much other stuff in this box. Just send it, we are OK. They say no, and have us take the box to a table around which are all of the other passengers waiting for their turn. They give us paper sacks to put all of the other crap in and tell us we must carry those on. They then lovingly place my swords in a nice silver JAL box and tell me I will need to pick those up in Tokyo to get a new box and transfer them to the Tokyo to Houston flight. We leave feeling frustrated and a little bit like vagabonds as we shuffle through the airport with numerous paper sacks in hand.
At the gate, we organize our bags a bit and feel a little better about ourselves, but after we board, we hear the announcement that our flight is going to be delayed as we wait for a few other passengers that were on their way. My pulse quickens and I begin to worry that there will be no time at all to pick up the swords. By the time we land, our next flight has begun boarding. I have no delusions that we will get the swords, and I am even doubting if we will make the flight home at this point. Alyssa, with her faith, says all will be fine. She had prayed and asked for us to make it and that it would be great that her dad's swords would be fine as well. She said don't worry, Heavenly Father will take care of it.
We deplane and begin a mad dash to get to the international terminal. We had no idea how big this place was when we arrived, since we stayed within a smaller area. Just as we get to the exit for domestic flights, we see our names on a board. Japan Air Lines (JAL) had flagged us for the swords, knowing they had to turn them over to American Airlines for the trip to the US. A woman was there waiting for us. She said we would wait here for the swords. And we waited. And we looked at our watches. We were not going to make it. She said do not worry. The swords arrive, they grab them from their metal case and this little Japanese woman in high heels and a skirt scoops them up in her arms, looks at us, says "Let's run," and off she sprints down the jetway. We trail along to keep up, with paper bags and carry-ons rolling behind us. After running down 2 long hallways, we enter a huge area the size of a couple of college field houses, which contain all of the airline counters that fly out of Tokyo. She sprints alongside us from one side to the other and promptly inserts us right to the counter, in front of a long line of disgruntled passengers wondering why we get the red carpet treatment.
She turns us over the American Airlines at this point, who take my swords, now contained only in their small boxes that we got from the store in Kyoto. They put tags on them, and promise that they will tape them up and get them on the flight. Looking at the time, the flight should be departing in just a few minutes. We are skeptical but hopeful. The JAL employee shows us to the international security and walks away. We then get in a very large line and look at one another, figuring it was a good fight, but we have a long way to go to get through this security line. The woman from JAL noticed this from afar, and realized our plight. She returns to the rescue, like a high-heeled petite super hero and pulls us up to the priority line and gets us right in. We express our gratitude as best we can, and move on to immigration. At this point, another person is waiting for us. They ask if we are the supposed to be on the flight to Houston, we say yes, to which he replies they are waiting for us for our flight. We get through immigration, Alyssa having to take a little longer as she has been in country a long time and they need to say their proper goodbyes, apparently.
As we wait for her to clear, we have a new JAL woman super hero waiting for us on the other side to accompany us the rest of the way. She tells us that we are very lucky, that there are a lot of people that are supposed to be on this flight that would not make it because there was not enough time, but to not worry, they would wait for us. Alyssa gets through and she hustles with us just another 50 yards to the gate, where they are waiting to let us in. They welcome us aboard, and in very short order, the flight taxis out of the gate and we are on our way back to home, us bringing a couple of sweet swords and Alyssa leaving a part of her heart with that wonderful people from Japan.
As we sat there and gushed about the service we received and how awesome it was that we made it, we came to the realization that we had, in fact, witnessed some miracles that day. We came to realize that we were absolutely in God’s hands, and that he had blessed us that day as he does so often. We came to realize that the miracle was not in the katanas making it, but was in that if we did not have those katanas, and if there had not been a problem where they turned us into bag people for a day, we would not have even made the flight home. They were waiting for us because they knew they had our swords and because of that, escorted us along the way and made sure we made it to our flight. If they had checked the box as we had hoped, we would not have made it either. The miracle was in a Father in Heaven that loves us enough to make things go well for us on that day and in answering prayers in ways that we had no idea, and had, in fact, initially, been pretty ticked off about. A great lesson in life and the love our Father in Heaven has for us.
So now as you can see, I have those swords hanging in my office, in plain sight as I work on computer stuff at my practice. I can look at them all day and be reminded of miracles and love and faith and the amazing service we got from both Japan Air Lines and American Airlines. And that I have a pair of suh-weet samurai swords.
I need to start by saying that I have always loved Japan from when I was in elementary school. Read Shogun a couple of times and once Alyssa got called to serve her mission there, I was so excited to possibly be able to pick her up. Once that was confirmed, I was so excited to go and buy an OK set of decent swords to display in my office. A katana and wakizashi would be perfect.
On our first real day there in Kyoto, we found many shops there that sold them. I found a set that I liked, bought them, and life was good, or at least better. Now, as soon as I got them, I did the math in my head and figured, "There is no flipping way the katana will fit in a suitcase." So my mind was occupied with trying to figure it out, but in the absence of a solution, at least ignoring the impending problem of getting them on the plane. I figured we would work it out.
As we got closer to leaving, I kept trying to figure it out. I looked all around in the shopping areas for a bag or even a box that would be big enough. No dice. The last day, with still no real solution, we found a bunch of boxes ready for recycling outside of a convenience store near our apartment in Osaka and with some tape and a can-do attitude, I crafted a long box with 3 of them. I taped them together like a boss, too. We stuffed the box full of all kinds of other stuff and felt pretty good about myself. I even made a handle for the box out of duct tape. Nice. Mission accomplished and we are ready to depart.
The next morning, we leave the apartment about 5:15am and immediately find 2 taxis to take us to the airport. We are feeling great about things at this point. We arrive at the airport in amazing time, about 20 minutes. Unload, grab our things, and begin waiting in line for the counter to open so we can check our luggage and check in. We are 2nd in line and in great shape.
6am, JAL opens their lines and we walk on up. The lady helping us, obviously new from what Alyssa tells us by how she is asking questions of others, checks our suitcases, then begins sizing up my homemade sword box. After some deliberation with co-workers, we are informed that they will not send that. We will have to take out the swords and put them in a JAL metal strong box. We protest, saying that there is so much other stuff in this box. Just send it, we are OK. They say no, and have us take the box to a table around which are all of the other passengers waiting for their turn. They give us paper sacks to put all of the other crap in and tell us we must carry those on. They then lovingly place my swords in a nice silver JAL box and tell me I will need to pick those up in Tokyo to get a new box and transfer them to the Tokyo to Houston flight. We leave feeling frustrated and a little bit like vagabonds as we shuffle through the airport with numerous paper sacks in hand.
At the gate, we organize our bags a bit and feel a little better about ourselves, but after we board, we hear the announcement that our flight is going to be delayed as we wait for a few other passengers that were on their way. My pulse quickens and I begin to worry that there will be no time at all to pick up the swords. By the time we land, our next flight has begun boarding. I have no delusions that we will get the swords, and I am even doubting if we will make the flight home at this point. Alyssa, with her faith, says all will be fine. She had prayed and asked for us to make it and that it would be great that her dad's swords would be fine as well. She said don't worry, Heavenly Father will take care of it.
We deplane and begin a mad dash to get to the international terminal. We had no idea how big this place was when we arrived, since we stayed within a smaller area. Just as we get to the exit for domestic flights, we see our names on a board. Japan Air Lines (JAL) had flagged us for the swords, knowing they had to turn them over to American Airlines for the trip to the US. A woman was there waiting for us. She said we would wait here for the swords. And we waited. And we looked at our watches. We were not going to make it. She said do not worry. The swords arrive, they grab them from their metal case and this little Japanese woman in high heels and a skirt scoops them up in her arms, looks at us, says "Let's run," and off she sprints down the jetway. We trail along to keep up, with paper bags and carry-ons rolling behind us. After running down 2 long hallways, we enter a huge area the size of a couple of college field houses, which contain all of the airline counters that fly out of Tokyo. She sprints alongside us from one side to the other and promptly inserts us right to the counter, in front of a long line of disgruntled passengers wondering why we get the red carpet treatment.
She turns us over the American Airlines at this point, who take my swords, now contained only in their small boxes that we got from the store in Kyoto. They put tags on them, and promise that they will tape them up and get them on the flight. Looking at the time, the flight should be departing in just a few minutes. We are skeptical but hopeful. The JAL employee shows us to the international security and walks away. We then get in a very large line and look at one another, figuring it was a good fight, but we have a long way to go to get through this security line. The woman from JAL noticed this from afar, and realized our plight. She returns to the rescue, like a high-heeled petite super hero and pulls us up to the priority line and gets us right in. We express our gratitude as best we can, and move on to immigration. At this point, another person is waiting for us. They ask if we are the supposed to be on the flight to Houston, we say yes, to which he replies they are waiting for us for our flight. We get through immigration, Alyssa having to take a little longer as she has been in country a long time and they need to say their proper goodbyes, apparently.
As we wait for her to clear, we have a new JAL woman super hero waiting for us on the other side to accompany us the rest of the way. She tells us that we are very lucky, that there are a lot of people that are supposed to be on this flight that would not make it because there was not enough time, but to not worry, they would wait for us. Alyssa gets through and she hustles with us just another 50 yards to the gate, where they are waiting to let us in. They welcome us aboard, and in very short order, the flight taxis out of the gate and we are on our way back to home, us bringing a couple of sweet swords and Alyssa leaving a part of her heart with that wonderful people from Japan.
As we sat there and gushed about the service we received and how awesome it was that we made it, we came to the realization that we had, in fact, witnessed some miracles that day. We came to realize that we were absolutely in God’s hands, and that he had blessed us that day as he does so often. We came to realize that the miracle was not in the katanas making it, but was in that if we did not have those katanas, and if there had not been a problem where they turned us into bag people for a day, we would not have even made the flight home. They were waiting for us because they knew they had our swords and because of that, escorted us along the way and made sure we made it to our flight. If they had checked the box as we had hoped, we would not have made it either. The miracle was in a Father in Heaven that loves us enough to make things go well for us on that day and in answering prayers in ways that we had no idea, and had, in fact, initially, been pretty ticked off about. A great lesson in life and the love our Father in Heaven has for us.
So now as you can see, I have those swords hanging in my office, in plain sight as I work on computer stuff at my practice. I can look at them all day and be reminded of miracles and love and faith and the amazing service we got from both Japan Air Lines and American Airlines. And that I have a pair of suh-weet samurai swords.
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