No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world!

He has made us all laugh for years. With his quick speech, crazy voices and quick whit...he has brought laughter in all our homes. His talents could not be reckoned with. But there was a sadness behind that smile...a sadness many have and are afraid to show the world. His name is Robin Williams...he was a father, son, husband and friend. He has a large group of people that will now go through the difficult process of finding a new normal without him. 

There is a huge stigma behind mental illness. It's scary to most that do not educate themselves about it. Hell, I am educated about it and it scares me sometimes. I feel fortunate to not suffer from mental illness or depression....but have people that I love, that do. I don't love them any less because of it, but it's not always easy to have them in my life. Sometimes people with mental illness love the deepest but have qualities that are hard to be around. My hope is that one day there will be no judgements against people with mental illness and acceptance will be the norm. 

When a community finds out that one of their own has cancer....they rally together. Fundraisers, cooking meals, babysitting....really anything people need to get through it. It's an illness people can take a blood test...get results and quantify. You physically see the patient loose their hair and get ill. Cancer is a horrible illness that I pray to find a cure for, but there is another illness that kills also but viewed very differently. 

When a member of the same community finds out that someone is diagnosed with depression or bi-polar....the mood changes. They say things like, "they need to just snap out of it" "why can't they just see how blessed they are?" It's almost as if they don't believe that this type of illness is real....they think they are making the choice to feel this way.....That the patient has more control over fixing it or stopping the feelings then the cancer patient fighting their battle. Neither the cancer patient nor the mentally ill patient WANTS the diagnosis. Neither WANTS to feel ill. 

Mental illness is real...and affects more people than you imagine. There are 43.7 million adults and 8.5 million children with mental illness in the United States. This statistic is not accurate considering how many people live in silence with mental illness. Can you imagine how much higher this number would be if we had less judgments on people with mental illness and they felt comfortable talking about it openly and getting help.

Last year in the US, 14.5 people were diagnosed with cancer....and with research and medications, the survival rate as significantly increased over the years. 

With over 43 million people diagnosed with mental illness, chances are you know someone who suffers with it. It's an illness that makes everyone feel so helpless. The person suffering does not want to feel the way they do, the family and friends want to help but feel helpless when their efforts do not change the illness. 

I was not prepared for the waterfall of emotions after Robin Williams death. I am not affected by celebrity deaths....but this one brought back so many emotions. Emotions from the moment I heard my life had changed. When I heard that Robin Williams committed suicide, I immediately thought of his family and friends....what their next days, months and years would be like. The unanswered questions, the "whys" "what ifs"...the blaming yourself...the wondering "I could have stopped it if I would have said something different when we talked"...or "I should not have left him alone....I knew he was sad." Before his death, I had no idea that I was even capable of all the emotions I felt. I learned about the grieving process in college. I lost a few people in my life...all close to me and I went through the process but I never knew the intensity of grief until Rob's passing. 

I feel for Robin Williams friends and family and I really hope that people will start to realize that depression is real....it affects people that put a smile on their face in public but battle deep sadness. Judging people with depression is not the answer....ignoring the problem is not the answer and pretending that you do not see symptoms does not make it go away. I hope this helps you he next time you hear that someone say they suffer from a mental illness to not judge...but accept and love. Some of the people closest to my heart and love me the deepest just happen to have mental illness....I love them for who they are...not what they have. The mental illness does not define them, just as a cancer patient does not want cancer to define their lives. 

Every 13.3 minutes someone in the United States tries to commit suicide. During the time that it took me to write this blog, 4 people attempted suicide. That's REAL!

I ate a taco...but not the kind your thinking of!

Last day in Japan...feeling a little sad that I need to leave tomorrow morning. We decided to have a lax day...went shoping...more eating and took family photos for them. We ate at a traditional Japanese restaurant and drum roll please.......I tried octopus. When I thought we were going to tacos....I thought Mexican...not octopus. Lol. I can promise you, it does not taste like a taco. I don't like fish...so trying this was an adventure! It did not really have a taste....but holy candles the texture was strange. It was super chewy and reminded me of chicken gristle. Proud of myself for trying it but can guarantee that was a one time only deal.

 
We also went to a Japanese grocery store. That was interesting. All their produce is pre packaged...so if you want carrots, you have to get an entire bundle...not just what you need. They had fish just sitting on ice in the meat section and all the meat came in very small quantities.

Here are the things I learned in Japan.

-they have an attention for detail that can't be denied. Everything from their cakes to their buildings are very detailed and beautiful. Everything is presented in the best fashion. 

-you ride the escalator on the left side unless you want to walk fast...opposite in America, so I assume it has to do with which side of the road we drive on. 

-the toilets have heated seats and sometimes even speakers with the sound of water rushing for privacy and sometimes even a bidet. The heated seats are my favorite. I wish we had that in the States in public restrooms. 

-paper towels are not available in all restrooms so women carry a small hand towel in their purse to dry their hands. 

-bowing to someone when you pass by or after a conversation is a sign of respect. 

-people are so quiet and rarely make eye contact when passing you by on the street. I do not feel like a  specticel here like I did in china. 

-the customer service is great. People seem to want to please you...it's genuine. 

-ordering food is very different...it's like ordering in stages...you can't just say I want the steak, there are many options including picking the weight of your food. Kinda nice to order your portion size.

-the country is so clean and the air is too. 

-the climate can change in a minute. One second it is warm, the next freezing.

-when u are finished eating with your chopsticks, always place the on the edge of the bowl, not in the bowl.

-the subway can get packed but everyone is aware of their own space bubble...no pushing.

-a lot of people wear the doctor masks

-7/11 is super popular...they have actual food too...and it's tasty. 

-a corn dog in America is called an American dog in Japan. 

-kanitchewa...is how u say hello. 

I will not only miss my friends but also Japan. Even though it's a huge culture shock for me...I have grown to love the country. The quiet nature and the sutle bow when you greet someone. People going out of their way to help others. The beautiful ring of the language. The food...oh let's not forget the food! Their beautiful presentation of everything. No small detail is ever left out. The shape of the houses and the architecture. The mountain side and beautiful blossom trees. 

On my flight home, I had no one in my aisle at all. I put up all the arm rests and layed flat....best way to fly EVER! I watched the sunset and pinks and purples glow through the window....then the sunrise a few hours later. I come home a different person...learning a lot about not only the culture but tolerance and patience when others are traveling and don't know the language. I love Japan...but I missed the comforts of home. 

Adventures in Tokyo....

The plan for today was to explore Tokyo. Big city....here we come! Christie has mad mad skills at navigating the train and subway systems in Japan. We loaded the express train like sardines and headed into the city....a couple transfers later...we walked up the stairs to the big beautiful city. I thought San Francisco was big....nope...San Francisco's got nothing on Tokyo. The subways there amaze me. It's so well organized and so many lines that you can literally get on the subway and make it anywhere you need to go. We may have been packed in like sardines but you would not know it...the Japanese are so polite and have an understanding that people need personal space. No one was touching each other. We were all just 1/2 inch apart from each other...but no one touches. It kinda amazed me. No one talks either....it's so silent. They even have signs asking you to be silent and not to use your cell phones on the subway! I think you could have heard a pin drop on that subway packed with people.

 

 

We walked through an open air market. The shops along the market were all unique and beautiful.

 

We even saw a Monk...but he was begging for money which I found odd.

They had real and fake Japanese blossoms all over. Once the area opened up there was a huge shrine and GINORMOUS red lanterns. To the sides there were rows of black and white lanterns as well. I wish I knew the significance of the lanterns. *Note to self...Google this later*

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Remember when I talked about the food...yaaaaaa baby...the amazing food continues. I have now officially eaten my weight in food and LOVED every second of it.

 

 

 

 

The architecture is really different here. There was one building that was a bunch of cubes stacked on top of each other, all just a little off centered. Each looked like an a apartment no bigger than 300-400 sq feet total...with one round window facing the street.

 
Another building was flat on one side and looked like a bow of a ship...the other side bowed out a bit and became larger at the top.

 

 
We walked through the city streets to the gardens. It reminds me of what I think Central Park would look like. This huge beautiful park surrounded by enormously tall, new age structures. At the entrance of the park was a huge stone wall...each stone carved to perfectly fit the stone below it!

 

The park winds around with the many different breeds of trees but it seems like they are sectioned off. Pines in one area, blossoms in another, ect. There are several bridges crossing over a lake....it's like the entire area is calling out, "Sammi photograph me!" There are large tour groups visiting this garden as well, making it hard to get photos without someone's head in the way...but we managed to do it. This is the first time that we have seen tourists. We have seen one or two tourists here and there but the majority in the smaller towns has been filled with the locals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were sitting on a bench, a nice Japanese man came up to me saying something I could not understand. I am learning that communicating in a foreign country is like communicating when you are two years old. You use hand signals, facial expressions, point at things and grunt a little. You look for pictures as a clue..when you see a picture that looks familiar and try to piece together what it could be. Anyways, back to the sweet Japanese man. He was pointing at my camera, smiling so I thought he was asking what kind of camera I had....I just smiled back. But then through hand signals I figured out that he wanted to take a picture of all of us together. That's just one example of how sweet the Japanese people are. Even when they don't need to, they go out of their way to be helpful!

There were several different types of blossoms in this area, including the double blossom trees. Each blossom has a white and pink blossom and they are so soft. They look so delicate, that they seem like they would fall apart when you touch them.

 

We sprawled out on the grass and let the kids play...a cute little Japanese boy took to Aubrey right away...wanted to hold her hand and do everything that she did. Again, another interesting thing to watch with kids....language barriers are not barriers. They use those same cues from each other....but are much better at it than adults.

This garden area is along the riverfront. You can see the rainbow bridge (the rainbow bridge lights up in all kinds of colors at night) from here...so naturally we took "fun jumping in the air pictures" in front of the bridge. ;)

Just before the exit of the garden is the 300 year old tree. It's a pine that swoops downward and almost touches the ground.

 

Headed to the fish market next but it was closed....this is the spot where you can watch them auction off the huge tuna first thing in the morning. 

Headed out for a Chinese dinner, since I did not have any good Chinese food in China, I was excited for this meal...and it did not disappoint. Usually ordering at a restaurant is pretty easy....you point to what you want and you get it...but if there are options it gets confusing. The waitress was trying to ask us questions and it became a ten minute journey of using words that we thought...then they thought would work. In the end...you always get food and it's always delicious.

Time to head back home. We played "guess what I am thinking about" games with the kids on the train home. Since the train was almost empty we were able to spread out a bit and "monkey around."

 
 I have grown to really love Austin and Aubrey on this trip. They are great kids....super funny,  great to talk to and keep us entertained. They have impressed me with their stellar behavior and ability to troop through even when we have walked a million miles. They see the beauty in the things that most kids would just pass by. They want to show me things to take pictures of and genuinely care for others. I knew I loved Randy and Christie before the trip....but my heart has grown much larger spending time with Aubrey and Austin. 

Tokyo was a great mix of beautiful high rise buildings and gardens....and don't forget about the amazing food! Ahhhhhhhh happy girl!