A typical day for us

We've finally kind of settled into a routine. Weekdays I'm up at 6:30 so that I can start getting ready for the day before I wake my son up at 7:00. I help him get moving while my husband makes breakfast. By 7:30 we've loaded our son up with his various school bags and, if it's Monday or Wednesday, I walk with his school group the entire way to school. Other weekdays I walk him halfway so that I can get home and walk the recycling or garbage (depending on the day, sometimes both) to the select site in time for pickup.

First on the to-do list every morning:
remove the washed, now-dry recyclables
from the wall and counter

My husband heads off for work a little before nine, and then my daughter and I have breakfast, I hang the laundry out if it's not raining, and we head off to the grocery store on our bicycle (she has a child seat behind me). The grocery run almost always ends with me trying to figure out how to carry too many things home when all I have is a front basket and a backpack (and two handlebars that are just asking to carry something, too, right?), but we manage to wobble home safely somehow. Thank goodness the way back is downhill, and my husband can make a quick run after work for anything else we need!

By the time we get back home it's about lunchtime and my husband will be joining us soon. I can hear the first town bells of the day play "Greensleeves" on the noon hour while I prepare a quick something (sandwiches, or some of the prepared foods from the store). We all eat, maybe watching a few of the Japanese kid videos available on Japan's youtube, and then my hubby takes his leave so that he can be back at work before his hour is up.

My daughter and I snuggle in for a nap that ends too soon, and then it's time to walk to my son's school. We pick him up at 3:10 and I have a quick minute to check in with his teacher and see if we're still on track. Then it's time to head back home with his group (smaller, since the older kids stay at school a little later).

The second bells of the day ring at 4:30 during the winter, 6:00 during the summer. That's when I take my cue to pull the laundry in, if there is any. My son and daughter have free time until 5:00 (I try to get the dishes done), and then it's time for homework. If we're lucky, we'll be finished by 5:30 and I can start dinner. My husband comes home just after that and keeps the kids happy while I cook something. The meal takes us until 6:30 or 7:00, and if it's one of our two weekday bath nights we get the kids squeaky clean, read books, and tuck them in by 8:00. The hubby and I work on any leftover chores, start a load of laundry, and without fail make sure the sink is clear (and the recycling washed and hung up to dry) before we have a few minutes to ourselves and call it a night.

Our library has the most beautiful stone
mosaic art piece displayed inside.

Weekends are completely haphazard. We check out the local festivals or go to the library and find something interesting to read or watch. It's also a day for catching up on the chores we couldn't get to during the week, or exploring the nearby playgrounds with the kids. Aside from where we shop, our weekends in Japan are a pretty good copy of our weekends in America.

There is a reason our time here is passing so quickly! :-) That darned sun just keeps insisting on rising every day! And then it goes and sets again!

Thanksgiving in Japan

Turkey-day passed without fanfare in our house. It was the day of the 800 meter race for our son at his school, so we were required to take his temperature and sign a permission slip for him to participate. It was a beautiful morning; sunny and low 60's (F). The race was supposed to take place the day before, but had been delayed due to rain. 

Parents in the "stands" ready to cheer the kids on

My daughter and I showed up at his school a little after 9:00 to cheer with the other parents as we watched the kids run by. Winners were announced, trophies were awarded to the fastest in each of the four groups they had split the kids into, and then it was time for the kids to go in and recover and resume their lessons. We waved to my son and he seemed in good spirits, but the school called me less than two hours later to tell me that he had developed a fever and that I needed to pick him up. A friend helped us take him home in her car, for which I was very grateful. He spent the remainder of the day resting and didn't eat much at dinner, so he went to bed early. By the next morning he had recovered well, and seemed his regular self by the time the American Thanksgiving was gearing up. 

We've had many friends ask us if it felt lonely to be away from America for the holidays. So far the answer is no. We miss our family and friends, of course, but it's rather nice to take a step back and appreciate missing them, if that makes any sense. And since we didn't need to prepare for Thanksgiving we were able to enjoy the birthday shopping that we always need to do this time of year. 

Our microwave and only oven. Can you see a turkey
roasting in here? Yeah, no, me either.

Did we miss the food? I think we missed the tradition of the food, but we would have regretted the great lengths and expense that a traditional Thanksgiving would have required. I mean, I haven't even seen turkey lunchmeat here. I know of at least one company that can deliver cranberry sauce to my door, but I'll pass, thank you. And without all of the planning and preparation that Thanksgiving requires, we don't feel like we're required to rush toward another holiday before recovering from the last one. It's much simpler this year, and I like simple.

"So is it expensive to live there?"

We were really worried about the cost of living in Japan, especially because it was hard to find data for our region. Here's where I'm going to surprise you: because of our unique situation, no, it's really not expensive.

Kind of a bombshell, right? Everyone, it seems, has heard horror stories of tiny apartments in Japan costing over a thousand dollars. Yet here we sit in one of the largest homes we've ever rented, and we're shocked to discover we still have money in the bank at the end of the month. We've checked three times to make sure we didn't forget to pay someone.

So, how? We're living in subsidized housing, so my husband's work is paying for 2/3 of the monthly rental costs. Our utility costs are low because our water is heated on-demand and we haven't bought one of those fancy, energy-hogging heater/air-conditioner units. The biggest cost saver for us, though, is the fact that we don't have a car. Gas, monthly payments, maintenance, insurance and taxes always cost us more than we were willing to admit when we were back in the US, especially since we had two vehicles.

Probably the most tofu I will ever be able to buy
for less than 50 cents US

What about food and necessities? Clothing is comparable, and food really depends. I can buy a large enough block of tofu to put in a dinner for 4 for about $0.50, but the price of meat is higher and the portions for sale are much smaller (no family packs of chicken thighs, for instance). A liter of milk is a little less than $2, so it's equivalent to about $9/gallon US (I know, right? Yikes). A carton of 10 eggs is about $2. But fish is incredibly cheap.

So really it just depends on what we buy. We're paying through the nose for milk (well that's a yucky visual...sorry), but we're coming out ahead by the end of every month. And we're still checking to make sure we haven't forgotten a bill because, really, we still can't believe it ourselves.

The kinds of plants that love to grow here

This is a very typical house and yard in our area.

So many of the Japanese homes here have such beautiful landscaping that I have to devote an entry to the plants I've seen. It's very common here to have tidily shaped plants, especially trees that are turned into evenly spaced pillows of green that rise to meet the rooftops.

Japanese camellia is everywhere here. If you've ever been to California and seen the oleanders, this is the Japanese version. They are used as hedges, screens, topiary, potted plants, you name it and it's here. It's really a very pretty plant, and I can understand its popularity. It's an evergreen, and new growth shoots are a very pretty dark red color. Flowers range from red to white and can nearly cover the plant in the right conditions. I've seen it grown as a bonsai and a 15' high "tree," so it is versatile as well.

Japanese camellia with new growth

I've been pleasantly surprised to recognize quite a few familiar flowers here. Sunflowers, of course,marigolds, and cosmos are surprisingly ubiquitous, too. Most of the herbs I recognize are easily grown here, and I'm delighted to add the shiso herb to my list of "must-have" flavorings (it tastes exactly like cardamom, to my mind, and I love cardamom).

Other plants on the list of "Japan is our happy place" include hydrangeas, yuzu (so far this seems like an underappreciated fruit that is somewhere between a grapefruit and a mandarin orange in flavor, even though it looks like a lemon), and persimmons. It's fun to see these "exotic" (well, to me anyway) plants grow so well here!

Japanese camellia in bloom

Just one of the thousands of persimmon trees
that I've seen here in Japan

I have no idea what this tall purple flower is.
Anybody know?

"Are you safe there?"

Naturally our friends and family were a tiny bit concerned for us when we told them we were moving to Japan. Right now the country is synonymous with "nuclear disaster," so we can appreciate the hesitation they feel on our behalf. If statistics make you feel any better, the Fukushima tsunami topped out at about 15 meters, while the city we live in is about 30 meters above sea level. 

We've also come to appreciate that Japan is the place to be if you are in an earthquake. There have been several since we arrived, but almost all of them could have been confused for a big truck rolling by. Since they are so common, all of the homes and schools are built with earthquakes in mind. In fact, if you walked around our house you really wouldn't see any evidence of earthquakes. The walls aren't cracked, the frames of the doorways aren't shifted, and everything just generally looks ship-shape. Every gas line includes an auto-off safety feature at the junction for each house. In case of an earthquake, the gas is shut off without me needing to find a special wrench (ahem, America). When the danger is passed, I'm able to turn the gas back on by pushing a few buttons. And if I need any emergency help at all, there is always this button, located right there in our living room:

It says, "emergency," and it's just tricky enough
to use that the kids haven't messed with it...yet

As for the radiation contamination, it's covered. Our son's school has radiation detection equipment that constantly monitors for dangerous levels, and everything is staying well inside normal levels.

Bottom line? We feel incredibly safe here. And yes, our earthquake kit is up-to-date :-)

If you move here, don't forget your...

So guess who moved to Japan without a 3-prong adapter? Me? Nooo....yes. I'm pretty sure I have one coming in the mail, mixed in with some other things of ours. Or we could hop a train to the nearest city and get it there, but that would cost about $30 for the tickets for a $3 product.

Does this look naked to you?

Edit: shout out to our friend, Vince, for letting us know that we can break the ground prong off for things like laptop adapters, which is really the only 3-prong I have. It came off much easier than I thought it would, and I'm back in action again!

Update: we picked one up on a trip to Mito city, and a few came in the mail, too! Now Doug's laptop is hooked up!

Japanese solid waste management

Oh, lordy, it's a complicated thing! Recycling is of major importance here in Japan, and they put a great deal of effort toward making it accessible. It is easy to find ways to recycle, but the onus of cleaning and sorting is upon the citizens and that's where the complexity comes in.

Our local town hall gave us a recycling brochure that is meant to outline things in a clear and easy-to-understand format. Naturally, it's in Japanese. The final pic shows our easy-to-follow schedule (in English!), with the general breakdown of: burnable trash every Tuesday and Thursday regardless of holidays, normal recycling every Tuesday or every Thursday (depending on the month, and except for the last week of every month when there is no recycling collection), special collection days twice a month for large items or things that can't be burned or recycled. Oh, and remember to use the appropriate bag (yellow for burnable, blue for unburnable, transparent or translucent bags for recycling) for each type of waste or you might find it returned to you with a polite note attached! Clear and easy, right?

General overview of what goes where

Items that can't be recycled or burned (note the blue bag)

Paper and clothing preparation on the left,
burnable on the right (note the yellow bag)

Preparation for recyclables

Garbage gets placed between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m.
in the cage seen in the background. Volunteers
are always on hand to help things go smoothly.

Our handy-dandy reference chart

Shopping in the suburbs

Every single one of our neighbors owns at least one car, and for good reason. If you were to look at a Google map of everything within walking distance of our home (for privacy reasons I won't be posting that here, so let me give you a visual) you would see lots of undeveloped areas, one supermarket, two convenience stores, a hospital, a recycling center, a cultural center, a train station, and an assortment of small office buildings, dentists, hair salons, etc.

What's missing from this list is a home furnishings store, a garden center, or stores that sell the specialty items our son needs for school. Those places exist, but we really are in the American equivalent of the suburbs here and all of those specialty stores, while just a quick car-ride away for all of our neighbors, are simply beyond our reach on foot. 

Our neighbors tell us that nobody around here takes the bus. Most of them aren't even sure where the nearest stops are. As far as I can tell there is no website for the town bus. I have no idea how anybody knows what the schedule is or where they travel to. 

There is a taxi service that sounds amazing because you can go anywhere in town for 300 yen (about $3), but it requires registration by telephone and they don't speak English (and my Japanese is still laughably limited). 

We were at the middle of the train when
I took this one. Seems to go on forever!

The train, a 15 minute walk away if you have two kids walking with you, is an option but again we are limited to stores within walking distance of whatever destination we choose.

There are a few people at my husband's work who are going to get rid of their bicycles and want to give them to us. We're very enthusiastic about that idea and will probably find many more things opening up to us when we have some kind of transportation. Until then, we will order the essentials online, do without, or make our own.

Attending elementary school

Seyasan set up a meeting for us to speak with the local elementary school's principal, superintendent, and potential teacher. That was when we learned that they did not have assistance available for international kids and that all of our son's classes would be taught in Japanese. Since we were looking at this option or sending him to private school (a train-ride away), we decided to keep it local and give it our best shot.

Then we were given the list of required items. It was immensely confusing because some items would be purchased by the school and we would be billed for, and others were things that we needed to purchase ourselves.

The Japanese pianica, which is exactly like a harmonica
and a piano had a baby

I think all of the items were a little unexpected. We didn't realize he would need indoor shoes for inside the school and outdoor shoes for recess. We had never heard of a "pianica," which surprised the school employees. The fact that he needed an earthquake cushion was not really a surprise, but was new to us. And then there was the $300 backpack (no, that's not a typo).

From left to right: gym clothes, indoor shoes, backpack,
hand towel, pencil case, pianica, bag/cushion,
school hat, swim towel, toothbrush, cup and
bag for the latter two

So why is it a $300 backpack? Culturally the Japanese put a great deal of importance upon the beginning of something, and the beginning of a child's formal education is no different. The first day of school means wearing nice clothes and special greetings by the teachers and older grade students. There are speeches by local pillars of the community, and photos. And aside from the hand-stitched backpack that is meant to be worn throughout the child's educational years, parents typically spend around $500 to purchase a child-sized study station.

The neighborhood walking groups, ready to leave

We missed out on the hubbub because the Japanese school year begins in April. Our son's first day of elementary school was still viewed with excitement by the neighborhood, though, and all three of the small groups that walk together in the morning wanted to have our son walk with them.

It's about a 15 minute walk for the kids, including an
overpass that allows them to cross a busy road safely

It's a little like watching a bunch of ducklings make their way to the pond when you watch elementary school kids go off to school each day. Rain or shine, they walk because there are no buses. Typically each group is led by a 6th grader, and often another older child will stay at the back to urge stragglers ahead and keep order. There is no singing, and on colder days the talking falls to a minimum. But there they all are in their yellow hats, on their way to a day of learning.

Our first night in our new home

We didn't have much stuff in our new home to start with. Imagine buying everything you think you'll need in the first few days, with the condition that it all fits into a Japanese minivan (after seeing these little vehicles all over the road here, you know the true origin of the word, "mini"van).

Our kids' room at the beginning

We had mattresses to sleep on because they sell very portable ones here. My hubby and I sleep on a foam mattress that folds into thirds, ostensibly to store daily in the futon closet in our bedroom. It doesn't fit there because we broke with tradition and bought a double sized mattress instead of something smaller.

The twin beds for the kids were the same tri-fold deal, but of a stiffer makeup. And we all had fitted sheets and duvet covers (top sheets are not an in-demand item here). I also remembered to buy towels and waste baskets, and Seyasan made sure we didn't forget the curtains. Beyond that, everything was either going to be delivered or something we would hopefully buy later.

At least our kids already knew what camping was like, so sleeping on the floor for them until their bunk-beds arrived was actually quite fun for them.

It was a few days before our large items were delivered, so we had no way to cook or refrigerate meals. Handily, there is a supermarket just an easy walk away that also boasts a mini food court, so we were pretty well off. Except for the complete lack of hot water. We were able to resolve that within a day or so, and then with the arrival of our dining set and other items, we were well on our way!

Japanese appliances

One of the places Seyasan took us to was a secondhand shop. We were highly impressed with the quality of the goods there, and didn't hesitate to buy used. For around $1000 we were able to have a dining set, refrigerator, washing machine, microwave, television, coffee maker and a range delivered to our house.

Our "new" gas stove with fish broiler and two burners

What I read about Japanese cooking rang true as I looked at the appliance options: they don't use ovens here. All of the stovetops were gas, and all of them had two burners. Most of them had a broiler tray for cooking fish.

Pretty typical as far as refrigerators go, though
larger sizes were available

I laugh when I think back to the microwave. It says it goes up to 1500 watts, so that's the one we bought. It turns out that the maximum wattage is used to toast and roast, because it is in truth a microwave *oven.* The maximum wattage I can get out of it for heating up a cup of water is 500 watts, but if that's just too much power for me to handle, I like I can tame that down to a low 250 :-)


 Our fridge isn't quite as tall as I am, and at 5'5" that means it's not tall at all. This is what we usually stock it with, especially the milk and cheese. We usually buy about 3 days ahead so that we don't have to go to the store *every* day. There are two compartments below this one, and they're both drawers. One is a freezer, and the other one might as well be. I'm still trying to regulate the controls well enough to keep the fridge cool and the other fridge drawer above freezing.

Our new home

Whatever images you have of Japan, I doubt that they include anything like our duplex. We live in an upper and lower half of one that's divided down the middle (with how much our kids like to jump, I am pathetically grateful that we didn't end up living above someone else). It's located about a 10 minute walk from the train station and my husband's work (easily the best commute we've ever had to deal with).

The great room, downstairs

There are lots of other duplexes here, but the neighborhood is a close-knit community and very quiet. The units are spacious and the walls are insulated so the feeling is one of comfort.

This is the great room. Two sliding doors mean lots of light, and easy access to the backyard.

Small but nice!

The kitchen is small but well-designed. The large window (not shown) has an unobstructed view of the playground just across the way.

And both of the toilets in our house have the full array of Japanese buttons, complete with warmers and washers. The tank is conveniently filled by the handwashing water from above.

Beyond the hedges is a playground for the kids

And the neighbors? We have to be the luckiest people on the planet, because we've struck it rich again. Everyone here is interesting and welcoming, smart and willing to lend a hand. They extended a welcome to us that we will always remember and be grateful for. As a cherry on top, the neighbor on the other side of our wall practices piano every chance he gets, and it is one of the most gorgeous sounds you could ever hear. We told him once that his music makes our dinners feel sophisticated and special, even if it's just spaghetti. We are so lucky to live here and to have this experience.

Toilet tank is filled with
wash water from above

Our hero, Seyasan

Imagine you're a gentleman nearing retirement age. Would you sign up to greet a young American couple who had just been traveling with two small children for nearly 20 hours? Would you muster the troops so that there were enough tiny Japanese cars to take them and all of their current worldly possessions? Would you help them get supplies at the grocery store and then haul their stuff up 3 flights of stairs to their dorm room?

It didn't stop there. Seyasan did all those things, and then *came back the next morning.* (O.o) The next few days were a humbling experience as this man took us to every single place we needed to go, and then some. From citizen registration to curtains and furniture for our duplex, from public school registration for our son to contacting the gas company so that we would have heat, and on top of that the bank and the 3 hours that it took for us to get cell phones and sign up for service, he was our GUY. Superman, you're great and all, but this guy saved us from having our first few weeks be a nightmare of kanji and lost translations. When our credit cards wouldn't go through, he paid our bills. When our duplex was ready within a few days, he helped us move in.

To this day he's still involved with our son's education, making sure that we have the advocate we need. To say I feel indebted is an understatement. I'm in awe. I feel schooled. And the only way I know how to pay him back is to return the favor for someone else some day.

Flying to Japan

Our son, sleeping through the chaos, moments before
the airport shuttle whisked us away

We only had a few days before we left to prepare things that we wanted my mother to send to us after we settled. Naturally we needed to handle the final packing while working around our daughter's ear infection and my torn shoulder muscle (thankfully just the muscle and not the rotator cuff)! We pulled another all-nighter, had my mom buy a new set of luggage for us at the last minute, and got everything stuffed in that we could possibly cram. 

Somehow we balanced it so that we had all the essentials plus a few extras, and with each bag under the weight limit listed by the airlines. My husband convinced me that we should take as much as we could with us on the plane so that we could avoid shipping fees. I worried that two kids and that much luggage would be hard to handle, but it wasn't, really. We piggybacked the luggage until we both still had a free hand, and everything fit well into the bus that we took after our flight.

Hour 18 and counting, final leg

Oh, the flight. Where we flew from Salt Lake to Texas, and then to Japan. Going backwards to go forwards, since we lacked a direct flight. 16 hours on the plane, only to get off and take a bus for an hour and a half.

Would you believe me if I told you that the kids were amazing? It's true. They slept, they watched the in-flight movie (Finding Nemo), they enjoyed the food, and really just enjoyed the whole experience. The hubby and I were even able to catch a few naps ourselves, though I wouldn't say it made up for the lack of sleep from the night before. There was no screaming, very little whining, and none of our luggage was lost. If there is a guardian angel for travelers, we had one with us that day ;-)

We need to thank a few people

The acknowledgements section of anything is rarely an interesting read, but when you have people like ours, you gotta give a shout out. So, here goes, in no particular order (and for anyone I left out, I promise I'll kick myself for you and then edit you in):

Mom and Don: you took excellent care of our kids (they had all their fingers and toes when we arrived, which was really our only request)! You didn't take one look at all the stuff we brought with us and make us turn around. You let us have our mail forwarded to you, and you're still shipping our stuff to us and sending care packages. Thank you for letting us turn your lives upside down for so long. We love you and miss you.

Lisa, Tom, Joel and David: if you ever doubt how awesome you are, give us a call and we'll fill you in. Tom, thank you for the excellent nightly dinners and conversation, and for letting us borrow your wife for so many hours. Lisa, you are the queen of price stickers, and amazingly tireless. Thank you for the wine and chocolates, the conversation, the elbow grease, and for hauling some of our stuff away. Joel and David, the last thing we would have wanted to do when we were teenagers was help somebody clean stuff and move. It meant a lot to us that you were willing helpers and great company. These people are also the reason we had a tidy yard before we left.

Kirsten: you stored and sold all the kid stuff we couldn't sell, and for charity to boot! You and your family were wonderful friends and neighbors and we will miss all of the conversations we could have had.

Lori: you dropped by and made things more interesting with helping hands and fun talks. We will miss you and your family.

Vince and Hiedi: you helped us pack, showed me how to really prep stuff for charity, and bought our late-model car! And the surprise birthday party still makes me feel a warm, happy glow.

Fred, Linda, Brandon and Alaina: your financial help could not have come at a better time. It's no surprise that moving to a foreign country is expensive, but thanks to you it didn't hit us as hard as it would have. That saved us from a lot of stress, and we are very grateful.

Dad: you swooped down like Superman when we were in a bind with the car that needed to be sold. There we were with a moving truck ready to go, and a car that we couldn't take with us. I honestly don't have a clue what we would have done if it weren't for you.

Laura, Sam, Ken and Jack: we would still probably be storing half of our stuff if it weren't for you guys; *and* you took all of our "what the heck do we do with all this" pantry stuff off of our hands! We didn't get to know you guys nearly well enough, and we will miss watching the kids play and grow together. Every so often, we are fortunate enough to find people that we just click with. The fact that it wasn't just the grownups, but the kids, too, makes it that much more rare and precious.

All of our friends at Kennewick First Lutheran Church: thank you for the blessing on the day we drove off. We felt so special and loved and surrounded by good wishes and thoughts. If ever there were a perfect send-off, that was one. Wherever we go in this world, you will always be a spiritual home for us.

Rolling up our sleeves and packing up our lives

The short list of what we did:

1. Arrange for the kids to go away for a while (thank you, mother and stepfather!)
2. Categorize everything as, "storage," "sell," "give away," or "going to Japan"
3. Take a week to clean and put sticker prices on everything that is for sale
4. Put a moving sale ad on Craigslist, with a Friday morning as the starting day
5. Have a pre-sale for friends and neighbors (this is the best idea ever, because they already love some of your stuff and, if they're anything like our fabulous people, will probably pay more than your asking price to show how much they love you)
6. Hold the moving sale inside your house ('cause nobody wants to have to schlep all that stuff outside and back again)
7. Watch the crowds come and your stuff go, and think, "they're paying us, but I'd probably pay them to haul all of this away...."
8. Find a charity that will haul the rest of it away
9. Clean your now-empty house
10. Hand over the house keys and marvel at your completely empty key ring
11. Pack up your moving truck and drive away

Thankfully all of this was hauled away for us

Oh, yeah, simple. Throw in some all-nighters, a few unexpected grief sessions as you watch the baby toys leave your possession, and then there's the anxiety diet that turns food into a revolting idea and makes you drop ten pounds (highly *not* recommended). And don't forget to fit in a "quick" 8 hour round-trip drive to the nearest Japanese embassy so that you can apply for the necessary visas. And the random trip (in the moving van, because what else do you have to drive?) to your father's cabin so you can say goodbye and install a toilet. Yes, we really did.

See? Simple.

We worked hard to balance the load and tie it down well

The day we found out...

Friday, July 18th, 2014 was the day we knew we were going to be moving from Washington state to the middle of the big island of Japan. It was the day after my husband returned from a job interview in California, where he learned that they needed different skills than he could offer.

I won't bore you with too much back-story. The government went through its sequestration the summer before, and budgets for my husband's field of physics suddenly became a rare thing. He sent out at least 70 resumes and letters, and put the word out through his contacts. Out of all of that, we had 3 nibbles.

As I said in the "About" page, we're practical people. At first, while we still had the luxury of time and before my hubby's post-doc in Washington state was up, Japan was in the, "wouldn't it be cool to move there," category. It sounded so gutsy, so naturally we couldn't really be talking about ourselves. The farthest we ever went together as a family was to Florida when my husband had a conference there. Japan? Yeah, I saw that Simpson's episode! Chuckle to ourselves, and wonder....

Then, reality. We counted, one day. There are 39 days between the day we knew and the day we arrived in Japan. 39 days to sell 2 cars (one of which we were upside-down in), sell, donate or save a houseful of stuff (and boy, with two kids did we ever have a lot of stuff), clean our rental house, and move halfway across the world. So when people ask me if I learned much Japanese before we moved, I really do have to laugh a little.

You can imagine what an understatement it is when I say that my mother and stepfather saved our sanity. When we had about 20 days to go, they took our kids in. They. Took. Our Kids In. I absolutely cannot convey how much stress that took off of us. It's probably part of the reason that we still can't believe we're actually here.