Thoughts

Where to begin....we have spent almost two months in Japan.  Things have become routine here.  It is my second home, and has become a sort of second home to my kids.  The time has not gone too fast, it has not gone too slow.  We have seen a lot, experienced a lot, learned a lot, grown a lot.  I wouldn't change it for anything.  Leaving is definitely going to be hard.

Here are some things I will miss:
*Hugs from my parents
*Michaela
*Always thoughtful gifts from the Japanese
*Feeling tall
*Bowing
*The constant "un, un" in conversations showing an attentive listener
*Vending machines
*Convenience stores
*A "genkan" (entry area where shoes are taken off)
*Convenience of walking to places/taking trains
*Mom's massage pillow
*Hot drinks every morning
*Green tea flavored foods
*Sushi
*Mochi
*Manju
*Hugs from my parents
*Michaela
*Fresh Okonomiyaki
*Japanese food!
*Lines of school children in uniforms
*Speaking Japanese
*The amazing use of every centimeter of space
*Everyone so active walking/biking
*Leisurely meals and chatting with Dad and Mom
*Being able to pick up the phone and call my sister
*Being in the same time zone as my parents and sister
*Hearing the "ding ding" of the railroad crossing
*Walking down familiar streets and paths
*Seeing the love that my parents share
*Evening fish feeding with clapping and dancing
*Evening devotions with Grandpa and Grandma
*Cream pan (bread)
*Being able to help Dad and Mom with various tasks
*Keiko (our minister's wife battling cancer)
*Cute Japanese kids
*Seeing my kids enjoy a place close to my heart
*A light school schedule
*Hearing futons (bedding) being whacked from balconies as they are aired outside
*Grandpa's fake bass fish singing in the genkan
*Dad dishing out ice cream using the kitchen scale for each bowl
*Mom's masala chai tea
*Full service gas stations
*Keeping up with CNN (Dad has it on almost 24/7)
*Hugs from my parents
*Michaela

Things I will not miss:
*Being away from my husband
*No dishwasher
*Meticulously sorting garbage
*Water...I miss my filtered/soft water!
*Narrow roads
*Driving that takes my breath away
*Trying to use my invisible brakes when Dad and Mom are driving
*Not always understanding everything in Japanese
*Using my Netbook...can't wait for a full screen and a real mouse
*Slow Internet
*High cost of living
*City air, although it makes for some nice sunsets
*Tiny Japanese sized clothes washer and dryer

I'm sure there is much more to add, but these are random things that come to mind.

What a privilege and blessing it has been to spend this extended time in Japan.  I am forever grateful for the opportunity.

Packing Up and Making Memories

Today was the last day of Japanese class for Benjamin and Johanna.  We have been so blessed to have six hours of lessons a week for FREE.  The volunteer teachers at the library have been so kind to our kids and have enjoyed having them.  I went in at the close of class today to say thank you and they were so sad to see Benjamin and Johanna go.  They asked if we would be coming back next year for a visit.  I wish!  Michaela will continue on with lessons for her remaining six weeks here.

Aren't they the cutest teachers?  At 5'3" and 5'4", even Michaela and I feel tall here! 

After Japanese class, Michaela and I picked up bentos and had a lunch date at the park.  It was beautiful today!  I am trying not to think about not seeing her for the next six weeks (although I have been remembering to use my waterproof mascara this week!).  I am so excited that she has this opportunity, yet it will be hard to hug her good-bye on Friday.

This afternoon we finished up some clean up in the yard from all of our sorting and trashing.  Then this evening we celebrated by going out to eat at sushi-go-round again.  This was kind of a last hurrah to thank Grandpa and Grandma for their hosting and to take them out for an early Mother's Day and Father's Day treat. 

Gotta love ya some baby squid sushi!  Yes, that would be the tentacles hanging down.  :)

Oyster sushi:

Salmon sushi:

We also made one last stop for one of the kids' favorite treats....taiyaki.  It's sweet red bean paste or sweet custard cooked in a batter.  They love it!

Another great day to fill up our memory banks.  We got a lot of packing done today, but our last full day here is tomorrow.  Even though I miss my husband dearly, it is going to be hard to leave, so hard.

Clean Up - Part II

So today was another long day of sorting, moving, and trashing.  Unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures so that you can more appreciate the major change, but my siblings know!  I took pictures at the beginning of the day today, but by the end of the day the piles were nearly doubled.

This would be the "special request pick-up" pile.  We had to call and give a specific list of the contents of each piece.  You are allowed a limited number per month. 

The wood pile was pretty empty when we arrived, now it is full and has about 2-3 cords of wood.  To the right of the wood pile, there was a pile that was about 6x6x6 feet....now gone!

This a sorted pile for "special garbage" in a neighboring city, again labeled and ready to go:

There was a major pile here that we cleaned out....now just lawn care stuff:

There was a pile about 8 feet high and 6 feet wide and deep here at the back of the garage.  Now all that remains is garbage, ready to go out.  We doubled the pile that is in this picture.  There are about 20 bags to go out to "regular" garbage.  There are about ten bundles of garbage to go out on book/paper/clothing recycle day.

This pile is now about twice the size!  It's all metal, glass, and old electronics that will be picked up by a recycle guy later this week.

This pile is now almost double....it's all plastics that will go out on plastic garbage day.

The garage....it was totally packed.  Most of the contents that we removed were things from my grandparent's house.  Now it is in the shed in the back that we also cleaned out.

Tonight, we all whooped and cheered as Dad was able to pull the van into the garage after MANY years!

I know the neighbors were also cheering at all the stuff being cleaned up in the back.  Our minister's wife brought over cakes for dessert because she knew that the kids were all working hard.  I am very proud of the boys for all their work helping outside, and for the girls that helped with meals and cleaning up in the house.  I know Grandpa and Grandma are very thankful for the work that was accomplished, too. 

Clean Up - Part I

The girls started out the day helping Grandma get some summer flowers planted.

Then the boys and I helped Grandpa tackle some major sorting and cleaning.  I don't even know where to start in explaining this, but here goes.  In a nutshell, my Dad is a packrat.  That's problem number one.  The problem gets more complicated when my parents live in a house in which the previous missionaries never cleaned out all of their possessions.  Then you have stuff that other expats have left at Dad and Mom's.  Then you have the problem of adding in all of my grandparents stuff that was left at their house here in Japan after they passed away.  Then you have the added problem of things being so difficult to throw away in Japan.  If we could have rented a dumpster like you can in the States, that would have made things so much simpler.  So to make a long story short, we have spent hours going through piles of stuff that have been covered with tarps in the back yard, or stored in the garage.  It has been exhausting, dirty, time consuming, labor intensive work.  We have sorted things into piles of plastics, paper products and clothing, wood to be cut and burned in the fireplace, regular garbage, metal and electronics, special request pick-up for bigger garbage, and stuff to save.  We spent ALL day working on this.  I'll post pictures tomorrow.

More Kittens

No, we didn't find any more in the garage, but the kids did get to hold some at the pet store.

Look at that face, she's just beaming!

The morning after Chris arrived home last month, he woke up to our Twix with two kittens in her box in the garage.  We knew that she looked a bit pregnant when we left, but were hoping that she would wait until Chris got home.  That was close!  Anyway, we Skype Chris each morning and he has patiently taken his iPad out to the garage for "kitty cam" time.  Oh my, the squeals and "awwws" from the kids has been crazy!  So, the kitten rescue from yesterday and holding kittens at the pet store has help to fill a little bit of their desire to be at home with their own kitties. 

Here are a couple of signs for you:

I can't read all of this sign, but it's either offering pet wedding ceremonies, or memorial ceremonies.

Hmmm...

Animal Rescue Heroes

This was a day made in heaven for Johanna.  My dad has had problems with feral cats once in a while and unfortunately one found its way into my parents' garage and decided that would be a great place to have some kittens.  The garage is not used for parking, it's used for storage, so it wasn't until Michaela saw a cat go in through the rafters and we heard some meows that we knew there was a problem.  The bigger problem was that the kittens were way up high and not easily accessible.  After much effort, Johanna rescued two kittens (the mama ran off).  Oh, she was beside herself with joy, pity, and concern!

The kids all got to love on the kittens for just a bit and then Grandpa kindly put them in a box at the back of their yard.  Within 15 minutes, the mama had returned to claim her babies and carried them off to a safer place.  Phew!

But wait!  There's more!  Dad and Mom were hosting their monthly Int'l Night again.  Guests were just starting to arrive when more meows were heard from the garage!  So, it was back to hunting for yet another kitty.  Johanna was allowed to search for a bit, but we had to get inside and carry on with the evening.

We had over 30 guests with folks from Japan, Brazil, China, Honduras, Canada, USA, Ghana, and probably more that I'm forgetting.  Johanna and Ami had also invited the three neighbor children that they have been playing with and they came.  It was a fun evening of games, fellowship, singing, and devotions.  Dad and Mom have always had a gift of hospitality and have hosted countless people in their homes over the years. 

Most of the guests left by around 10:30, so then it was on with the kitty rescue.  This last kitten had fallen down in a very tight spot between some old barrels.  It was impossible to reach and would have taken moving a huge amount of stuff to get to it.  Through great efforts again, Grandpa and Johanna were finally able to coax it out.  It was definitely the runt and had been without its mama for at least the whole day.  It was pretty pitiful looking and shaking, but snuggled right up to Johanna's comforting.  Grandpa even took pity on it and offered to let it stay in a box inside overnight!  We decided the best thing for the kitten was to place it in a box at the back of the yard and hope that the mama would rescue it.  Sure enough, she did!

That's my story.  It will go down in history for Johanna as one the best days of her childhood, I'm sure.  That sweet girl has an amazing heart for animals and will either end up with a career involving animals and/or Chris and I will be visiting her farm/zoo when she has her own place!

Friday - Holiday

Today there was no Japanese class or KCS.  It was a national holiday...I believe Constitution Day.  Monday was a holiday, today was, and next Monday is as well.  They call it Golden Week, because often places close for a whole week with all the holidays.  Grandma is home from KCS, so that's part of the reason we extended our time in Japan this late into May.

We did help get some chores done around the house.  One things Johanna helped with was to sort through all Grandpa's collection of stereoviews and get them in new covers. 

Just a few more days left!

Downtown Osaka

Dad and Mom live in the Osaka metropolis, about 30-45 minutes from downtown.  There aren't many expressways around, and if you get on one, they aren't very "express".  It's just solid city.

Grandpa had some shopping to do downtown, so we made a trip of it and got to explore a bit.  I was disappointed that you can no longer go up to the 27th floor of the Daimaru building (for free) and look out over the city in all directions.  We only made it as far as the 16th floor....not high at all with all the skyscrapers around.  Oh, we could have paid a good bit to go up in another building, but my spending money is about gone!  We enjoyed our day in the heart of the city, though.

Um, so I'm thinking that this helmet is kind of.....well, corny!

Seriously, this was a whole line of stationery.  I do not recommend brown for obvious reasons.

One huge store that we went to was Yodobashi Camera.  It is a huge, multilevel electronics store, but with oh, so much more.  The kids were easily entertained while Grandpa and Grandma looked around.

I'm telling you, the fake food in Japan is pretty realistic!

This was near the middle of Osaka central station.  The building in the background is twin towers with a walkway across connecting the two.

This is tachigui (literally stand and eat)....Japanese fast food.  It's fairly common in busy areas.  You pay for your meal at the vending machine on the right, then enter and stand at the bar to eat your meal.  No messing around, just eat and run!

There are miles of underground in downtown Osaka.  Besides the many subways, there are also many restaurants and shops.  This was one fun walkway.

We ate at an underground McDs, Japanese style.  Elijah had a fried shrimp sandwich and Michaela and I had seaweed sprinkled on our fried.  Oh yes, they were yummy.  No green tea shakes today, we were too full.  :)

Uncle Jeremy recommended we check out Muji, kind of a generic "simple living" store.  Kids liked it, but of course we gravitated towards the food again.  Sheesh, I seriously am eating way too much here!

I don't know if you can see well enough or not, but this is sweet and sour squid.  Now I eat a lot of things, but did not opt for this one, nor did Michaela!

Grandpa and Grandma don't get things like Krispy Kreme very often, and there is one downtown, so they twisted our arms and we followed.  The line was about 20 minutes long!  It was worth the wait for a green tea flavored donut though.  :)  Okay, so I had a custard filled one, too!

No room in our bellies for Mos burgers today!

Despite a good part of our day downtown, we still had energy to burn and Grandpa wanted to take us down to the river.  It's only five minutes through traffic, and we can almost see the levee from Grandpa and Grandma's hilltop home.  The Yodo River has lots of green space along it, and it's nice to feel like you're out of the city a bit when you stand on the levee.  We got down in time to see the sunset.  The kids ran up and down the stairs several times and ran way over to the river.  It was a beautiful evening!

This is the view towards downtown with all the skyscrapers:

With our backs to the river I zoomed in towards Dad and Mom's house.  If you look just down and to the right of the tallest trees on the left of the picture, and a little past the white apartment building that is in front of those trees, you can see a green roof with a white cross.  That's the church next door to Dad and Mom's.

This is the zoomed out picture....same tall green trees on the left side of the picture.  BTW, the small white apartment building in the foreground is named "Pretty Life".  :)

I think we'll all sleep well tonight!