The Tokyo Apartment Hunt!

When Stan and I were planning to move to Tokyo, we didn't really have time or money to come to Tokyo and properly hunt for an apartment. So, we found a temporary apartment, and decided to look for a longer-term one once we were in Tokyo.

In September we used a company called Tokyo Rent to look for an apartment. One of their employees showed us 3 places on a very, very rainy night.

Here they are:

Apartment 1
This one is around 50 square meters (538 square feet) on two floors, in a two-unit building. It's good points are an open floor plan, a toilet on each floor, a double vanity, and nearby supermarkets and restaurants. The possible bad points are that the open floor-plan could make it hard to heat.





Apartment 2
This one is about 40 square meters (430 square feet) on the second floor of a two-unit building. The good points are a big kitchen-dining room, and an oven and clothes dryer included with the apartment! Clothes dryers and ovens are a rarity in Japan. Very tempting! The bad points are that the living room and bedroom are one room, and the entry hall smells like cat pee!






Apartment 3
This one is also about 40 square meters (430 square feet) on the third floor of a 6-unit building. This place has a kind of quirky design with lots of red metal in the apartment. The good points are the design and a bed is included with the apartment. The bad points are the TINY kitchen and fairly small living space.







Can you guess which one we chose?
Well, we were debating between numbers 1 and 2. The neighborhood around number 1 was vibrant with a lot of interesting looking shops and cafes, while the neighborhood around number 2 was very residential without much shopping or places to eat.

In the end we chose number 1, and we haven't regretted it at all! We love the neighborhood, and it's very quiet. Of course, it seemed much smaller once we filled it with furniture and stuff, but it feels like home!

Well! It sure has been a long time since I've updated my blog.


Stan and I in our "box room" at the temporary apartment.

After moving to Tokyo, I had a lovely, long trip to the US in August and September.
The morning after I got back to Tokyo, Stan proposed to me while I was cooking bacon!
It was a big surprise!
I said yes, of course, and we're hoping to get married in 2009!

Have you ever tried pineapple with chili powder? It's good, good, goooooood!
You mix a little salt, a little chili powder (the amount is up to you), and a little more sugar. Then cut fresh pineapple into small pieces, and mix it all together.
It is just divine.
I ate an entire pineapple prepared this way one night!
Umm, does that mean I have a problem?

A long overdue project has been completed!
It's Baby Felix's blanket!
This is the first baby blanket I ever finished, and I am very pleased! Now I have to start a blanket for soon-to-arrive Baby Gavin.
I am using thicker yarn this time!

When I was a child, I spent a lot of time in northern Michigan, a.k.a. up north.
Last week, I went up north with my mother to pick up my grandparents. It was an emotional trip for a lot of reasons. It was hard to see my grandparents so frail and in poor health. And then I was flooded with memories and emotions as I saw places where I had spent so many hours as a child. Wanna take a walk down memory lane with me?


Lake Huron


Rainbow


Docks in East Tawas City.


The sign outside my grandparents' cottage.


Cedar Lake


The apple tree I used to climb.


Can you find the 7th grade picture of me?


8th grade!

Stan got a new phone!
Check it out!
Are these available in your neck of the woods yet?

I've noticed something since I've been in the US.
I feel like an attractive woman when I'm out in public.

In Japan, the only time that men are looking at me, I know it's because I am an oddity. I am a gaijin* in a country of Japanese. I'm a square block that doesn't fit in the hole.

On one hand, it is nice to feel attractive again, but on the other hand, I feel threatened. This is a generalization, but Japanese men are the most non-aggressive men I have ever been around. In the US, men look at you. Men flirt. And you know what? It freaks me out!

Thank God I've got Stan, so I can just ignore the rest!

*gaijin means foreigner, or outsider.

I'm back in the US for the first time in almost 2 years. It's kind of crazy!
I'm enjoying myself so far, but I'm also in a battle of wills with jet-lag. I feel that I'm winning so far. Well, if winning counts as going to bed at 8pm and waking up between 4 and 5 am! I'm fighting jet-lag like an old school farmer. I don't have any livestock to feed at 5am, but I do scoop out some cat boxes.

My first meal on the way back from the airport was Arabic food. It was soooooo good. Stan and I make hummus regularly, but having tabbouleh and falafel was just amazing!

Besides that I have been playing around on and figuring out my new Macbook! It's very pretty and fast.

I also went to Costco with my family yesterday. It was GIGANTIC! MASSIVE! Kind of overwhelming! The carts were big, the store was big, everything was big! I told my parents that in three years in Japan, I had never bought as much stuff at once as they did on our trip. You would need about 5 Japanese shopping carts to fit the contents of 1 Costco cart.

I have started sorting through all my stuff that's been stored in my mother's basement for three years. Oh, lordy. When you move out of the country for three years, and then come back and look at the things that you thought were worth storing, it's kind of shocking! I had a lot of crappy stuff down there, and I've only scratched the surface! That being said, there are also lots of treasures! I already have a big pile of clothes and bedding for charity, and I'm planning on adding lots more!

Summer Camp Is To Children What Alcohol Is To Adults

I finished teaching classes more than a week ago, but this past Thursday I was able to go to "camp" with my students for one day and night.

Before we left the school there was a dodge ball tournament and watermelon eating.




Just after we got to camp, it was already time to start getting ready for dinner, because students making their own fires and cooking their own dinners takes FOREVER!


It's a Lincoln Log fire!



The students played a quiz game after dinner. I loved the way they looked in the yellow light.



After the quiz game it was time for fireworks. It was a bit terrifying at times, kind of like a hot, flammable free-for-all!



During the late-night free time, I played the card game "daifugo" with the kids, and I even won a round! The kids saw how hard I was thinking and compared me to one of their brainiest classmates! It was a flattering comparison in my opinion!

All throughout the evening, I walked around and inserted myself into my students' conversations. It was amazing the things they told me! Crushes were whispered into my ear. One girl told me that her secret boyfriend likes to kiss. I heard the details of junior high "dating life", betrayal and so on. It blew my mind.

Apparently, summer camp is to children what alcohol is to adults! Perhaps some of the kids also realized that this was their last chance to talk to me, and to share some final connection by spilling their secrets.


Post-Card Game

The next morning, the students and teachers surprised me with a bouquet of flowers, a present, and a declaration of their love for me! What a perfect ending to camp and to my life in this town.



Bye-bye!

Sad, funny goodbyes


Well, I am done being an ALT after three years of working in Taiki Town, Japan.
Wow!

My final days at my five schools were stretched out over three weeks. I felt like I was on a roller coaster ride in a Belle and Sebastian song. I would break into tears at school, at just the thought of saying goodbye to my amazing students. Then I would actually say goodbye and cry more. Then I would walk to my car, sobbing. Then I would start driving and sob more. Sometimes I would even moan with the physical pain of the sadness and sense of loss.

I felt loved during my last days of school, but I also felt confused and at times frustrated. I suppose it was fitting, since those emotions were a normal part of my experience being the only foreigner working in my schools. I received drawings, letters, origami, posters and so on from my elementary school students. At one of my schools the students made a human tunnel with their arms that I had to walk through. I still remember when a sweet, little first grader told me that his first grade teacher and I were his favorite people in the world! Oh, melt my heart!

I knew that saying goodbye to my students would be difficult, but the reality of it was more raw and ache-y than I ever could have imagined.

I know without a doubt that coming to my little town, sight unseen, and working with these kids for three years was one of the best decisions I ever made.

I feel truly blessed by God to have experienced the good, the bad and the unbelievably blissful.





































As I drove away from the little fishing village for the last time, the clouds were heavy, like my heart.