Furniture Selection

Now that we have a house to live in in Japan, we need furniture! We can only take 100kg of stuff, (about 200 lbs), so we will be leasing most of our furniture and buying a few items like rugs, as our cats like to claw...we're going to have to be SUPER careful with the tatami flooring and make sure we have a good scratcher for them. 

I digress! We have a catalog to pick from and have to fill out an order form, staying within budget. There isn't a whole lot of selection, and we're not super picky so we won't be going for the "Songbird" or "Ashley" series. 

Here is the selection of curtains below. We'll be getting beige. The house comes with lace curtains, but we want black out curtains for the sleeping areas. The wardrobe and chest of drawers pictured is what we will be getting (mom and dad dark brown, kids natural). We also opted for certain items to be used (like the dressers) because they are cheaper.

Other items we plan to purchase separately on our own dime are couch(es) because the cats might claw and futons to sleep on. In case you are wondering, yes, we could get beds, but we want to be able to put them away for more space and want to try out sleeping on them. Papa P and I tried futons in a ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) and they were too short. It'll be interesting to see if we can find them long enough, especially for our 6'4" son, G. 

This is us one morning in Japan, August of 2006.

Our house is a mix between western style and traditional Japanese style. There are two tatami rooms, which have the flooring shown above. There are also wood floors and a dishwasher that looks like it will only hold one meal's worth of dishes. We decided to order a kotatsu table and legless chairs for the downstairs tatami room. It will be our game room as well as our guest room. Pictured below is the page of kotatsu tables and chairs. We are ordering different colored cushions so we each have our own color plus a couple extra for guests. Papa P commented, "They're going to be saying, "What's wrong with these people?!" " That's ok, we're weird and we embrace it! 

House Hunting Update 2022-5-28

Last Monday night (Tuesday morning in Japan) we got to virtually tour the house we'd been eyeing online! It was everything we had hoped for! There were kids playing in the park across the street and a kindergarten walked by the house as well. 

Inside we saw a place for a clothes washer, which we weren't sure it had. The place for the fridge is kind of wonky, but it will be fine! There are two doors leading to the backyard and a place outside to hang clothes. 

Upstairs was just what we were expecting, although we couldn't find the room marked 's' at first-- we figured it was storage, but wanted to see it. It took Kota san sending the floor plan to the lady that was touring for us in order for her to find it. It turns out the entrance is through a shoji screen door in the upstairs tatami room! She hadn't noticed the door originally! 😂🤣

We decided after seeing it that we wanted to put our application in right away! This was the *first* house we toured virtually, but if you know, you know, right?! The next day Kota san asked for proof of our cats rabies vaccination and a picture of us with the cats for the application?! I don't think that is something they would ask for in the US, but we complied. I took this picture of Papa P and he also submitted the family picture we just took. 

Here is the house in case you didn't see my last housing update:

Yesterday we got word that our application had been accepted! We're so excited to have this major issue figured out. The last big thing (that we have control over) is the cat situation. We have multiple choices on this one and it's a tough call! For now, we are so excited to have a place to call "home" in Japan. 

Family Picture

Our younger son, C, asked to take a family picture with the rats before we move to Japan. This was the best one; I am holding Princess Peach and Princess Daisy is on G's shoulder. We won't be taking them with us to Japan, so our son wanted to make a memory with them.😻 He has been so much better lately about spending time with them. Our current plan is to take them back to the rat rescue where we got them in 2020. 

House Hunting Update 2022-5-21

We have found a house that seems to fit all of our needs! Our relocation contact, Kato san, will go see it for us in the upcoming week! 

The house has two, stories, two toilets (not super common), a dishwasher (a rarity), four bedrooms (two of which have tatami flooring-- which is a traditional Japanese mat floor), and Kato san already negotiated with them so that they will take our cats! If it doesn't smell like smoke (smoking is more prevalent there than where I have lived in the US) and everything is as pictured, we want to move forward ad soon as possible! Papa P was even able to find it on a map and see that a grocery store is suuuuuuper close and there is a park right across the street! Fingers crossed 🤞🏽 it all goes as smoothly!

Here is a sneak peak at the house! 

The End of a Chapter

The last couple of weeks have felt so crazy! All of the teachers basically went into survival mode. We had state testing on the second to the last week of school, which every single teacher thought was a REALLY BAD IDEA! The kids were already starting to check out and we were having more issues already. 

This last week the kids were checked out even more in a lot of ways and I helped move things to a new classroom for next year.

Trying to study Japanese while working full time has been a challenge. I have been exhausted from all the craziness at work! I didn't study like I wanted as I was too tired after work. I tried to at least do a little katakana study on my phone some time during the day. 

Last day of work at my school:

My desk used to be right next to that bag. I moved it to another room for next year. 

So sad to turn in my key and badge. I also took down the ice cube words, lights, snowflakes, and penguins from this cool down/break spot. 

Oops. This was the door to the new classroom! Beautiful rainbow mess. 

I decided to take my last lunch break in "The Chilly Igloo" and I listened to a book while I ate. 

Love my team! I'll definitely miss these ladies! 

Sad to leave my work, but excited for the next chapter in my life! 

House Hunting

We have begun looking at homes in Japan in the Nagoya area, specifically in the Aichi prefecture. There are multiple things we'd like in a house. We want it to be near a bus stop for the international school where my children will attend,  at least three bedrooms, and ideally with two toilets, and with pets allowed. 

Our current home is not large by Texas standards. It's about 2100 ft² with three bedrooms and two and a half baths. Many of the three or four bedroom places are MUCH SMALLER in Japan. A lot of places are about 1,000 ft² or less! I have to convert square meters to square feet to have an idea of the size of a place. I have learned 90 meters² is close to 1,000 ft² Most only places have one bathroom (although toilet is separate from bath) and MANY do NOT allow pets. 

We're not too picky on whether it's an apartment or house, western or eastern style, although I don't want to go live on a different continent and have a house I could have moved there from the US. 

Something is probably going to have to give when it comes to our wish list. We're not sure what it will be...

We spoke with our relocation agent this week. She will be helping us house hunt. She has agreed to show us the homes and neighborhoods of houses she thinks we will like. We can also send her links for properties we like online. It's an adventure even just finding housing! We really wish we could do a house hunting trip, but it was not allowed at this time. 

My Textbooks Have Arrived!

I knew my sensei was sending textbooks, but I wasn't expecting FIVE textbooks to come in the mail! My second lesson is tomorrow afternoon, so I will know more about how I will use these after that. 

The two on the left are to practice the basic writing systems, so definitely something I would expect. The picture below is hiragana and the following picture is katakana. 

My sensei made sure I had a CD player! Kind of amusing...

The inside of the textbook. It's a map of all the prefectures in Japan. We will be in the Nagoya area. We have been house hunting in the Aichi prefecture, which is 23 on this map. I'll post more on house hunting soon.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have studied Japanese before. It doesn't mean this textbook isn't intimidating. It's written using all three systems of writing, but the good news is there is furigana written above the kanji. I can't read a lot of kanji, so furigana is useful because it is a reading aid that is small hiragana written above the kanji that tells you how the kanji is pronounced.

One of the books is written mostly in English. I believe it is the companion book to make lessons more clear.

The last book is a workbook with things to fill in for each lesson. 

On a more personal note, today we just finished the second to the last week of school. This week was also standardized state testing for our district and we are packing up our classroom to move it for next year, so the walls are bare and stark white. It's kind of depressing. There was also a toilet that overflowed yesterday in a staff bathroom and flooded the main hallway of the school. Oh, what a week it has been! It's starting to feel more real that I am leaving this place. Things are coming to a close in this chapter of my life and it's bittersweet. 

First Japanese Lessons

Papa P and I have begun our Japanese lessons! We each get 150 hours of language training! We both were matched with teachers in Michigan and we are doing lessons via Zoom. 

Papa P's first lesson was last Saturday morning. He talked in Japanese for two straight hours about a variety of topics. I don't believe I have mentioned that he speaks Japanese--he lived in Japan for two years doing missionary work before we met. He was exhausted afterward, but we still had Saturday chores to do. 

My first lesson was Monday. It was also two hours long, which was crazy because I had already worked an eight hour school day! I haven't mentioned it before, but I took Japanese for two years at the same school where our kids took Saturday Japanese lessons when we lived in California before Papa P's job moved us to Texas. This is not our first relocation with his job, but it is our first international move. Anyway, I digress. 

Trying to recall things from five years ago was difficult for me. My sensei wanted to see where I was level wise and answer in Japanese. It was sooooo difficult! She also had me read in Japanese. Japan had three wrting systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana is a syllabery system where a character represents a syllable such as ka, ki, ku, ke, and ko. They look like か、き、く、け、and こ.  I am pretty good reading hiragana. The 2nd system is also a syllabery, but they use it for foreign words. So the same sounds look like this: ヵ, ｷ、ク、ヶ、and コ. I did terribly with those, so sensei wanted me to practice those for homework. The last system is kanji. It's the complicated characters that can be a whole word in a single character or several characters.  日本 is how you write Japan. 

The last thing I did in my two hour lesson was review essential phrases in Japanese. She wanted me to read them in hiragana to practice my reading, even though the romanized version was right there (and waaaaay easier and tempting to read!) The romanized version uses the alphabet to represent the words, such as Nihon is how you would write Japan romanized instead of using one of the other writing systems. Nihon is how you say Japan in Japanese. 

My sensei will be sending me a textbook that includes two CDs. So old school, lol! After my first lesson I felt tired, but ok. I even went out for an evening walk with Papa P and went to bed later than I should have. 

The next morning, however,  I woke up not knowing what day it was and wondering why I was so MENTALLY EXHAUSTED! I was wondering why my alarm went off and thinking it MUST BE Friday or Saturday! I was sooooooooo disappointed when I realized IT WAS ONLY TUESDAY!!!

The Good News and the Bad News: Cat Edition

The good news and is I got a message from the vet's office yesterday and the immunization levels in the cats was good! So we are on day 43 of quarantine!

The bad news is we talked with a parent at the international school and he says he doesn't know anyone with pets. This week we finally got the information with our date and links to find housing and not a lot of places seem to want cats...