Let’s talk trash. It’s Thursday, September 8 and I’ve been working on this post for a few days. It is possible that there is nothing more confusing or frustrating about Japan than the Japanese trash collection system. From day 1, it’s just over my head. I’m sure I’m super confused right now because we just arrived but I know I’m not the only one. Both Japanese natives and foreigners have expressed confusion to me about this crazy trash scheme. Andrew went over the trash with me several times when we arrived but I still get lost. He said he doesn’t even deal with the trash, he gives his wife that dirty job. It is even hard to know where to begin. …
Scenes From Our Surroundings
Wednesday, September 7 Here are a few interesting comments about our blog: From my 100-year old Grandma: RE: the Minoh waterfall post: Taki-michi means waterfall road. — Winnowing rice is shaking rice to separate from straw. — Momoji means red leaf. — Hyaku-en is 100 yen. My friend Sandi says she is impressed by my new commitment to Costco. But here is a seriously impressive commitment to Costco… I met a mom today named Julie whose son is a high school senior at OIS. She and her husband do not have a car. They bike everywhere. They say biking is cheaper than riding the train (and it is, but oh so much more work). She and her husband ride their…
Halyard Discovers Uniqlo
Saturday, September 3 and we have to get up earlier than we want because the boys are due back at the Tsubaki’s house at 10:30am for soccer and a Korean style BBQ afterwards. Halyard and Kaiyo went back and forth about whether they wanted to go. They were feeling self conscious about being poor soccer players and also not knowing many kids. I said to Kaiyo, well Dad will go with you and he can be your crutch if you need someone to talk to. He said, oh, now I really don’t want to go. Whaaat? I couldn’t believe he said that. I think the Friday night birthday party helped a lot and put them at ease about soccer in…
Target in Japan
On this day, Thursday, September 1, I am headed back to Aeon AGAIN. This place reminds me a lot of Target back home. I have a frequent flyer card at Target because I probably popped in there about twice a week. I have many miles logged at Target. If I was missing it at all, I have found Target’s replacement. So after biking with the kids to school John and I stopped by Aeon. It’s one of the anchor businesses in Q’s Mall. Though there’s a Starbucks in this mall too, it drives John crazy that it doesn’t open until 10! He says who can wait that long for their morning caffeine!? Aeon is a grocery store, but it is…
Errand Day
Today, Tuesday, August 30, is errand day. Some people know this, but I don’t really enjoy riding bikes. I didn’t grow up riding bikes and I am not a biker. So the insane amount of time that I have spent on a bike in the past few days is appalling to me. Not only that but I’m riding up hills and going super fast down hills. Even with an electric bike it still feels like so much work on these hills! John and I rode with the kids to school this morning, and then after that we rode around all day long until it was time to go back and pick them up! I’ll admit, the first place we rode to…
Chaotic and Crazy
Monday, August 29 is the first day of Osaka International School! On the first day the plan all along has been to get up early and bike to school together. School starts at 8:30 but it sounds like the students gather as early as 8:10 to hang out. We aim to leave at 7:45 which gives us a comfortable half hour to get to school so our kids can walk in early. Oh but mother nature has other plans for us. It’s raining today! Our choices are to bike anyway or have John TRY to drive the car. It’s now too late to figure out the bus. In Japan the cars drive on the left side the road. The steering…
Making New Friends
Today, Saturday, August 27, Halyard spent a good part of today with a new friend from school named Luke. Halyard met up with him at school and from there they biked to a place called Expo City. He was gone all afternoon, apparently walking, talking and hanging out. That’s all I have to report on that because that’s all the information that I was given! While Halyard was out exploring the town, we had some guests come over. Yay! Our neighbor across the way (I forgot to mention in the last post that we live on a cul-de-sac with 7 houses) came over with her young daughter. The mom’s name is Kimiko – which happens to be my sister’s middle…
Our Japanese House
Saturday, August 27 Our Japanese house isn’t really a traditional Japanese house. It’s actually a Western style house in Japan. This house is about 2 years old and it was built by the current owners, Andrew and his wife. They have 3 girls. We are lucky because this house was built with a 5-person family in mind. It is about 1200 square feet, which is fine for us because our home in California is about 1600 square feet, so it’s not a huge difference. I think this is a pretty good sized house for Japan, however here in Minoh a lot of houses seem to be good sized. When you walk or bike around you see a lot of nice…
Record Heat
Today is short update for yesterday and today. Just some random action has happened. I didn’t take the camera around so if you’re only looking for photos you might want to skip this post. We’re still biking around in this record heat. It honestly doesn’t feel like there’s been any change since last Friday with the historic heat. I’m going to look up the recent weather… I’m back and it actually looks like the heat has fallen by about 3 degrees. Last Friday was 101, last Saturday was 100, and this past week has been between 98 and 97 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity still feels like 110 percent so I can’t say I’m noticing any change. We’re still red…
A New School
Today is Monday, August 22 and we have an important appointment at Osaka International School today. The kids have assessment tests to take to see what level of learning they’re at and also to see if they really speak English. I hope they can speak in complete sentences! Summer break has a tendency to make kids forget everything they know. Pokemon Go has completely replaced my sons’ native language so I’m a little worried. J/K. We hauled out the bikes for another ride to school. Today is as hot as can be! We are going to try a new way to school this time. We will ride down the “busy highway 171” (not busy at all compared to California) and…