My Adventure Abroad

Acclimating

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…

Acclimating, International School

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…

Adventure Time

Famous Minoh Falls

Today, Sunday, August 28, Halyard spent the entire day with 2 new friends, a boy and girl, from OIS. He made plans to meet them all by himself, he walked to the bus stop all by himself, he rode the bus and transferred to the train all by himself, he found them at the Senri Chuo Station all by himself and then they all went to Shinsaibashi together. Later, he came home on the train and bus and walked back home all by himself! The great thing about Japan is that it is very safe. I don’t worry too much about their safety, but rather that they’re going to get lost and not know which direction to head in. So…

Acclimating

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…

Acclimating, Wacky Japan

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…

Acclimating, Adventure Time

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…

Adventure Time

Universal Studios Japan

Today, Thursday, August 24, we took the kids to Universal Studios Japan, which is in Osaka. We figured why not, school hasn’t started yet and we’ve had to sort of ignore them a bit while we get all the business of setting up accomplished. Plus, the kids were formally accepted to the international school so we can celebrate! The application fees were not wasted. *Phew* To get to Universal Studios Japan (here they call it USJ, which we shall also call it) we need to walk to the bus stop and take the bus to the Senri Chuo Subway Station. Then we ride the subway on the Midosuji Line. At Umeda Station we transfer to the JR (Japan Rail) Line…

Adventure Time

Shinsaibashi Spells Fun

Tuesday, August 23… Avalon and I have not been to downtown Osaka yet. She wasn’t feeling well when the boys ventured down with the Biagi Family or when they rode the train there the other day. Kaiyo really wants her to see the endless arcades! It’s another blessed hot day. We rode the bus and the train to Shinsaibashi. I calculated that it’s about $22 each way for all 5 of us to get downtown. Here are some fun photos from our afternoon in downtown Osaka. We stopped for dinner at a revolving sushi bar. You just pick up the plates that you want and at the end the server counts your plates and charges you accordingly. The plates ranged…

Acclimating, International School

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…

Adventure Time

Exploring Downtown

August 21, 2016
Comments Off on Exploring Downtown
By My Adventure Abroad

We landed one week ago today. It’s Sunday, August 21 and the week flew by. I asked Avalon how many days it feels like we’ve been here and she said two days. One thing I didn’t get done before we left is buy Halyard new shoes. When we were driving around with Art yesterday he was giving us a little tour of our area. I told him Halyard needs shoes and he said, uh-oh, what size. So Japanese people generally have smaller feet than Americans and thus don’t carry large shoe sizes. He thinks mens’ shoes pretty much go up to size 9 or 10 and that’s it. Today John, Halyard and Kaiyo rode their bikes to the Senri Chou…