My Adventure Abroad

Costco in Japan

Costco is in Osaka about a 45 minute drive from our house.  A slice of Little America says our new friend Art.  He is going to pick us all up at 10am on Saturday, August 20 for an exciting excursion to Little America in a Big Box. Art is from Illinois and he has four kids at the international school where our kids will go.  He says his wife knew that she could survive in Japan when she found out there was a Costco nearby.  I actually do not have a Costco membership since I hated to buy things in such big bulk because then I had nowhere to put those huge quantities in my small house.  But I’m willing…

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Biking in Japan

Saturday, August 20 We’re taking the bikes out for a spin.  Andrew, the homeowner, left us 5 bikes to use.  There are 3 “regular” bikes of various sizes, 1 mountain bike, and 1 electric bike.  An electric bike sounds like a luxury, but a lot of people are riding around on electric bikes so it turns out pretty common.  Our next door neighbor at home, Greg, has an electric bike that he gerry-rigged himself that works great.  He uses it to go to Trader Joe’s for groceries and to tool around town.  Val says she’s going to use the electric bike as a quick escape method for any tsunamis at the ocean.  Just throw Gary the cat in the basket…

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8 hours in all?!?!

Friday, August 19: The plan is to finish our phone service connection at DoCoMo.  I wonder how long it’s going to take today? The answer is:  Another 4.5 hours!  It took a total of 8 HOURS to hook up our service at docomo!  Our friend says, “Welcome to Japan!” It was exhausting.  Last night at docomo they weren’t sure whether we’d be able to use our phones that we brought from America.  We sorted that out, and thankfully all the phones we brought – a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, 2 iPhone 6s, and Motorola Droid Razr – will work here.   Today it was all about the paperwork.  Mounds and mounds of paperwork.  Now I have to cancel Verizon.  How…

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Japan Requires Lots of Patience!

It’s already Tuesday, August 16.  I had a hard time getting back to sleep at 4am but I forced myself to lay there.  I think I must have eventually fallen back asleep because I feel pretty rested.  And Avalon’s fever feels like it’s almost gone!  Yay.  I had been thinking about taking her to the doctor today if she was still feeling hot.  My list of things to do today include going to City Hall to register ourselves as residents of Minoh, going to the bank to get an account set up, and going to the phone store to sign up for Japanese service and getting off Verizon.   International rates are knocking us out! $1.79 per minute because we…

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The First Two Days

We touched down in Japan on Sunday, August 14 around 3 pm – or 15:00 Japan time.  I have to get used to military time now that I’m here.  It was very smooth!  Except that Avalon isn’t feeling well.  I think she ate too much candy because her stomach hurts.  She ate a lot of the candy the Altshulers sent along with us, plus her own bonanza from the Balboa Candy store.  Kansai Airport was very empty.  We went straight through immigration and got our Japanese residence cards.  By the time we reached the luggage carousel they had already taken our 9 large and heavy bags off the carousel for us.  While we were getting our residence cards, a young…

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Departure Day!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 13.  DEPARTURE DAY. Last night Halyard and Avalon spent the night next door at Val and Greg’s house.  Val had an outrigger race to get to early so she actually woke them up at 4 am and they scooted home.  The rest of us were all still asleep!  I had my alarm set for 4:30 am. This is a frantic morning of throwing more last minute things away from the fridge and freezer, taking things out of the garage and putting them out in the alley and finding forgotten items hanging in the closet – like John’s suit.  What was he going to do with that anyway?  He gave it to my mom to take with her.  The…

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Taking Our Cats With Us

This is a long saga that starts our whole story off in motion.  I’ll be adding to this story over time until the whole thing is complete.  Basically it starts in February 2016 and goes until we step on the airplane with them on August 13, 2016.Here is one part of the story: Yesterday (Tuesday, August 9) I found out, from the USDA, that because I used one form A and one form C for both cats that the forms would be invalid.  It didn’t matter that Animal Quarantine Services (AQS) in Japan said it was okay to use one form for both cats.  The USDA requires 2 forms for 2 cats.  So I had to get up very early…

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Final Bits & Good-Byes

Today is the last day of Junior Guards!  Here’s what we have going on today, Thursday, August 11:  Kaiyo and Avalon are riding bikes to JG from 10-12 and Halyard goes from 1-3.  All 3 are meeting up at the Fun Zone for lunch and arcade fun from 12-1.  Big Al is coming back to install the new strikers on our stove at 9am.  Tony our painter is coming over to look at our painting needs and give us an estimate.  John plans to sell the BMW to a man named Mark today at 3:30!  Then, at 5:30 we’re supposed to be at Balboa Peninsula Park for Junior Lifeguard Graduation.  Phew!  And I won’t be there for any of the…

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The Last Week

Now we are literally down to the last week.  Sunday, August 7 and there’s still a lot to do and a lot of people to see.  I told Sandi that we need to leave for extended periods more often.  Everyone wants to squeeze in time. First off today I’m taking Kaiyo to Side Street Cafe so he can join up with his friend Ethan and the Lovin Family.  My plan was to go to the early service at church but we just didn’t make it there.  But Halyard still wanted to go and say goodbye to his friends so we dropped him off.  I decided it was probably better to continue packing since I was feeling the pressure of the…

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Grandma’s 100th Birthday

Saturday, August 6 is another big momentous day.  It’s Grandma’s 100th Birthday Party.  When my mom was first thinking about the party I asked her to schedule it before our departure date.  So this is one of the things we’ve been waiting for before we leave.  It’s in Riverside and we have to be there to help out with set up and greeting people at the door.  Grandma is looking so good!  She is as sharp as a tack and has perfect vision and hearing.  She’s just amazing!Since we couldn’t get a dinner date on the books with our Kiwi friends, the Slomans, before they head out on vacation, we’re having breakfast with them in the morning before heading out…

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