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…
Exploring Downtown
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Crazy at the End
The last month. The last week. Where to start? This has been a crazy month and even nuttier week to say the least. Let’s start at Monday, August 1. Avalon is trying to finish up her gymnastics classes plus make up a few that she’s going to miss because we are moving. The plan is for her to go to junior lifeguards in the morning from 9-12, then bike home and later go to a double set of classes from 3:20-4:15 and 4:15-5:10. After Kaiyo comes home from junior lifeguards with Avalon he will finish his last round of volunteering at Mariners library from 4:30-5:30. I am recruiting Halyard to head back to the storage unit to drop off more…