Life in Japan

I have more pictures to post, but I think that I'll save them for a day or two. I've had so many questions about life in Japan that I think I should share some about it. I'm swiping most of this text from emails that I've sent out. Forgive me if you've heard this or read it already.

I've been here a month now. I can't believe it. One down, 17 to go. No, I haven't gotten lonely yet. Addison keeps me quite busy. I know that I would be having a much different experience without her. I think that she'll keep me quite sane. It's hard to worry about yourself when you have to worry about someone else. My tutor comes twice a week. Addy and I generally see Rodelyn and Markus once a week while the hubbies are at work. And I try to be very friendly when I go out to the grocery. Addison is prefect for this. All she has to do is sit there looking like her cute little self and we get plenty of women and teenage girls saying "KAWAII!!" (Kah-wah-eeeeeeeeeeee!!) Which means cute. And then of course Addy turns on her charm and they just love to talk to her. I still don't understand much, so body language is very important. There are many smiles and hand shakes.
It is nice to be back together as a family, but we still won't see Ian very much. Honda employees are expected to work long hours while they are here. Ian leaves around 7:30 a.m. to catch a combination of subways and trains. His total travel time is about an hour one way. Last night he got home a little after 8 p.m. The engineers are part of a union. I'm sure that it's much different than the unions we know of in the states. However, the union helps the engineers to get home earlier on Wednesdays. Fridays are shorter days too. Ian is generally home around 6:30 on those days.

I don't know how I would've made due for 60 days without all my creature comforts. I'm so glad that our first ocean shipment arrived so early in our stay. I can find just about any food that I want. For mother's day Ian and I ordered an American-style pizza and I got my pepperoni fix. I can't find pepperoni anywhere else. We ordered a large and it cost about $32 American. Yikes, I know. We won't order pizza delivery very often. I've only been able to find turkey in American restaurants like Friday's and Subway. It used to be my staple to feed Addison. Now it's ham slices. I desperately miss Chipotle. I'm such an addict. I was on their Web site the other day and it pained me. They have live action cameras and so many pictures of their wonderful food. I can't believe that I'm going to have to wait until December to have a burrito!! I scoped out the closest locations to my folks and to Carolyn. The closest is in Fairlawn, Ohio. Awwww....

Enough on food. My days are busier than they ever were as a full-time housewife (those last few weeks in March/April) in Ohio. We have a dish washer, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time to run. Honestly, something like four hours. And it's so small that it won't hold my large wok/skillet. So we don't use it. Hand-washing doesn't take long after breakfast or lunch, but dinner dishes are always longer. There's more pots/pans, more plates, silverware, etc. Drying clothes is also a time-consumer. In the states all you have to do is transfer the laundry from the washer to the dryer and forget about it for the next hour. My washer has a drying function to it. But, as you can imagine, clothes don't dry very well when they're all laying on top of each other in the washer drum. Mostly I hang the laundry outside to air dry. We have a patio with an overhang from the balcony above us. That is where my laundry poles are. And yes, there is currently laundry out there. Due to the limited drying space I can only do one load of laundry each day. So I end up doing laundry three or four days a week. We do have the option of using our shower/bath tub room as a dryer. (The pictures that are coming will help explain that more.) However, the space is even more limited there. Often a three-hour cycle of drying in there still yields damp laundry. Housework seems to have multiplied, but it's really just my OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) coming out. We have hardwood floors throughout and if I don't vacuum once a day, you'll be able to see the dust. I'm always dragging out the vacuum. Addy likes to say "Vrroomm!!" whenever the vacuum comes out of the closet. Those are the most major differences in housekeeping.

Grocery shopping still takes place more often than I want. I'll think that I've stocked the house properly for a week's time and then all of a sudden, I'm out of milk and juice and eggs and bread and cereal and.... You get the idea. The "loaf" of bread that we buy has 6 slices. Granted, they are Texas-style, thick slices, but still 6 slices. The largest container of milk is 1,000 mL (1/2 of a 2-Liter). I usually buy four at a time. Soy sauce, however, comes in 1,000 mL containers too! Hm, back on food. What's really different about grocery shopping here is that I walk to and from the store. Which means that I can only buy as much as I can easily carry. Let me tell you, that ain't much once you get 4,000 mL of milk and 1,000 mL of oj. The amount of stuff that I can carry goes down too if it's raining and I have to use the hip hammock for Addison. [Side note: I forgot to buy a rain shield for the stroller before we left. DUH! I haven't been able to find one here. It's standard issue on strollers so they don't seem to sell them separately. If it's raining and we go out I have to take Addison in the hip carrier. I've put in an early birthday request for the rain shield.]

Getting out of the house and going somewhere besides the grocery store is usually an all-day event. I feel like a pack mule most of the time. My backpack has become our combo purse/diaper bag. I don't carry either of those things anymore. Sometimes we'll take both the stroller and hip carrier due to the time of day and how crowded the trains will be or if there aren't a lot of elevators or escalators in the stations that we'll be in. And then if we're really going to be out a long time, I pack an insulated bag with food for Addison to eat. Oh yes, and of course an umbrella at all times. That's stashed in the backpack.

Many people know some English. And most people will try to help you. We've introduced ourselves to our neighbors on either side. It's sorta expected in Japan. You introduce yourself and your family and you present a gift to the neighbors. You also ask them to treat you well. Japan has a lot of these type of rituals. There are very specific things that you say when meeting someone for the first time.

The times that I'm most surprised by people is on the streets. It might sound funny, but I'm surprised if people are nice to us and I'm surprised if they're rude to us. Maybe I expect indifference. Many, many women and teenage girls are always saying "KAWAII!!" to Addison (See second paragraph.) Some men too even talk to her. That's more rare and always surprising. Occasionally, we'll be given funny looks or people won't change their pathways and "mow" us down. I haven't noticed anyone blatantly bad-mouthing us to our faces though. I'm sure that their tone and body language would come across if they were.

As far as making friends, we're working on that. Ian and I are dyed-in-the-wool-sit-in-the-back-pew Lutherans. We've attended Tokyo Lutheran Church twice now. It is about 45 minutes from our house. That includes the walk to the station, the subway ride, the train ride, and the walk from the station to the church. There is one English-speaking service on Sunday mornings. I think there were 16 people, including the pastor and organist, the first week we went and 12 the last time. After the service they have tea, coffee, and snacks for fellowship. We have joined them both times and are getting to know the members. Last week one of the women even gave me her card [Side note: it's pretty common to carry a family card with your name and phone number on it.] and told me that I could call on her. We were also invited to go to lunch after the coffee hour fellowship. We hadn't prepared to have Addison out that long (no lunch stuff for her), so we declined. But, I hope to accept this week. With such a small group of people, it should be easy to get to know them.

Here in Japan they have mandatory garbage sorting. They obviously don't have space for large landfills here. The majority of our garbage is "combustible." Paper products, cardboard, waste food, disposable diapers [Yeah!!!]. The rest of the garbage is sorted into glass, metal, plastic containers, and Styrofoam. Everything else (which isn't much at all) is considered "non-combustible" and I think that goes to the landfill. I've been sorting garbage for many years in the states so it has been no hardship to transition to their system.

Wow... That turned out to be quite a lot! Hope you enjoyed getting to know a little more about our life in Japan.