Simple Life

I'm an expat, an expatriate.  I am a person that is voluntarily choosing to live outside my home country, my home culture.  Right now, I'm pretty glad for that.  To be honest - I don't like politics and this time of year, elections looming, mud-slinging, good television being interrupted for speeches and debates, it's not my favorite.  Before I am judged, before you tell my it's my responsibility as an American to follow along and cast my vote, just wait.  I agree.  I shouldn't complain or whine unless I am willing to step up, right?  That's why I'm glad to be over here - not only am I able to watch from a distance and choose to be as involved or uninvolved as I want, I really can't do much.  I'm off the hook.  It's a lazy approach, but right now, it's the right approach for me. I love America - but it is flawed.  (Everywhere is.  No place is perfect.)  In the not too distant past the leaders of our country felt that they wer...

It is finally cooling down a little bit here in Japan.  That means that it has gone from stifling to just ridiculous.  We are still using the AC at night to sleep, have fans blowing on us regularly, and  taking multiple showers a day, but I know it's cooling down because Jaxon has stopped putting ice down his pants while he watches TV. Many of our US friends are heading back to school today and tomorrow.  Admittedly, I'm sad that we are not there doing the whole back to school thing.  Seeing all the pictures on Facebook and reading posts about my fellow teachers getting their classrooms ready is a little tough. I figured I'd take this opportunity to share a little bit about school supplies in Japan.  Of course all the kids wear uniforms so the back to school clothes shopping is very easy.  I love, love, love that!  I don't understand why the uni shirts have to be white... but at least they are inexpensive so I can frequently replace Jaxon's. ...

We recently drove from our home in Utazu to Obaachan's home in the outskirts of Tokyo.  Door to door the drive took 12 hours.  For you Seattlites - we could have made it to Sacramento or Billings in that time.  When we told Japanese people that we were driving there as opposed to taking public transportation we were laughed at, told we were crazy, or they just didn't believe us.  People here, at least on the island we live on, ride their bikes and take the trains a lot.  There really isn't a bus system here to speak of.  Many people have cars and they do drive them, but not usually off the island.  All the roads that lead off the island are toll roads and the tolls are pretty expensive.  They used to be very affordable, but were raised after the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.  The additional monies all go toward the relief and rebuilding effort. Anyway...we chose to drive for a number of reasons - one being that we'd get to see ...

Sitting here in my bed it is hard to believe that just 2 nights ago I was asleep (using that term lightly) in a hut on Mount Fuji.  That experience was definitely one for the books - or at least the blogs. :)  Here is the story of the Ostrer ascent and descent of Fuji.  I apologize ahead of time if this blog gets long - I think I am doing it more for my own memories than anything else. Preparation The truth is - we didn't really do all that much prep.  We read a little on the net - asked around - but we were mostly in that place of not knowing what we needed to know.  What little we did learn ahead of time had to do with supplies and just getting to the mountain.  I guess we just figured we'd learn the rest as we hiked up.   There are 4 trails that hikers can use to get to the top of Fuji.  Each is unique in its' length, difficulty, exposure, etc.  An experienced climber recommended a trail to us - the longest but commonly thoug...