Simple Life

I'm a city girl.  Or, at least I was.  Jason and I lived in a tiny little condo on Queen Anne, walked to the store to get our groceries, traveled in the rain without an umbrella, and carried bus passes.  We were city folk all the way.  I loved it, he loved it.  Until recently, as in last week, I cherished my long held belief that I was still that girl.  Then, I went to Tokyo.  Tokyo, the big city, not Tokyo the suburb I live in.  Now I wonder if I have any city left in me at all... When I think of Seattle I think of the Pike Place Market, Westlake, the Space Needle. But Seattle is so much more than that.  It is packed with many little neighborhoods that each have their own spice and flavor.  We lived on Queen Anne, which is Seattle, but it is not the Pike Place Market Seattle.  Tokyo, and likely every big city in the world, is the same.  Before living here my vision of Tokyo was a giant mass of concrete and skyscrapers.  That happens to hold very true, but only for part of the ci

Just a few pictures of some of the crazy cool things we've come across recently. A disposable ear piercer for all your at home ear piercing needs. It's hard to see but there is a ramp going up the stairs in the center of the flight.  This is for people taking bike up the stairs. Loner glasses are at ever post office, doctor's office, etc.  Look at the little ear thingys!  They keep glasses on.  Way better than the nerdy strap behind the head. Totally imposible to see, but we were riding an escalator that went from floor 1 to floor 4, bypassing 2 and 3.  It was awesome!  So efficient! Coolest machine.  You know how you have to take your shoes off everywhere in Japan?  Well, each place you go provides slippers for you to where while you are there.  Dirty, used slippers.  Not this place!  Just push the red button and clean slippers come out the bottom.  When you are done, drop your slippers in the top to be sanitized!  So awesome!

When I saw the calendar at my new job and saw that we have Thanksgiving off from work I was very excited - it is my favorite holiday after all.  I thought, see, working at an International school has it's perks!  Then, I learned that Japan actually has a Thanksgiving all their own.   Here in Japan Thanksgiving is November 23rd, every year.  It is actually called Labor Thanksgiving Day.  It doesn't move around like in the states.  So, occasionally both the US and Japan will have Thanksgiving on the same calendar date.    Thanksgiving here has nothing to do with Pilgrims, Native Americans, turkey or football.  Here is is a day set aside to honor and thank laborers.  The holiday was signed into law in 1948, after WWII ended and the Japanese people created a new constitution to expand the rights of workers while also marking the expansion and guarantee of basic human rights.  While the holiday is relatively young, it is reminiscent of an ancient harvest festival called Niinamesa

Sunday was terribly rainy and bleak.  We chose to spend the day at home, in jammas, no deodorant, unpretty.  The only step I took Sunday morning toward looking human was to brush my hair because as much I love a lazy day, I do not like the caveman look that I sometimes sport as I roll out of bed.  So, that was Sunday.  Of course, that was the day that our neighbors chose to knock on the door and introduce themselves.  Super awesome.  I did the, "You get the door, I need to put pants on" move. (I was actually already wearing pants, they just didn't match...at all.) Anyway, the neighbors were very nice and spoke decent English, which was a pleasant surprise.  What I wanted to tell you was something that blew my mind, again.  (The same thing happened in Utazu but I'm not sure if I blogged about it.)  The new neighbors brought us a gift!  Not because we are new, but because they are.  That's a custom here, when you move into a new apartment you are supposed to take

Today was the third day of school and work for the kids and I.  We all go to Tokyo West International School each morning - me as a teacher and the kids as students.  Logistically things are good - we live a 10-15 minute walk from school, which we take together as a family each morning. I work 8:30-4:30 M-F and the kids go to school 8:45-3:30 M-F.  We have all the same vacation days - mostly.  I have a few planning days that they get to take off without me.  I get stolen hugs at random moments during the day.  It's just really good. Lily and Jaxon each got assessed by their potential teachers before they actually entered class.  Lily did okay and was accepted into 4th grade - the grade she was in at the Japanese public school.  Jaxon didn't do as well - he did what has become his usual - "I don't know", "I can't do that", etc.  The teachers decided he'd be better off spending the rest of the year (4 months) in 2nd grade.  I was not surprised

Tomorrow marks one week in our new apartment in Tokyo.  We love the new place - it's large, open, light, and has a lot of storage space.  Now, when I say "large" what I mean is, large by Japanese standards.  Our new place is 80 sq meters, roughly 861 sq feet.  Out last apartment was 64 sq meters/688 sq feet.  Added together they are still smaller than the home we left in the US.  It's amazing to me how much space we used to have - and how easily we filled it up. Here are some photos that I took as I saw the apartment for the first time - we'd rented it sight unseen. This is the living room.  Notice the paper curtains?  They make it look dark but in reality this room is very bright. The curtains were actually really nice to have for the first few nights before I could hang real curtains. This is the dining area.  It's just next to the living area - great room style.  This is new for us, our last apartment didn't have enough space for us to have a