Simple Life

One thing that I have gained by living outside the US is a new appreciation for the difficulty immigrants have when trying to set up a new life in a new place.  It's kind of funny...here we are the immigrants, the foreigners, the crazy gaijin (literally means foreign person) that don't speak the language and need all kinds of help. Here we get pats on the back for our bravery, lauding for our courageous spirit, an A for our effort. But, back home, we hear things like, "You know, they should really learn to speak our language.  They are living here, in our country..."  I have heard that so many times.  It's never bothered me, immigrants into the US that can't speak English, but I also never put any thought into how difficult life must be for them either. One example...to live and work in another country you have to have the proper paperwork, otherwise you are an illegal alien.  (Such a controversial topic in the US...).  Here we need a visa.  Every person

We have several bucket list items that we would love to - but will not- accomplish before we leave Japan.  I guess that means that someday we will just have to come back!  Anyway, one item on the list that we decided we must do this time was visit Tokyo Disney.  We are only living 1.5 hours away by train and we do have two kids...it just makes sense to do it now. Tokyo Disneyland is actually two parks - Disneyland and Disney Sea.  We could've done one or both.  After talking to people and reading a bunch of reviews we decided to do just one park, Disney Sea.  Disneyland here is said to be much like Disney everywhere else, but Disney Sea is unique in that this is the only one. We didn't tell the kids where we were going, just that we had to go into the city to do something important before we left.  5 AM wake ups! Once the kids realized where we were going they were super excited!  When you get off the train at the station near Disney you then get on a special monorail that

I don't really know where to begin.  I guess to say that we are coming (or going) home.  Jason, the kids, and I are leaving Japan and moving back to the states next month.  We make this move with mixed emotions.  The idea of returning to the states for a visit came up a couple of weeks ago when we found out my Dad was sick, but in the last few days as we looked at our options, it became clear that returning for good is our best choice at the moment. Leaving Japan isn't really going to be too hard for us, as Tokyo hasn't grown into home for us yet.  Were we still in Utazu with our "family" there, it would be much harder. So, leaving won't be hard, but, returning, that will suck (such a poetic word choice, I know.  It just happens to fit perfectly...). We've liked Japan, we've liked living here.  We've had an amazing experience that we wouldn't trade.  There are some thing we would have done differently if we'd known differently, but I su

Setsubun was celebrated this weekend here in Japan.  Setsubun literally means "sectional separation" or "seasonal division".  It is celebrated on the day before spring according to Japan's lunar calendar.  There is a lot of history around setsubun, although it is not a national holiday.  Basically, Japanese people do a ritual to chase away the devil, evil spirits, or ogres called Oni.  In the distant past this was done by burning dried sardine heads and wood - the smoke was thought to chase away the spirits.  Drums were also played.  People do not do this much anymore from what I am told - thank goodness.  Smelly!  Today, people throw roasted beans around their houses  while yelling, "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" This translates to "Devils out! Happiness in!" or "Get out Ogre!  Come in Happiness!"  Afterwards you are supposed to collect and eat the number of beans that corresponds to your age.  That is a lot of roasted bean