Simple Life

Japan is the land of the vending machine. I have never seen so many vending machines in one place. it's like walking through a casino in Vegas - slot machines, or in this case vending machines, everywhere. The benefit is that you are never far from refreshment, be it water, juice, soda or beer that you desire. At first I found the idea of beer vending machines strange, but I've gotten used to the idea. What I haven't accepted is that the Japanese version of Gatorade is called Pocari Sweat. I just don't want to drink anything with the name sweat in the title. For those of you that know Jaxon, you know he is a money magnet. That kid can find loose and forgotten change anywhere. Before we left the states he'd developed a habit of getting on his hands and knees in the checkout line of the store, looking for dropped change. Amazingly, he usually found some. Just imagine him here in Japan, vending machines on every corner. Let's just say that we cannot wa...

Many people are familiar with the Japanese legend of 1000 cranes. Basically, anyone that completes the task of folding 1000 cranes is due to receive a wish from a crane, a sacred creature here in Japan. Cranes are thought to live 1000 years and have the ability to grant long life, health, success, etc. Here Lily is looking at a cluster of 1000 cranes left at a prayer wall at the Zentsuji Temple. The Zentsuji Temple was stunning. None of our pictures do it justice. If you're interested in learning more about the temples here on the island, search "88 temples of Shikoku". It's pretty amazing stuff. I don't know that we'll make it to all 88, but we got started today! After our time at the temple, we followed signs to a park. We weren't sure what we'd find at the end of our drive, but that was half the fun. We ended up at this AMAZING park! It was beautiful. It had beautiful gardens, huge play toys, sculptures, activities, ponds complete wi...

So much of our decision to come to Japan had to do with learning to live another way, differently than the routines that we had fallen into. Some would ask why we had to come to Japan to do this, why couldn't we just make changes to our lives while living in Yakima? Well, I guess the simple answer is that this felt easier. It sounds strange to me, even as I write it. How is uprooting the entire family and giving up 99% of our possessions to move halfway around the world easier than making changes at home? The truth is, making changes at home, like spending less, saving more and slowing down is all well and good until you tire of it and give up. We've tried. It always started out well but little indulgences would creep back in. "Of course we don't need Starbucks right now, but it's right there and there is no line at the drive through...it just sounds good." One trip through Starbucks would lead to another, then we get too tired to cook dinner, next thin...

I'm not too small to admit that I'm jealous. Jason is *rocking* this teaching thing. The Japanese people love him! He's a natural entertainer and has already been promoted to full time. Now, whether or not he considers this increase in hours a promotion or not is still in the air. I, on the other hand, am not some fabulous teacher-rock-star. I guess it's the traditional teacher in me, but I am having a hard time adopting the curriculum. It's a great curriculum, it's just geared more toward fun and less toward traditional academics. Every lesson is supposed to include a game, a song and a story. With the lessons only being 30-50 minutes, that doesn't leave much time for the text. I guess the key here is exposure to the language more than anything else. Like all new things, I will struggle for a little bit but will ultimately grab hold and do well. ***having a little faith here*** Jason and I already have some favorite classes. We both enjoy the...

We have a mailing address! We're choosing to use the address at our office to receive mail. Here it is: Jason and Tawnya Ostrer 1-4-10 Sakaemachi Kanonji-City Kagawa 768-0072

Our apartment backs a canal. I'm not exactly sure what the canal is for, but there are many fish, birds and turtles living in it. People are not allowed to go into the canal or fish from it. Of course, we didn't know that so Lily and Jaxon headed down a little ladder that leads down into the canal and played around for awhile. Here is a picture of an empty turtle shell they found and brought home. So cool! Of course, it would be better with a head... Today Lily caught herself a little lizard outside the grocery store. Naturally, she wanted to keep it. Next, we went to the Daiso, a dollar store. There she found little plastic bug cages for kids to keep pets and things in. The picture showed some sort of roach or something living inside. She wanted that too. Another veto from me. I know she missed the cats but the last thing we need are pet cockroaches! The headless turtle will have to do for now.

We're here! We made it safely to Japan with just a few inconveniences along the way. Overall the travel here was relatively painless. Now, a few days into our time here we're trying to acclimate to the seemingly 1,000,000% humidity. Supposedly August is the hottest month. Quite honestly, I have never looked so forward to fall! We are loving it here. The town we live in is small and relatively untouched by Americanism. We thought that there would be more people here that would speak English- there really are very few. We also thought that there would be more English writing on packages. Again, very little. It makes grocery shopping slightly intimidating, especially for me, the queen of reading labels. Oh well, guess that's just part of the adventure. We live in Kanonji. It is near the sea and very clean as far as little and human waste is concerned. There is never trash on the ground. And despite the warning I received that men are legally allowed to (and wil...