Still Waiting!

Some of you read Lissa's brief rant on Facebook, stating that our shipment did NOT arrive on March 17th as we had hoped.  Instead, it got a late start at sea, and is headed on a detour to China.  We don't expect to see our household goods until mid- to late-April.  To quote an ancient philosopher-king, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" and that's exactly how we've felt recently.  We are heart-sick, depressed, angry and wishing we could speed time forward to the day that a moving truck appears in front of our house, delivering beds with mattresses, pillows, spring-weather clothing, kitchen implements, stereo systems, computer software, Xbox, and other comforts of home.

It will get here.  We know it will.  And between now and then, we've got some living to do.

Jenna and Heather have been on spring break this past week, which also coincided with "O-Hana-Mi", Sakura (cherry blossom) Viewing season.  For one precious week, trees all over Tokyo exploded in full bloom with pale pink blossoms.  We made a point to get out of our empty house and enjoy the outdoor scenery, and God graced our week with pleasant spring weather and mild temperatures.

Enjoy the photos, and pray for us to persevere during this wait that seems never-ending.

Daylight is Coming

Ten weeks in country.  Admittedly, it seems like it's been much longer than 10 weeks, but we are beginning to see daylight.  We are gradually completing all of the tasks that weigh our minds down in the midst of these early days.  Both Stew and Lissa earned their driver's licenses.  After two months of waiting around, we have reliable internet at home.  We are emerging from winter's cold into a lovely spring season.  

Signs of Spring:  Plum blossoms

All that remains on our get-settled-in-Japan list is "The Shipment" -- our furnishings that are in transit from the U.S.   Awhile back, we were told that our container would hit the port of Yokohama on March 17th.  We've heard nary an update in the meantime, and although we are afraid to get our hopes up...we can't help but hope that by this time next week, we will be swapping out rent-a-futons for wooden-frame beds with brand new mattresses.


To our great relief, Lissa passed the driving test on her second try.  Stew (!) drove her there that day and waited around while she tested.  Twenty people tested that morning and in the end, only two passed, yielding a pass rate of 10%.  Stew grew anxious as he saw one driver after another return to the waiting hall, headed straight for the "Reschedule Test" window instead of the "Convert International License to Japan License" window.   It was a happy day when Lissa found herself in the Ten Percent category, earning her driver's license!  There is something about gaining Internet and drivers' licenses that boosts your morale in a way nothing else can.


From previous experience we know that one of the best ways to ward off the deadly combination of culture-shock and newcomer's blues, is to "get out" and become involved in the community.   Several opportunities presented themselves in these recent weeks, and with our relatively uncluttered schedule, we've taken advantage.

Heather shows off her project.

Jenna fixes her display board at home.

Stew and Lissa served as judges for the middle school's Science Expo at CAJ.  Jenna and Heather each carried out their own science investigations, compiling research reports and constructing display boards.  We toured the Science Fair in our white lab coats, interviewing students and evaluating their projects.   Jenna created her own lava lamp, while Heather magically floated paper clips atop the water's surface.  The girls got started on their projects about a month later than their classmates, and we weren't stocked with all of the supplies we'd normally have at home.  In spite of the less-than-ideal circumstances, the girls did an admirable job with what they had available, and we were proud of their hard work.

Science Fair Judges -- We had a blast!

Stew walks alongside the city councilman

Another opportunity came through a last-minute request from a co-worker.  We attended an afternoon art workshop at a community center, offered to families of Japanese children who suffer Down's syndrome.  This was orchestrated by a city alderman, a fairly new Christian who himself is disabled from cerebral palsy.  He is burdened by the lack of resources and support for families of Down's children, so he organized this event to draw parents and children together for some recreation and encouragement.  

This sweet girl painted at least a dozen pictures!

It's like we've never been separated.

We have also enjoyed several visits with good friends this month.  One was with the Kimura family.  The wife, Kazuyo, comes from our former city in China and was the first friend that Lissa made there in 2004.  We enjoyed a joyful reunion over sushi one night and have stayed in contact ever since, mainly through cell-phone texting.

Heather was only 5 the last time she saw her buddy.

A friend from our Texas days, Randy, came through Tokyo after a brief stay on Okinawa for business.  We took the train to Tokyo's Ginza section to meet up with him one evening, and we visited over coffee.  Most recently, we hosted Bill and Pam Truax, parents of Leslie's fiance, Josiah.  They live on Okinawa, and when Bill got sent to Tokyo for military-diplomatic business, he flew his wife up to Tokyo for a weekend "date."  We are grateful to have friends come through town and call on us!

Our Texas friend, world traveler Randy Walker

Bill and Pam Truax, visiting from Okinawa

The "Necessary Evil" Driving Test

Stew received a Pink Slip two days ago.  No, not the dreaded "you've lost your job" pink slip, but a coveted Sakura pink slip declaring that he passed the notorious Japan driver's license road test.  Stew passed, while I (Lissa) failed.  More on that in a moment.

While we've shivered through February, walking back and forth in 35-mph wind gusts to and from the bus station and the train station...we've eyed the mini-van that sits parked beside our house.  This van is a fairly aged specimen, a non-descript 1998 Toyota Noah mini-van.  But it's ours to use, and since we just finished 8 years of life in China with no vehicle, we have been itching to drive it.

Our "Noah" mini-van, seen from the living room window

Not so fast, however...

Though we went to the AAA in Tennessee last fall and obtained "International Driving Permits" that were good for a year, these became utterly worthless once we landed in Japan.  Instead, we had to apply for a full Japan driver's license, a process that took approximately 6 weeks from initial application to the date of the road test.  Stew and I went online and studied up on the licensing process.  Kind friends took us on 3 separate excursions to the JAF (Japan Auto Federation):  first to submit an application, then to return with a missing document, then back a third time to pay fees and take a written test.  The written test was simple enough; we both passed, so we booked the date for our driving test.

A "forbidden" photo of the driving course

The driving test is the bane of an ex-pat's transition to Japan.   Instructions are given entirely in Japanese.  The cars are outfitted with seeming dozens of rear-view mirrors, all pointing this way and that.  This myriad of mirrors exists for the examiner (versus the driver) whose job it is to catch the driver "out of position" at any point on the driving course:  along the road, through the "crank" of simultaneous 90-degree turns, the narrow S-curve, and through intersections.  Intersections are marked with white solid "stop" lines well before the actual intersection.  In the middle of the intersection lay triangles or other shapes painted on the road, which the driver must proceed past/along/through  in a precise fashion.  Suffice it to say that the driving test involves a laundry list of anal-retentive driving protocol: one enormously intimidating challenge.

Stew and I were the last of 18-20 people to test that day.  We spent the morning in a little booth, watching all of the other drivers attempt the test.  Anticipation built as we watched others make their way through the driving course, and each time one returned to the booth, we craned our necks to see whether that driver earned a "pass" or the more frequent "fail" slip.

Lissa's is on top; Stew's on the bottom.

Yes, I failed.  I made a lane-change rather late and reached a full stop at the intersection, with the front of the car breaking the plane of the white "stop line."  No touch-down for this girl.  In effect, I'd illegally entered the intersection.  I chalk it up to my inexperience of left-side-of-the-road driving, an unfamiliar vehicle, a lack of Japanese language, and paranoia from too many off-set mirrors flashing images across my view.  Stew, on the other hand, "aced" the test and joined a very elite club of Foreigners Who Pass On The First Try.  We guessed that around 35-40% of test-takers that day passed the driving test.  What we didn't know until much later, was that the majority of them were repeating the test for the 3rd or 4th time!

Thanks be to God, we are "mobile" now because one of us passed.  This obviously boosts our morale, giving us the ability to go where we want to, when we want to, without begging rides, paying expensive train fare, or enduring motion sickness-inducing public bus rides.  There was only one remaining hiccup to resolve at the end of the day.

Had we mentioned that it's been cold here?

The van's battery was rather "dead" and in need of recuscitation before we could venture out on a maiden voyage....  Ah well, after 3 months of sitting still in an outdoor parking spot, what could we expect!

Our New Normal: When it Comes to Illness...

A stubborn upper respiratory bug is making the rounds through our family these days.  Stew and I managed to weather it with the help of OTC meds we brought along with us from the States.  We wiped those supplies out, which meant making a foray out to a Japanese drug store.  We knew we wouldn't find our favorite remedy here (12-hour Sudafed), but we did find Contac capsules, along with a lesser-strength ibuprofen, so we figured we'd be okay.

Jenna contracted the virus and after a couple days of fever, she developed a full-blown sinus infection.  Great....time now to find a local clinic.  We had no idea where to begin our search, but thankfully we have local friends who have offered to help in times of need.  

We decided to preempt our scheduled Japanese lesson in favor of pressing our tutor into humanitarian service.  When Harada Sensei (Teacher Harada) arrived, we informed him that Jenna needed a doctor, and could he help us find one?  With his help, we found an ear/nose/throat clinic a short walk from our house.  We were thankful to have Teacher Harada with us so that he could translate.  In a little over an hour's time, Jenna had been registered, examined, x-rayed, diagnosed (yes, it was a sinus infection), and prescribed an antibiotic.  We were amazed by the speed and efficiency of this walk-in clinic.  We went to a nearby pharmacy and after 20 additional minutes, we were heading home with prescription in hand.

This experience proved a welcome contrast to the self-diagnosing/self-medicating that defined our way of managing illness on Mainland China.  There, we would stock our home pharmacy by way of trips out of country once or twice a year, bringing back what we hoped would be the medication we'd require over the next several months.   This time, it was a relief to take Jenna to a clinic for what amounted to a Western-style doctor's appointment.

Heather fell ill within days after Jenna, except that the virus went straight to her lungs, resulting in bronchitis.   To our dismay, the clinic that Jenna visited was closed today, so we trekked around the neighborhood in search of another that was open.  We found one about a half-mile down the road, and took Heather in to register and receive an exam.

Heather's experience was completely different.  Instead of an interview, brief exam and x-rays, Heather endured thoroughly invasive examination and treatment.  The doctor (who spoke some English, thankfully) examined Heather's throat with a camera-tipped probe, examined her nose in like manner, and then....THEN....he took an aspirating tube to the back of Heather's throat, causing her to gag.  After that, he used the aspirating tube up her nose, to her wide-eyed astonishment.  I reached for Heather's hand, which she gripped tightly until the doctor was finished "cleaning out."  Finally, she was fitted with one face mask and then a second, to receive nebulizer treatments.  

Whereas Jenna came home with one 10-day course of antibiotics, Heather came home with 10 separate medications:  cough suppressants, broncho-dilators, antihistamine, gargling powder, antibiotics, throat lozenges, and a nasal spray.  Whew!  All of these meds are in fairly small quantities and will be used up within 5 days, but it does seem weird to watch an 11 year-old swallow a handful of pills, twice a day.

In sum, within days we witnessed two perfectly legitimate ear/nose/throat evaluations, but also two entirely different treatment procedures.  Time will tell which child recovers the fastest from her respective illness.....

In Search of a New Normal...Part 1

We are getting closer to "normal."  

Girls scope out their new campus.

Jenna and Heather started school on Monday, Jan. 21st with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation.  It's their 3rd school in the last 12 months, but thankfully it should become "normal" for them during these next 4 years.  We took a tour of the campus the previous week, being led around by the gentle-spirited principal that both girls agree, "is so much like Aunt Kristin."  The first week was as hectic as we expected, with the girls getting accustomed to a new school, new teachers, and a techno-centric new "system" for communication and tracking assignments.

The "Aunt Kristin" principal, Mrs. Tanya Hall.

The girls now walk 20 minutes to a train station, take a commuter train a handful of stops, then disembark and walk another 10 minutes to their school.  We accompanied them the first two days, giving them less assistance each trip so that they learned the routine for themselves.  On day 3, Stew and I had a morning appointment that we could not get out of, so the girls ventured out on their own -- and they did it!  





On day 4, Jenna's homeroom was scheduled to conduct a homeless outreach at a major railway station in Tokyo.  We bought meals and drinks for the homeless who sleep in the train station overnight.  Each student brought and handed out 3 meals to various men, some who were bundled up and sleeping on their cardboard box, others who were already disassembling their bed for the day.  




The Tokyo police allow these homeless men to sleep in the interior corridors that link several train and subway lines -- space that is even kept heated during the night hours.  The only stipulation is that they vacate the corridor by 7:00 a.m. as the morning commuter rush begins.  This meant we woke up at 4:30 a.m., took the train to the station to arrive at 6:00, and handed out our meals before the 7:00 a.m. moratorium.  Afterward, we commuted back to school and were treated to a breakfast of pancakes and sausage, served by the school's Honor Society. 

Word gets around when the kids come bearing breakfast.  In one instance, a homeless man ran up to one of the parents, pointing back at his friend who'd received a meal, and asking (hopefully) whether there was one for him, too!


Stew and I passed through this same train station a couple of hours later.  Nobody would guess that the corridor served as sleeping quarters for homeless men, based on what you saw at 9:00 a.m.   It looked like a typical Japanese subway crossing:  immaculate, orderly, crammed with commuters, with the distinct feel of cool, conditioned air blowing overhead.

Wanna See our House?

Winding Staircase!

Our "Great Room" downstairs

Some of you might be interested to see how we're living during these early days in Japan.  Most of you know that we will be extremely well outfitted here in a couple of months, when our U.S.-purchased furniture makes its way here aboard a container ship.  For now, though, it's time to show you some "before" photos.

Our house, 2 floors' worth!

The rooms are furnished with borrowed curtains and rented furniture.  Seeing as we've just "weathered" Tokyo's first blizzard in 40 years, we are very grateful for the curtains...even if they are pink in some rooms.

Master BR 

Girls' BR -- sufficiently "lived in"

The kitchen is much, much more than we were expecting.  In China we started with bare walls and a naked shelf that contained a sink and a primitive cooktop.  Needless to say, the average Chinese kitchen needed a lot of upgrading.  

Here, though, we walked into a galley-shaped kitchen with cabinets and a sink big enough to bathe your baby!  The entire left wall contains floor-ceiling cabinets and a (rented) fridge.



One of two "thrones" is pictured below, along with the "Control Panel" on the left side of the toilet.   Not only do we have heated toilet seats here (!)  we have the option of bidet spray or "hiney spray" to clean off oneself after doing one's business!  Who'd 'a thunk it!

The toilet occupies a closet all its own.

Would it be too much to add that the water "spray" is heated as well?

 And last, but not least, the showering/tubbing room.  Think of a sauna-sized bath room where one first showers, then steps into a tub filled with water up to your armpits to soak away the cares of the day.  This is clearly Lissa's favorite feature of our new home.

Lissa's favorite:  the deep soaking tub.

The apartment may seem "spartan" but we realize that to live from day to day, very simple furnishings are more than adequate.  A place to sleep, a place to eat, a place to prepare food and bathe.  Nobody really needs more than this, right?

Remind us of this in a couple of months when we're squeezing all of our new furniture into this cozy living space.

In Over our Heads

This celebrity came through Haneda
 airport just hours ahead of us.

We arrived safely in Tokyo, Japan after a blessed uneventful 14.5-hour flight from New York's JFK airport.   These trans-oceanic flights are grueling any way you look at them.  We were grateful to fly on American Airlines this time around, because the girls whiled away the hours playing games on the seat-back entertainment systems (something we did not have on the last trans-oceanic flight, aboard a Chinese airliner.)

Immigration and customs are a chore, and yet as we passed through immigration at Haneda airport, we emerged with our Japan residence cards...eliminating a lengthy errand from an even more lengthy list of must-do items for the newly arrived.  


We are starting over.  Starting over usually means you start small and build up, and that's our story this time around.  Our apartment is sparsely furnished with temporary bedding,  a dining room table, and small couch.  We eat using borrowed dishes and utensils, and dry off with hand-me-down towels after bathing.  Our pantry contains at most a 2-day supply of groceries, since we are still discovering the local markets and stores.

Before you feel too sorry over this "minimalist" existence, I must add that Stew is posting regularly on Facebook, and Lissa on this blog, thanks to a tethered connection to Stew's I-phone (version 5).  We are, after all, carving out our new existence in Techno-Mecca!

The Apple Store in
Shibuya, Tokyo.

Jenna and Heather are sailing through these early days like champs.  They haven't complained about sleeping on the floor on the thin futons.  They are gamely sampling Japanese food everywhere we go, and they eagerly anticipate a visit to their new school where they start class on Jan. 21st.  They did suffer a dose of jet lag, waking up at 4:00 a.m. on the second day here, but they slept in until 8:00 the third morning and have been fine ever since.

We hit the ground running, eager to explore our new city.  Each day we've gone out to try something new, and to get more items checked off of that list.  After obtaining refillable bus and train cards, we've ridden both, including taking the train into downtown Tokyo.  The challenge of getting around a new city energizes us.  It also meant we made a couple of missteps in the train station, heading down a corridor toward the subway instead of the light rail.  Our cards suddenly activated an angry-sounding "reject" beep, which stopped us cold.  We uttered a sheepish "Sumi masen" ("I'm sorry") to the Japanese gate guard, and he cleared our malfunctioning cards so that we could continue on our way....the right way.

Enjoying Sukiyaki and other traditional Japanese favorites

Tokyo has a bit of a Hong Kong-feel to it, which makes our newest landing pad seem "familiar enough" without intimidating us.   We are having fun observing our new surroundings through the lens of 8 years of life on Mainland China.  We must definitely make some adjustments before we run afoul of Japan's Politeness Protocol.  For example, cell phones are turned on "silent" on trains and public buses.  Riders as well are nearly silent during their commutes, and Jenna has chided us more than once for talking too loud.  

We have seen more Starbucks coffee shops in 5 days than we did in 8 years in China.  The streets are immaculate.  Curious locals will discreetly peer at us (and turn away if spotted), compared to the wide-eyed gaping and gawking of the mainlanders.  We are slowly learning how to separate our trash into 3 separate bins for recycling, instead of tossing it all into one bag for the neighborhood trash collectors to sort through.  The pigeons here are very plump and healthy, instead of being served up on a mainlander's dinner plate.

We are also very weary and tired.  The initial days/weeks in a new country are exhausting as we find ourselves overwhelmed by the responsibilities of starting over.  We are truly "in over our heads",  and yet we couldn't be happier.