Recently Purchased

Sorry I have posted in an eon in the blogosphere. I would at the bare minimum like to post at least once a week, but the days and nights are just getting by me.

Here are some recently purchased items:Lemon sake purchased after a few tastings at the sake breweries across the bridge

Pewter sake cups purchased at Fuji-sans

Bowls I bought when Celia took me to Fuji-san's - a house chock full of antiques in Kobe.

Minpei Yaki bowls- Mid 1800s - the end of the age of Edo

My latest purchase. Really, I think I've talked enough about this problem.


Since I have a pile of pictures on my camera(s) that I haven't downloaded or uploaded. Here's a little September slideshow:

Fi-ya Fi-ya

Max is changing daily and is doing many new cool things now that he's two. Here's a few:

• He loves to YELL: Bye-yi Bye-yi when he's leaving places, especially daycare!
• He's still really into books - we have to cut him off each night, his favorites he'll ask to read OVER and OVER and OVER again, in a row, like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, The Flea's Sneeze, Blue Train, Green Train, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  
• He's really been eating well and sleeping well which makes Mommy happy!
• He's in love with Anpanman - a Japanese cartoon character.

• He loves to ride his bike or be on the back of my bike
• He still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth - ughhh...
• He still cries when we leave him at daycare, he's only not-cried twice.
• He's saying more and more in English and he'll say "hai" (yes) and "Ohayo" (informal good morning) and "konnichiwa" (hello) and "arrigato" (thank you) - kinda
• He loves trains and bubbles, but he ends up getting frustrated and losing his temper playing with both.
• He has a wicked temper and usually ends up hurting himself because he flails around and throws himself backwards.
• He still likes animals BUT loves things that go - he points out every motorcycle, airplane, helicopter...
• Tells everyone around him he loves them when he's happy. It's cute, but I think it freaks people out a bit. Luckily strangers don't understand him!
  

I have been bad about taking video lately, but I love to have the little snippets so you can really catch a glimpse of his personality (and so I can remember the cute and sometimes not-so-cute things). He started this "Fire, fire" thing lately, from what, we don't know. And as you read above, proclaims his love when he's happy, so he gives his affection to Savannah by showering the picture (which is too big to fit on any wall in our house) with kisses because he's oh-so-happy playing with his cement mixer that happens to put out fires.

When 7:00 PM feels like Midnight-Thirty

It's been a super full week:

• Work
• Shipment arrived
• A visit to the pediatrician for a check-up and TB test
• A visit to the school nurse tonight after school to read TB skin test
• Putting all personal belongings away (Thank God For John Lemley)
• Washing almost all clothing before putting away - PEEE - YOUUUU - mustiness.
  
• Washing all kitchenware before putting away - mold problems

BUT!!! The house is almost put together. I'll post a couple of pictures once it is. All we need now is a TV and to await the arrival of our Apple TV from the states!

The piles in our bedroom once the boxes were emptied and taken away.

A drinking problem

A little mold with your bacon?

Okay, this list doesn't seem horrendous, but this week has been a bit tiring. Max is doing better at his daycare, some mornings not fussing at all, but not being consistent about it. He is off his pacifier and monkey during the day at daycare, so that's good. Unfortunately in a week, there's a Japanese holiday that we don't have totally off and Max's daycare is closed, so he'll have to go to the daycare at Canadian Academy. It'll be nice to have him close, but he's just gotten used to going to Yume Club, so hopefully the transition there and back will be okay.

We're happy tomorrow's Friday. We've made plans to go out on Saturday for Kobe beef. We're trying out a babysitter and hopefully all goes well.

Before The Boat

Tomorrow our shipment is due to arrive at our apartment. Hopefully all goes well after its long anticipated arrival. We've been living off of six suitcases worth of stuff + Ikea purchases + multiple trips to the 100 Yen store since June 26th.

Here are a few pics of our apartment before our many boxes arrive. I wonder if we'll like it more or less after we receive our belongings! Besides wanting our kitchenware and a few more outfits to cycle through, it's amazing what you can live without.

There are a few other photos of our apartment and Ikea purchases from our first couple of weeks here in our Picasa folder.

Our tatami room converted into a dining room.
I'm bummed we had to cover the tatami flooring,
but it needs to be protected from
the weight of the furniture + Max slinging food at meal times

Our bedroom

Max's room

Living green - Our new composter and John's rock garden.

And a few other cute shots I got tonight as I was taking pictures of the house.
These two things definitely make our house a home!

2-3-4

Tonight we had party for Maximo (the 2 year old), Tess (the 3 year old) and Allie (the 4 year old). We lugged tons of food and libations to the River Mall and a good time was had by all (I think).

The new blog photo/title was created by John on his iPhone app: Photogene. It's Denis and Maximo eating lunch last week.

Things I've learned in a Mere Month

• To cross the street only when the light directs you to do so
• To take my shoes off everywhere. I'm trying to point them towards the door.
• To bow for forgiveness, as a greeting, and when you're grateful
• That a rice cooker is a really cool appliance!
• How to make onigiri
• How to use a convection oven/microwave
• How to take the train to Toys 'R Us
• To try to not look at the prices so much, we have to eat!
• That I love not owning a car! And that I love riding my bike/walking EVERYWHERE!
• That looking left then right is burned into my brain, hopefully this won't get me killed.
• That I've been missing out on the 100 Yen store. Dollar Stores just don't compare.
• How to write 'milk' in hiragana (it's the most repeated character I write in Max's book)

A Happy Ending

What started as not-so-funny turned into funny, so I'll share.

Let me preface this by saying that we started the process for clearing Flavius for Japanese customs in December. On December 31st to be exact. We could have started a bit earlier since we already accepted jobs at Canadian Academy, but I have been known to procrastinate a bit and it just felt sooo early. This process consisted of multiple visits to the vet in Peru for multiple vaccinations, sending his blood to the Kansas State Rabies Lab for testing and at least a hundred documents were filled out/signed/faxed/revised. And this whole process in the end cost us over $1,000, I'll leave it at that.

John left this morning with Jon (who has a Japanese license) and Todd (who can speak Japanese) to the Kansai Airport in Osaka, about an hour's drive. I reviewed all the paperwork with him that morning, since I had multiple copies of everything. We hoped Flavius would come home today, but weren't feeling super confident, since we had to leave some last minute things (10-day travel check-up, purchase cargo ticket, Peruvian governmental stamp) with Moving Systems, the shipping company we contracted who has not been real competent. This including an "urgente" email I got from them, our friend, and our old maid (on Thursday) who told us that Moving Systems had to buy a new animal crate because ours was too small (it was the size I checked online @ KLM and double checked with the vet) and we had to pay for more cargo space. So they wanted (and frankly, still want) us to wire $500 to them.

About an hour after John left, I sent him a text:

ME: How's it going?
JOHN: I brought the wrong passport.
My blood pressure rises and heart starts pounding.
ME: Seriously?
John is with our "funny" friends who are known for their antics.
JOHN: Yep.
ME: I hope we didn't waste J & T's time today.
I know this wasn't the most supportive thing to say, but I was ticked off. If the cat wasn't coming home with us today, it was going to be the shipping company's fault, NOT OURS!
ME: I can take a picture of it and send it, if you need. Where are they?
JOHN: In the closet in our travel docs bag.

I go and check it out and pull his out. MAXIMO'S WAS GONE! And come to find out later, he actually handed it over to the security checkpoint guy who wasn't sure what was going on and then tried to politely figure out why a grown man was giving a passport of a baby.

So, I waited for more news, when John called:
"Jule, Jon's come up with a plan that might work. Give my passport to Celia, she can bring it to the Sheraton hotel where the shuttle leaves for the airport at 11:18 and we'll wait for it here (It was 10:58 am)."
"Okay"
I run upstairs (Max was napping) relay the message quickly to Celia and then take Denis down to our apartment to watch him while she quickly goes to the hotel.

She ran into a bit of a problem there, not being able to convince the driver to bring the passport and it being too late for her to purchase her own ticket on the bus to hand-deliver it herself. Luckily at that moment (her) Jon called to say they thought they could do everything with John's US license.

Three hours later, Flavius was roaming around our apartment, checking it out, looking healthy and better than we did after our long flight. He's now eaten a bit and had a little to drink, though we don't think he's used the loo yet, so hopefully he'll choose to use the litterbox.

All in a Day

Today Maximo turned 2! It was a full day, but a nice one. Here are a bunch of pictures spanning from AM to PM.
This morning, Maximo opened his gifts while we were hanging around the house before going to school. He got some trucks that run on his train track and a helicopter - a wooden pull toy with oscillating "blades". He loved the helicopter and lapped around the island pulling it chanting "Ahh-pita".

Soon after, we had to convince him that he had to leave the helicopter for when he got home from "school". We set off for school and Max's daycare. This is the dreaded part of our day (and has been for the past 3 weeks). He started to fuss as we crossed the intersection he now recognizes as the corner where "school" is located. We kept talking to him and I mentioned that I brought cookies to share with his friends at snack time. Maybe that did the trick. Maybe it's just finally time. BUT... he didn't cry when we left. So, Maximo gave us something for his birthday! I'm sure that doesn't mean he won't cry ever again as we drop him off, but maybe that is going to start tapering off.

We worked all day (ho-hum).

When we were done with school, we got Max, went home, changed and packed for dinner at the river. We met about 10 couples with their kids and relaxed (well, as much as you can with about 20 kids running around). We had some beers, ate some Indian take-out and thought we made it through our first full week with students. Only 35 or so more weeks to go!

Max and Evan snacking

Reunited and it feels so good.

Max eating everyone's food.

Los Lemley boys

Didi and Bax (this is what they call each other)

Happy Birthday, little boy! We love you!

Mid-week Review

Max on his new bike! Note banged up knee and then stickers below to make it all better!

You may be able to tell from the scintillating post title that we're in the thick of it now, but I wanted to post something so you all would know that we're doing well in Japan.

Some tidbits:

• Max is still crying when we drop him off (not fun)
• We're enjoying our lifestyle here in Japan - riding our bikes, making dinner every night and eating as a family
• Flavius is scheduled to fly in on Saturday, so John and a couple of WONDERFUL friends are going to the airport to try to bring him home.
• Our shipment doesn't look like it'll be at our house until mid next week... C'est la vie.
• Two weeks into moving to Peru we had learned about 100 new words. I think I can confidently say about 4 things here, but I'm going to make an effort. I'm writing Max's daily log in kanji, though I don't expect to memorize anything but milk, rice, chicken, egg, watermelon and toast.

Here are a few pics from the week. They aren't the best quality, since they're off the iPhone, but if I didn't have the iPhone, you'd get none.

Max's art outside of his daycare.
His face and legs matched his masterpiece when he came home!

We found a water table at Toys 'R Us!

On the back of the Mama-san

Max and I at the Obon festival at the River Mall on Rokko Island.

Week In Review

We really started back to work last week. The week before was just for "newbies" so, while it was exhausting, it included trips to IKEA and the such, so it wasn't too bad. This week we had three in-service days and we saw kids on Thursday and Friday and now the weekend has flown by and we're ready to start our first full week with students.

After being on vacation for five weeks, and kind of living on easy street our last year or two in Peru, as far as work goes, it's been a bit hard. For both of us, the worst part of the day is from about 7:25-7:40 when we're walking out the door and getting Maximo to daycare. He cried every morning last week, though it lessened with intensity as the week wore on. When we picked him up Wed., Thurs., and Friday, he didn't start bawling when he saw us, so hopefully it'll continue to get better. Also, for me, it was a difficult couple of days as a new elementary school teacher. I have great kids, but it's been a bit hard to plan being with them all day and actually being with them all day. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon.

Otherwise, we're really happy here. Rokko Island is the perfect place for young kids - it's safe, there are a lot of activities for kids to do and it's super easy to get around (by bike!). I'll try to not go almost a week without writing, but it is going to be a busy year this year. It's almost like our first year of teaching all over again (Yipee! Bring on the 8:00 pm bedtimes and the long hours of planning). I remember it being like this our first year in Peru too.

We're hoping our shipment will arrive this week and Flavius is booked for a flight (unless the incompetent and unpredictable shipping agent out of Peru screws something up) to arrive on Saturday morning and the little one turns TWO on Friday! WOW! Hopefully everything will arrive so we can settle in next weeked and really make our apartment home.