The Dryer Service Man...

On Friday morning, while Patti and I were eagerly waiting to watch the season premiere of greay's Anatomy, the bell rang and there were the three men coming to clean out the dryer exhaust. Turns out whoever lived here in the past didn't realize that you needed to clean out the lint tray in the dryer and now the exhaust tube from the dryer is quite full.

So they arrived promptly at 10 to "prepare" for the cleaning which was to commence at 1... this meant that they laid some plastic in my storage room and all over the patio furniture - probably would have been easier to ask me to move the stuff, but hey, we must make it convenient for all! They even took pictures of the preparation... then left and returned immediately at 1 to commence the cleaning. Lots of noise and vacuuming later, they got it done and took their plastic papers and left - however, they were outside organizing their truck for another 30 minutes - guess everything had to be put back in its place before they could leave...

Needless to say it's just quite funny to sit and watch the way things are done!

Highlights of the week...

On Tuesday I got my haircut - bottom line is that it cost twice what I would have paid in New York and it took about an hour and 15 minutes for the cut - however, the cut started with a wash with massage, then meticulous cut, followed by a 10 - 15 minute blow dry, and head and shoulder massage. A definite plus to living in Japan! I've had several compliments on it and have been pleased thus far... I ran out of mousse for my curls and have looked in the local stores for something new but can't find much more than shampoo and conditioner - guess since most everyone has straight hair, there's not much need for added volume! I was able to get something at the salon, we'll see if it works...

Wednesday was the ladies luncheon at the Corning Display President's house - I told Chris I felt like I was going to an Officer's Wives Club meeting... it was very nice - it was so nice to talk with other ladies who came from the same area.

On Thursday night I went out for my first Ladies Night here - with the moms of Sydney's class. Interestingly enough, we had a very nice time and ate at quite the yummy restaurant -

Chris has had a very busy week with work and worked his first Saturday - with the economy the way it is, everyone is planning and strategizing the best they can. He's heading back to New York on Tuesday, complete with a very long list of things to collect and bring back... :)

Friday morning, my friend, Patti, came over to watch the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy. Don't know what I'd do without the sling box... it's a device we have hooked up to our TV in New York and we can access it from our computer here - thus enabling us to watch TV live from the US or even tape things and watch later. Whoever, invented it must have been an expat!

We went over tonight for dinner at Patti's house and are now watching Prison Break. Tomorrow morning it's coffee at Starbucks and then off to explore and shop with some other mom's... yeeha!

And oh yeah - still don't have everything put away!

this week...

I started off the week thinking that I would have everything organized by the end of this week... but it's Friday afternoon at 5 and I still have a mess. I did finish the kid's rooms but our room is quite the disaster. After 10 years of marriage, we now have to share a closet and there simply isn't enough space! We will either have to make a trip to Ikea or I'll have to order another bureau to put things away. The drawers of furniture are just so small and shallow...

Reality has set in...

Well, while it's WONDERFUL to have my things here... can I say again how nice it is to have my coffee in the morning????... anyhoo, reality slapped me in the face this morning. I now have to find a place to put everything! I tried to start in Sydney's room today and quite honestly haven't made much progress!

Chris was a speed demon on Saturday and while I took Sydney to her first soccer practice (what a disaster that was! lots of screaming and tears and no playing of soccer) he emptied almost every box and had piles everywhere ready to be organized. We got the living room and kitchen squared away but I am going to take a bit to get the rooms all organized - did I realize I had this many articles of clothing????? and shoes??????? and how many stuffed animals can you fit on a bed anyway??????

Oh well, one day at a time I suppose - I'm off to get Nicholas from the late bus in a few minutes. Can't imagine that he got on the wrong bus again today! I'm sure he'll remember it's bus #4 until he's a grown man! :) Tomorrow will be another first - I'll be off to the American Club to get my hair cut... I'm in such desperate need anything would be an improvement. More to follow I'm sure...

Life is Good...

Good Morning All! I am a happy girl this morning... I am sitting on the couch, with my feet on my nice rug, wrapped up in my fuzzy robe, AND drinking a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee! Granted, the place is a wreck wtih STUFF everywhere - but hey, it's our stuff!

The kids were soooooo excited to see things coming in yesterday - It was such a wonderful site to see Sydney pushing her baby stroller around the apartment and Nicholas playing with all of his hot wheels. It's like one big Christmas morning!

So far everything seems to all be in one piece... We'll see as we move along.

By the way, I added a guestbook to the bottom of the page (my sister always has such marvelous and creative ideas for me! :) Make sure to sign!

Very Important Announcement!

OUR STUFF COMES TODAY!!!!!!!!!! It was schedeuled to clear through customs yesterday and is to arrive here at 9 A.M. - which means it will be here at 8:55. CAN'T WAIT! There are some remnants of a typhoon passing over so hopefully things won't get too wet. More to follow...

Disneyland (Aug. 2008) Part 1

Views from the top of the Mori Tower

Bus Disaster

Today was the first day Nicholas was to ride the late bus... he started soccer and was supposed to ride Bus #4 and get off at Aikuu Hospital. We discussed this AND I made sure to put a little note in his backpack as a reminder - I even called the school to confirm his bus and stop. Sydney and I arrived at 6 PM and watched as many little ones got off the bus - but there was no Nicholas getting off bus #4 at Aikuu Hospital. I was waiting with another Corning mom and her daughter looked up at me and said "he's not on this bus. I saw Mr. Bender (the principal!!) put him on Bus #3" - which I shouldn't have to tell you doesn't stop at Aikuu Hospital like Bus #4 does!

Lori and I got out the emergency card to call the bus director - we got through and within 5 minutes, Nicholas was located (on bus 3!) and would be brought to me at the correct stop... in 25 - 30 minutes. He did arrive around 6:40 and we started home - needless to say the little guy was distraught and ready to be home. It had been such a long day for him! He said he realized he was on the wrong bus when they said the last stop was the American Club - he knew this because the last time we went, we had to take 2 trains and a shuttle to get there!

We got him home and ordered a pizza - after a while he settled down and I assured him that he was safe the whole time but, hey, when the principal puts you on the bus, you'd think you were on the right one, right???? Oh well, they took care of him in the end and he made it home and is now in bed asleep.

In other not so dramatic news, Sydney and I went to the toy store in our neighborhood and got some Hello Kitty toys and a new Lego set for Nicholas (having this ended up helping him be a lot happier when he got home!).

I also spent some time today with Miho, the wonderful woman who has helped us get all of our furniture. We are now ordering some more things - a side board, some book shelves, a desk, bean bags for the kids, and even a rice cooker. She'll be back Monday with more catalogs so I can pick out more stuff!

Most importantly, I am writing this while having a cup of coffee in my own home! Another mom loaned me her coffee pot until I get my shipment - which they just let us know will arrive on Saturday! How very excited are we???? It will just make this seem a lot more like home if we can have our stuff...

Tuesday

Yesterday was a holiday - Respect for the Elders day - and most things were shut down. Sydney's school hosted its Fall Family Picnic Day which was fun. Every room had a different craft she could do - Nicholas still had school and wasn't completely happy that he had school and Sydney didn't!

This morning it was pouring - nothing like trying to maneuver through the city with an umbrella - add to that I purchased a HUGE Boston Red Sox golf type umbrella before I came. So needless to say, it's a challenge not to kill anyone as I walk down the street. I managed to make it (almost fry) to the spa for my first Japanese pedicure. (Some ladies from Corning took me to lunch last Friday and gave me a gift certificate for my birthday.)I'd have to say, it's worth crossing the ocean to get one of these! I've never had someone take so much time to scrub my feet and paint my toes! It took over an hour - I am feeling quite pretty this afternoon!

I also just met with a woman who will arrange my Japanese lessons. Through Corning, I am able to get private lessons, 2 hours per week. I'm sure it will help me be able to function in daily life.

Now the sun has come back out and it's hot again - I honestly thought perhaps we'd have a day without having to worry about the mosquitoes. Of course, I was unaware until this morning that Sydney had opened her window last night and you can just imagine how tasty she was to the little critters who flew through the screen... poor thing. We'll see how she feels when she comes home from school...

a thought...

can anyone explain to me why Noah took the mosquitoes onto the ark??? We have decided that we really wish he had let them go... I have never seen so many bug bites - we are all covered!

Things people with small children should never take for granted...

So to say that grocery shopping here involves "sticker shock" would be a bit of an understatement. This increases when you take your two little ones with you that just HAVE to have those goldfish and fruit roll ups... Never in my life did I think I would pay $6 for a box of 6 fruit by the foot. There are many products here that are the same, but come in smaller, more expensive packages, like Doritos. We also noticed that Cheetos are very different - not as cheesy. So, you can get many things that bring "back home" comfort - you are just going to pay for it! Gotten a cake mix at Walmart for 97 cents recently? I just saw them at the grocery for over $7! I placed an order through the Foreign Buyers Club (check it out - you can see some of the prices - www.fbcusa.com/eng/ ) and thought it was a bargain to pay about $5 for a cake mix. I also found myself paying about $9 for a bag of Gold Medal All Purpose Flour. You can also check out www.expatexpress.com and see that it will cost us $25 to get a 12 pack of caffeine free Diet Pepsi!

We are doing a good job of adjusting and finding new things - there are some very yummy drinks we've tried and I found some yogurt that was better than any I had ever had before. Last night, we went for dinner at a friend's house and she had bugles although they were in a Japanese package but tasted the same. Need to go find that in the store! Costco is also here and I keep waiting to tag along with someone who has a car...

Speaking of money, that's been an interesting thing to adjust to as well. The money here is in yen and can easily be thought of as dollars - 100 yen is roughly 1 dollar. The thing here is that they deal in more cash than we do in the states. I rarely carried cash in my wallet back home, but here you have to have a lot ready at all times. Nothing like carrying a bill in your wallet that has 10000 on it! For those of you following along, that's about $100. They also use more coins - the smallest bill is 1000 yen ($10) and then everything else is coins - there's a 500, 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1. I'm slowly figuring it out...

Oh well, all this talk of grocery shopping reminds me that I need to get ready and go to the store myself - it's Sunday morning here and Nicholas will start soccer this afternoon. More to follow...

My birthday

Well, today is my birthday - whoo hoo - can't say it's been that grand of a day since the planes struck the WTC but I muddle through none the less. Nicholas didn't have school today since it was parent teacher conference day, so we were able to do some special stuff. We took Sydney to school and then went to a French pasty shop for breakfast (there are WAY TOO MANY of those around here - my hips are finding too many yummy replacements for Dunkin Donuts!). Then we strolled to catch the school bus to head to ASIJ (Nicholas's school). On the way, we stopped in a convenience store and Nicholas was distraught that he couldn't find jelly beans... so we trooped off to the international store where I spent about $4 for a little bag of jelly bellys!

We rode the bus out - icky story about to follow, certainly not one for the weak of tummy, don't say I didn't warn you... we drove by several police and strings of yellow tape. They were all looking up and had cameras, etc - as we drove by, I looked and saw, gulp, a huge circle of red something on the ground - I'm guessing no one poured paint over the balcony. You see, Japan has the highest suicide rate of any country in the world. It's all about the shame they feel when they have dishonored themselves or others. Very sad and I was very happy my son didn't see that!

Anyhoo - we made it to the conference - late due to traffic - but I made it in to tell about my sweet little one - Nicholas played outside for a while AND went to the library to check out some books!

When we picked up Sydney (after a successful ride back on the train and a few new blisters on my feet), we went to Cold Stone Creamery for a treat and then we met Chris at Tony Romas for dinner - came home studied spelling words and listened to Sydney throw a hissy fit and now I'm about to head off to bed -

This just in...

Nicholas was able to get signed up for the fall soccer program at his school which will be on Monday and Wednesday afternoons after school. He is quite excited! In other news, I just got Sydney Grace signed up for hula lessons at her school! I was able to get the last spot - The group is called "Hulabootie" - how stinkin' cute is that?????

Very exciting!

More thoughts...

As I mentioned in my last post I was watching the Karate Kid - well it just finished and I still get a bit teary - that whole crane pose at the end is always so powerful!!! Plus the whole wax on, wax off thing just makes me laugh!

Also just finished reserving our plane tickets to go to Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands for Thanksgiving - it's north of Guam AND also a US territory - plus it has year round temperatures of 84 degrees! Plus the thought of not having to make a turkey is intriguing!

Weekend News

This past weekend was very pleasant - the weather, while still quite humid, was not as hot which made it almost tolerable. Chris finalized our membership at the Tokyo American Club (TAC) last week (he had to sit with a panel as part of the interview process!) so we decided to go there for the afternoon. The kids and I went swimming and Chris went and worked out. The kids are doing a great job with their swimming skills so it was nice to not have to stay right on top of both of them. We rode the train there and went through a HUGE train station - we finally mastered the art of using the ticket machines and were able to get me a train pass... it's all about finding the magical "transfer everything into English" button... On the way back, we went to a grocery store that was unbelievable - it was sort of like a food court with all types of different treats. We found some beautiful desserts, some meat on a stick (found out that's called yakatori), and I even bought some sushi. Sydney showed us some new fruits she had learned about it school and we found the largest and tastiest peaches I have ever seen.

One of the most amazing parts of the shopping experience is the packaging - it's clearly an art. Beautiful bags and little ice bags for anything that needs to be kept cold and almost every fruit is individually wrapped or packaged to protect it. It really is fun to watch and you walk away feeling so proud of whatever you just bought.

On Saturday night we made our second venture to get pizza... this time I went with someone's suggestion and was amazed when they answered the phone with "hello!" We enjoyed it so much we ordered again on Sunday night!

Sunday consisted of grocery shopping and lunch - this time at a yummy sandwich store called Homeworks (they also deliver for future reference!).

It was back to school today and now after the little ones have gone off to bed, Chris and I are watching Karate Kid... seems appropriate!

Thursday and Friday

Busy Busy Busy... Yesterday I went with my new friend, Patti, to the Shibuya area to go to a Tokyo Hands store (think Tokyo Target). I planned the route on the train and off we went. It was a two trainer... It was so fun to just walk from floor to floor with no real direction. After we left we wandered the streets and found some nice stores - this is a nice clothing shopping district and there are several places I will more than likely come back too - shoes, Clinique, Disney... but the best part was when we rounded the corner and walked straight to a Krispy Kreme! I almost walked out in front of a car I got so excited! Of course, we had to go in and sample - it's a real store with the windows showing the cooking process. I only got a half dozen since it was around $16 a dozen and took them home for a treat. I heard that sometimes the line to get in is around 2 hours long!

Today I went to Back to School day at Nicholas's school and then Back to School Night at Sydney's school. This morning, I rode the parent bus out to Chofu (I sat next to a woman who lived on the American embassy compound) and listened to the presentations and saw Nicholas on the playground. Of course, he's already in the state where he's too cool for mommy at school and I did good to get a high five as he went off to play soccer... really good for the Mommy ego! but he did introduce me to his friends and I watched him play on the big field. Fortunately when it was time to go, I was chatting with some women and I got an offer for a ride which kept me from having to hoof it back on the train! YEEHA! Again everyone is so willing to help out since we are all living as fish out of our natural habitat!

This evening I went to Sydney's school for the Back to School event. Chris stayed home with the kiddoes since this was a "non kid" event - it was nice time filled with mostly socializing of the parents! Definitely good people watching...

Tomorrow starts the weekend and we really don't have any plans - I would like to just stay around the house for the most part... but we'll see...

Wednesday Night...

Not much new to report - it's Wednesday night and I just realized that Newfield Schools would be starting today and I'm not there... have to admit I'm a bit sad about that. But on the other hand, I have had so much fun these past few days being mom. Picking up Nicholas from the bus, doing homework while cooking dinner, playing outside, and going to the park have been so much fun!

Today was Sydney's last day at home before starting full time at school - so she and I slept in late... until 9 AM (!!) and then went for lunch at TGIFridays before going to get me a local cell phone. I have never seen so many choices for a phone! I am happy to report that I have a very purple flip phone - courtesy of Sydney's choice - and I am feeling quite cool!

We went to the pharmacy this afternoon to try and stock up on more anti-mosquito equipment. We all look like we have the chicken pox on our legs... got some citronella patches for the clothes, some new spray, and some bandaids. It's just miserable - fortunately, Zyrtec apparently also works for bug bites and has been a life saver in reducing the swelling for both kids.

OK - I clearly have nothing to discuss if I am reporting on the things I'm using to repel insects! Guess I'll post and move on to other things... Happy Birthday tomorrow to my brother-in-law, Jeff!

Back Up Plans work...

I'm almost embarrassed to post the following, however, my goal has been to share our lives while here in Japan... so here goes...

While everyone in the US is enjoying Labor Day - we are still business as usual. Nicholas had school but Sydney didn't since she is still on her transition schedule. Her friends across the hall came over early this morning and asked us to go to the park and then on to lunch - so it was off to the "Step Park" - literally 2 minutes from the house - it will be a place we go very often since it also has a full batting cage! We had lunch at Wendy's and then we went shopping for Sydney some new rain boots - proud to report that she picked Marie the cat from the movie "Maristocats" (i.e. Aristocats for those of you who don't speak fluent 4 year old...)

As soon as I walked back in the door, the phone rang and it was the nurse from Nicholas's school - turns out he was in the office with a headache and just feeling icky... no fever so she sent him on his way but wanted to let me know. Now comes the embarrassing part... Sydney and I stopped in the convenience store near the bus stop looking for an equivalent of Gatorade - no luck - I was hoping to get Nicholas a treat for when he got off the bus since I knew he might not feel well... When we came out of the store, the bus was there -however, it was the bigger kids bus... the elementary school bus had already come and gone. No sign of my little boy... Sydney and I ran back down the hill with me near panic stage praying that Heather, my neighbor, had walked back down with him - sure enough, there he was, with Heather, as I rounded the corner.

You see, just this weekend, we arranged a "what would you do if mommy wasn't at the bus stop" plan - he followed the plan and everything worked out. The bus was early today which means I need to get my butt up there earlier from now on! He was fine but it certainly took me a few minutes to get my act together... Took him to the park - his jaw dropped when he saw the batting cage.

By the way - he's fine this evening. I think he's not been drinking water like he should and since he's clearly not used to this insane humidity, he's feeling a bit icky when he's outside for too long. We are working on that as the week goes on...

Enjoy your Labor Day plan - and remember, make a what if plan! They work!