Review Life and Recycle

"Would you like to review what your life should be...?" That is the quote on my new green recycle bins. I have been recycling since I was a teenager. I have been paying $14/month to recycle in TN for over a decade. However, recycling in Japan takes it to a whole other level. Notice the paper attached to my cabinet that I have to refer to daily to see what is being recycled that day, and how to deal with it. Water bottles are recycled separately from the cap of the water bottle. All labels have to be removed. Milk cartons have to be washed out, cut open to be flattened and dried, then wrapped with cord separately. This is just a few examples of the details. The hardest one to do by far is cleaning the poop out of diapers before you place them in the burnable trash!

Hannah Lee

Hannah loves her school! We really enjoy the 5 minute walk through the cute little neighborhood each morning. She comes home with a new art project every day. She also sings me the songs she learns each day. I also wanted to show you an example of the cute shorts they sell for the girls here. The culture loves Pandas here.

China Town and More Furniture

I got to experience a few streets of China Town today. It is a huge area that will take me the whole year to cover. The picture is me standing on the steps of an altar space. You can buy an incense stick for them to burn immediately (smells great!) and that allows you to sit in the space and pray. The ornamental details of the building are amazing! When I got home Tokyo Rentals delivered our dresser. Our bedroom set-up is finally complete. I also had money left in the budget to get the Kanji screen I wanted.

Things I have learned

The women who have ears pierced here have them pierced a little higher than we traditionally do ours in our first holes. I am told that ear piercing in general is a new thing for them. Tattoos are new for the general public as well. There is much taboo to get over because there are serious gangs that tattoo their whole bodies to signify their gangsterism. The bath houses have signs in Japanese and English that say "NO TATTOOS". Thank goodness I can cover up the one I have now.

The Japanese have cornered the market on cuteness. It is hard to find things that are not cute. Everyone young and old has "lucky charms" dangling from their phone or purse. It seems to be as necessary as a hand fan to keep the breeze going. Adam even bought him what I call a "man fan" which looks very Hawaiian and does not close up accordion style like mine does. Have I mentioned that I have not sweat this much since my all day sauna days at Gray Bear? I am told that Asians have a lower body temperature than us, which allows them to wear layers of clothes and even pants right now in the middle of all this heat!!! I have to believe it. My language tutor says Asians mouths are formed different from ours, which does not allow them to pronounce some of our letters.
Other than the Japanese, English speaking mothers from Hannah's school, Japanese people that I pass do not give me much attention and defiantly do not make eye contact. I understand this, because we don't give foreigners much attention in our country either. Also, Japan is the size of California, but has the population of the entire United States. It is just not possible with this many people to have that Southern hospitality that we are used to. However, everyone is very aware on the trains and buses that older people, and pregnant women get the sit down seats.
When you are receiving a business card from someone it is like they are giving you a gift. They use both their hands on the card, and bow to you. The culture here is extremely respectful. The hellos and goodbyes can be very long rituals. However there is no touching! No hugs, I have had very few handshakes. There is a "money plate" to lay your money in to give to any cashier. This is both respectful, and avoids hand contact with each other.
Japan is in love with America, and American music is what I hear playing in every store I go into. The English words that are printed on the clothing, cups, trash cans, etc here crack me up. They are philosophers and love to spread messages of hope and love. The children have to take English classes in Junior high. It is up to them after that point how much they absorb. The children as young as kindergarten walk to school by themselves! This is completely out of my comfort zone, but shows me how low the crime rate is here.

Sky Garden

Sunday we decided to get the 360 degree view of Yokohama from Sky Garden Tower. The elevator we had to take was the fastest in the world (40 seconds to the top). My ears popped several times. The view was amazing as I sipped my iced mocha latte from the Sky Bar. They had really cool aquariums and gift shops and even artists to draw your caricature up there. When we came down we were let out on the food floor, and had the most wonderful Italian food. The restaurant had red velvet seats, and black/white photos of famous gangster actors. Every place we have eaten gives you a warm, wet cloth to wash up with. By the way, there is absolutely NO TIPPING in Japan. It is forbidden.

Shiny New Bicycle

Most everyone here has a bicycle, and they all have baskets on the front! It is the most reasonable way to get your grocerys home fast, and the breeze you get from riding helps with the heat here. I got mine yesterday complete with all the bells (literally), and a built-in lock, light that turns on when I ride, and of course a seat for Hannah. When I first got on it to ride home from the store ("Homes" is the name of the store), I thought something was wrong with the front tire because it was shaking uncontrollably. I then realized it was me that was shaking, and had to take some deep breaths, to calm the bike down. Other than a brief mountain biking experience, I had not been on a bike for over 20 years.

Fashion and Food

It is said that Fashion in Japan sets the tone for the rest of the world. In fact "Sex and the City" relied on it for their costume choices. Well, I have seen yin and yang in this area. Here you will see a picture of many choices of dress clothes, all in black, and all very simple. Then you can find the sneaker/high heel/show off your pedicure shoe. Most of the women here are wearing stockings on their arms to shield from the sun. Most of them are also wearing high heels, even if they are riding a bike or motorcycle! Hats are in, sunglasses are out! Everyone carrys thier own cloth to dry hands after washing in public places, because they do not use much paper here. Check out the one this girl has!

The grocery store offers every type of sea creature possible, and it is cheapest to buy fish right out of the water and prepare it yourself. I personally could not get past the eyeballs!

Sankeien Garden

Hello, this is Adam again. It seems like the only time I will have to write on this is the weekend. My first week of work went very good. I will describe what a typical day looks like later in the year when we start getting boring to everyone. It is pretty interesting getting to and from work. Sometimes the trains can get a little crowded. I think I got to second base with a middle aged Japanese man yesterday. The sad thing is that he didn't seem to mind and neither did I. More on that later....

This morning we got up and decided to explore the neighborhood a bit. We had heard that there was a pretty nice traditional Japanese garden a little up the hill. We found it and, except for the scorching heat, enjoyed a nice stroll around the grounds. Sankeien Garden was built by a wealthy silk trader who also had several historically important buildings brought here from other places for preservation.

The gardens were very nice and we would love to go back and spend some more time when the heat lets up. We thought this would be a great place to take visitors when they come visit. Enjoy the pics and take care.....

Dr. Fish Project

Monday was a holiday here. (Beach Day) I strolled Hannah to the public pool with our friends. It is a 30 minute walk winding around cute neighborhoods. The big pool was huge! We did not even visit all of it. The big kids were getting rough, so we stuck to the kiddy pool most of the time. It was ankle deep, so you could just sit in it or even lay back and float. They had all kinds of fun sprinkler action going on. There was several water slides that Hannah and I went down together several times. There were no sunbathers, in fact most of the people had shade tents set up to stay out of the sun, when they were not in the water. I am told that Asian skin in very sensitive and they can have bad reactions to the sun. Hannah and I were using sunscreen, and we still got burned, so I guess the sun is stronger here too. Also, every 30 minutes you would hear a whistle blow and everyone had to get out of all pools for 5-10 minutes. I am not sure of the reason for this, but have many guesses. The most amazing experience there was the Dr. Fish Project. I had seen this on Oprah last year, but thought I was going to have to go to a fancy spa to get it. It only cost 500 Yen (about $6.50) for 5 minutes for me to stick my feet in a pool of water for a fish pedicure!!! They instantly swarm your calloused feet, and start sucking the dead skin off. It was strange, and tickled...I LOVED IT!!! I went to their website and this is what it said..."Peck the fish hot horny skin of people in magazines and television, the home of Doctor Doctor and footbath."

Kindness all around

The people here are the most polite in the world. They sincerely want to please you. Our landlord (Wayne-san) has spent countless hours educating us about our surroundings. He has the traditional soft-spoken, relaxing voice of most Japanese people. The kindness extends to the two other Nissan families that are here. Both families live 3 minute walk through a park from our home, and they signed up for 18 month contracts in Japan. The Drakes from Winchester, TN will be heading home in September. They have checked on us daily, and invited us for dinner many times. Their 3 yr old son is in Hannah's class. They also have a 2 yr old daughter. The Sullivan's from Nashville have only been here 4 months, so our stay will overlap with theirs for our 1 year contract. They handed over their coffee maker and a trash can the first night we were here! They also have a 3 yr old son who is in Hannah's class. I feel extremely lucky about this! We all walked to school together on Friday.
Hannah and I explored our neighborhood yesterday morning. There are lots of people walking their dogs at 7am. Most of the dogs have shirts on! Everyone says "Good Morning" in English to us...they must know we are American! (ha ha) Hannah's blond hair gets lots of attention. The older people have stopped in the middle of street crossings to point at it. They smile and I can see them resisting touching it.

Getting Settled

Hey, this is Adam. Shawna has gotten the blog started and is doing a great job. Please leave comments, we would love to hear from everyone. I just thought I would post a few pictures of the house. We are starting to get settled and figure things out. It has been nice to be able to have a few days off work to get everything in order. There has been so much to do that I could not begin to explain. I will be going to work on Tuesday, Monday is a national holiday. I am not exactly sure what it is but it was explained to me as "beach day". I think it means the first day of summer or the day the beaches open for the season.

Anyway, Hannah went to her first day of school today. She was excited and the teacher already sent us a note to let us know that she is doing great. I am sure she will be tired and ready for a nap when she gets home. More on the school later though.....back to the house.

Roaches, Beetles, and Octopus..oh my!

As soon as we arrived at our new home, Hannah decided to sit in the dining room floor and draw. A roach immediatly decided to join her. Our landlord grabbed paper and sqaushed the roach in it. I found another roach in our bedroom closet and decided I would be the murderer. Then last night there was one on the kitchen counter. We didn't act fast enough and that one got away. We left out roach motels last night, but no luck yet.

We went to" D2" (like a very small wal-mart) yesterday to look for coffee maker. They have pet beetles for sale. You can choose between larvae stage or full grown. We stopped by the "OK" (grocery store) for basics, and found octopus for sale.

Jet Lag Laxitive

We got a few hours sleep our first night in hotel. We were picked up early the following morning in a car by our landlord and relocation lady. Hannah was thrilled to not have to use a carseat! We arrived at our new home just in time for the movers to unload our new rental furniture for the entire house, except our bed which we will buy from IKEA. Hannah found her magic wand and was "poofing" the moving guys. They played along patiently.
Our next thing to do was let Japan Headquarters know that we are here and planning to stay for one year. We had another assistant to help us with that process. Japan also requires you to open a bank account, whether you use it or not. Hannah was very tired at this point, so I decided to let Adam and assistant take the train to bank by themselves. Adam put us in a taxi and told the driver to take us to our new home. Hannah fell asleep in my lap in minutes, and it was difficult to pay driver and get out of car with high curb, and backpack. Movers were gone by now, so I tryed using my door keys for the first time, with no success. I started to panic which got my bowels worked up from the laxitive that I had taken the night before. I took Hannah to back patio and sat her in our new teak chair. It had arms on it, so I hoped that she would not fall out of it in her deep sleep. I tryed the key on back door with no luck as well. I started scanning our small yard considering where I would squat and relieve myself. In a moment of faith I decided It was not going to go down like this, so I ran to front door to wrestle with the locks. I managed to get in and run through the house to get Hannah from back patio, and the mosquitos were already attacking her.

Flight to Japan

Even though we spent many hours weighing and re-distributing our 6 large suitcases for the 50 pound limit, we were still over by a few pounds on a few bags. Thanks to the check-in person we had they let it slide. The 13 hour flight to Tokyo was still playing the same movies as last month when Adam and I went for house hunting trip, so it worked out good that we were exhausted and all tryed our best to rest. Hannah lee did great, especially after her teaspoon dose of benadryl! When we arrived in Tokyo our bags were the first to come off the belt, and they were all there!!! We grabbed a starbucks for the 2 hour train ride to Yokohama, and arrived in our room around 11 pm Tuesday night (Japan time), which was around 9am Tuesday morning in TN. My Mom skyped us and we were able to show her our jetlagged faces.