Life In Japan Gets Real

“The best stories come from real life” – Diane English

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings” – William Arthur Ward

“All of life is a foreign country” – Jack Kerouac

 

It’s hard to believe a month (or more!) has passed since my last post.  We’ve been quite busy lately, settling in and really digging into our life here.  Things are starting to level out, even though every day is a new adventure with new challenges.  The truth about living in a foreign country is – it’s very similar to living anywhere!  Real life consists of a lot of mundane moments that often don’t seem worth capturing here.  And yet it’s those mundane, ordinary, everyday occurrences that make up our life.  So rather than hit every happening over the last 730+ hours, here are some of the big highlights.  (Bonus points for me because you know I love a good list!)

One of us has started not one, but two new jobs.

I’ll give you one guess who!  This month I was hired at a small local school and started teaching private English lessons to Japanese children.  Currently I have close to 10 students that I meet with individually every week.  And, guys –

it.

is.

awesome.

The kids are elementary aged, and I leave my time with them feeling so refreshed.  I am a true commuter now, travelling on not one, but two, trains to get to work and back.  It is pure joy!

My second job is on post through the Girl Scouts.  This one isn’t as well defined, as I’m not an actual employee with them.  Much like the final months of my last job in the States, I am more of an independent consultant or project manager.  Currently I’m helping on some technical projects, helping to pack up the offices for a move, and visiting the Japanese and US post offices at least once a week.

 

Husband has connected with a local rugby team and has been attending practices once a week.

This is huge, and I can tell it brings him the same amount of joy that tiny Japanese kiddos bring me.  I knew there were two big things my husband was into when I married him – Star Wars and rugby (neither of which I knew very much about).  Life got a little crazy there for a while; it’s been a hot minute since he was able to connect with a club and toss the ball.  Already this group of guys has made a difference and I can tell he’s feeling more connected these days.

 

I saw my first professional rugby game.

A few weeks ago, we headed into Tokyo and watched back to back rugby games.  This was my first professional sports experience.  Up until then, I had only seen husband play games and watched a few on tv.  The game is much better in person!  I previously couldn’t follow a full 80-minute game, and the thought of seeing two back to back was totally not my thing.  (I even prepped husband I might have to leave early without them).  But this surprised me, and I enjoyed myself immensely.  The weather was great, our seats were great, and Japan won against Australia both games.  We’re getting very excited for the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and put in for our tickets last week.  I foresee many more games in our future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our stuff arrived!

We received our unaccompanied baggage shipment mid-May.  While not much, it made our space feel more like home.  Being able to cook meals made so much difference (especially in our wallets).  In mid-June the rest of our stuff arrived – all 3,300 pounds worth.  We’re mostly unpacked, although we still have some organization that needs to be done.  Our crews on both ends (and for both moves) were fabulous and our stuff arrived relatively unscathed.  I hope to shed some insight on what I’ve learned during our first military move – but that’s for another post!

 

We’ve traveled both near and far.

Over Memorial Day weekend husband and I ventured to Nagoya to see friends from the States.  Nagoya is about a 3-hour drive, but since we’re still sans vehicle, we took a bullet train.  Leaving on a Friday during morning rush hour wasn’t ideal, but we were able to spend most of Friday and all of Saturday with our friends.  Closer to home, we’ve seen a bit of Yokohama, and I was able to celebrate my friend Vicki’s birthday hiking with her in Kamakura.  We’ve also explored a few nearby train stations.  In Japan, there’s a lot of good shopping and dining areas in and around train stations.  Most of the time, you can find anything you need within a half mile.  We’ve also been around to two other bases, checking out their setup and getting some things we haven’t been able to find here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s been lots of “real world” language learning.

For (one of) my jobs, I spend a fair amount of time at the Japanese post office.  Sometimes mailing things to other countries is cheaper and more efficient from a local office, but that also means customs forms and addresses that aren’t at all familiar.  Trying to mail a large number of packages in an area where to you don’t speak the language is…interesting.  Thank goodness for Google translate and patient workers.  Throughout this month, but particularly when conducting larger transactions, I have noticed that I tend to want to respond to questions in Spanish.  Spanish is the only language I’ve had a large amount of exposure to, and I have to catch myself not to say “Si” or to ask, “Que color?” when I want my students to tell me a color.

We’ve also had repair men up at our house for various reasons over the last month.  Luckily, there’s a service desk we can call for translation help but trying to explain the problem often involves a lot of pointing, nodding, and sometimes blank stares.  I’ve started taking weekly Japanese lessons with one of the teachers at the school.  She is native to Okinawa and has been gracious enough to meet with me for vocabulary review and basic sentence structure.  I can now tell my students not to do something, to sit or stand, and colors and numbers (so long as I have my book of notes close by).  Hopefully I’ll continue to progress with the language but it’s not as easy as I’d hoped. Not to mention I haven’t been a student in a while and I’m severely out of practice.

Our lives here are both the same, and completely different, then they were in the States.  We get up and go to work every day, but the work I’m doing and how I get there is very different.  We do most of our shopping on the economy, which means sometimes it’s harder to find what we’re looking for.  Our grocery store trip now involves careful planning and a one-and-a-half-mile walk, whereas before we could just hop in the car and go.  We still linger on Saturday mornings over coffee and books, but our afternoons consist of exploring a new place, instead of just going to Target.  So far, we’ve not really been to the same place twice.

All-in-all, I am completely loving how things are going here, and I feel like we’ve adjusted incredibly well for such a foreign place.  For many years, I would wake up in the morning and look out the window and imagine myself in another country – Ireland, Nicaragua, even Ethiopia – places I’ve seen and places I’ve never been.  Now I wake up and think “I’m here.  I’m in Japan.  This is real life.”  I still have to pinch myself.  Life is good, God is good, and we are so blessed.

Until next time friends,