From A Mountain

My apologies for a delayed first post!

I arrived safely with the boys, with a few added adventures to our journey. Our flight was Boston > Toronto > Tokyo > Osaka. Snow and de-icing delayed us, and we ended up missing our final connection. We grabbed the last flight out of Tokyo to Kansai Airport in Osaka instead of Itam Airport, which meant Angela had to quickly change her plans of picking us up. Instead of a fifteen minute drive down the road, she had to race over an hour on short notice to grab us with her boss/friend from the other side of Osaka! I will actually call her now what she likes to be called, "Chako-San." While she is still Angela's "boss," she has proven such a great help and truly a blessing in our lives in so many ways - a real friend. I can't even count all the ways she has helped us and made this transition even smoother than I could imagine. We are eternally grateful. She is a true friend and already part of our Japanese family.  

So unfortunately Angela's early arrival didn't result in is having an apartment lined up. We spent the first week and a half crammed in a one bedroom apartment. Six of us (us + Angela's mom. But the end result was that she found the perfect place that went on the market the very morning that she met with the realtor. I will post pictures soon, but not until Angela has decorated and made it "home."  I promised...sorry! But it was worth the wait then and it will be for photos as well. 

Angela works for an English-speaking preschool that also teaches after school programs as well. It's less than five minutes walking from our new apartment, which is amazing since we have three little ones. It's very arts-focused, and very creative. Basically, just really awesome. You can search Facebook for "A Can B English" to follow the school, they frequently post photos and videos. The staff is also just as awesome. 

My school is called "Fun Fun Kids Afterschool." It's actually quite different from Angela's school and teaches an easier form of English in order to build a solid language foundation. They use a lot more tech (tablets), but also fun play and conversation time. Unfortunately and fortunately, the school is about two miles away. Two miles, no big deal, right? Well, each day I destroy my legs while pedaling uphill the entire way, as my school is located slightly up the side of the mountains to the north of Osaka. I make it further each time, but my legs are constantly sore. But this is also a symptom of being a car-driving American who suddenly bikes and walks everywhere, with the occasional train/bus thrown in. 

Well here we are over two weeks since I arrived with Noah and Seth. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to. I promise much more regular posts and photos as we have home wifi now!

It was sadly in the forties for nearly the entire first week here! But we were excited to escape the thirties and snow of New England. Below is a wall in front of someone's house lined with over a hundred various cat statues. 

One of our favorite things about city living in Japan is the abundance of awesome playgrounds. Here's Noah enjoying a roller-slide. 

Here's Seth showing off a cool stick he found near the roller slide. 

Here's Seth zooming down a slide at another park close to our house. The kids actually get air when they hit the hump in the slide. 

Here's my lovely Sydney contemplating her new life in Japan. 

Of course spring will soon bring us cherry blossoms, but the rain as well. Thankfully, we are prepared!

Sydney has already started doing so many things on her own, in her independent sassy way. 

Noah braved the two mile walk to work with me the other day, and enjoyed a snack with a new friend. 

This weekend we are camping in the mountains to the north of Osaka! I was shocked to watch as a huge scout group arrived, with both boys and girls in the same uniform. As a former dorky boy scout myself, I didn't know scouts were coed internationally!

Here's our day camp group! Our trip is through Angela's school, but not all the kids came or stayed the night with us. 

Here's Seth with some friends checking out the bunk beds in our cabin. 

Here's super boss/friend Chako-san cooking part of our camp dinner - Okonomiyaki! Basically it's "what you like" (vegetables mainly with some small meat) in an egg batter fried and flipped like a pancake. Delicious!

Here's a night view of Osaka from up on the mountain! Goodnight!

So, what happened?

In short?

A lot.

I meant to type some sort of followup post after our family fell off the internet blog grid last fall. I'm sure some people were wondering if I'd just given up on the blog, or maybe something bad happened. At the end of September last year, I was full of fire and going to shoot off a dreaded rant/post. Cooler heads prevailed.

Life is a series of events - of moments. We live, we learn, we grow. We make mistakes. I believe ours was truly a mashup of all of the above.

We can so easily get lost in anger or regret, but the truth is that you can only move on - forward.
Otherwise, you're not living in the present.

We love/loved Japan. We love/loved our life there. Unfortunately, our school/work/life balance was off, and when we tried to amicably find reasonable "middle ground," it blew up in our faces. We were forced with sudden choices of relocating within Japan (jobs, apartment, kids' schools), or returning to the U.S. Given the circumstances and dwindling resources, we resentfully chose the latter. We returned to the U.S. the first week of October of last year.

FAST FORWARD.

It's March 3rd, 2015. I'm typing from the 9th floor of the Hyatt across from Logan Airport in Boston. My two energetic boys are breathing heavily and contentedly, finally consumed within the realm of dreams. It's been a journey. We worked and we saved. We weighed the options. We weighed the consequences. Tomorrow before noon, I'll be flying with my boys to our destination of Osaka, Japan. First we'll touch down in Toronto, then a transfer in Tokyo. We'll be greeted by the warm smiles and open arms of my lovely wife Angela, baby sass Sydney, and Grandma Toni (Angela's mom). The trio of girls flew out ahead of us to scout apartments close to our new jobs/new schools/new city, and to get us setup ahead of time. I stayed behind with Noah and Seth and finished up business here, and spent the last week in Connecticut with my parents, mainly eating pizza and enjoying piles of snow. We've both gotten teaching jobs, but this time at different schools. We'll be living in Minoh, which is at the northern edge of Osaka. We'll be a short train ride from Kyoto, which is our mutual favorite place on earth. We're starting a new chapter in this life, full of hope and anticipation of good things to come. Our new beginning is signaled not only by another international move, but also the impending bloom of the cherry blossoms. The beautiful harbinger of the new season.

Are we crazy? The answer is yes.

Angela inspired the name of this blog - "Living and loving in Japan." How true this title has become! The journey there and back, and now there again has been challenging. But aren't the good things in life challenging? The things that are worth keeping and worth fighting for? In Japan I have truly felt awakened - and not simply in some stereotypical spiritual sense. It's a sense of being present, this crazy thing that seems so lost in western society. It's not that the Japanese exude this characteristic - in fact they also stare lovingly at phone screens and avoid conversation regularly in transit. But the country itself, and the lifestyle are designed in ways to make you present. Sometimes, I want to give credit simply to the fact that we are bicycling or walking everywhere - that we are forced to see the trees above us, the pavement beneath our feet, and to hear the buzz of the cicada. That maybe this is all just because I haven't locked myself into a vehicle and cranked up my music to get from point A to point B.

But it's more than that.

It's a feeling of true community. Living in tight quarters and in smaller scale forces things upon people. You see your strange neighbor. You realize maybe they're not that different from you. The forced isolation of American suburbia is something we willingly accept. Get in car. Go to place. Get thing. Get back in car. Go home. Pull into automatic garage. Safe fortress.

We aren't forced to see our neighbors. We aren't forced to breath in the outside air. When we aren't forced to be uncomfortable sometimes - we are simply too comfortable. We become complacent. I'm not suggesting everyone move to Japan - but Angela and I are trying to find our place in this world,

Semi-manifesto complete. Time for me to sleep. 19+ hours minimum of travel tomorrow, pending Mother Nature's graceful cooperation. And cooperation of a 4 year old and 6 year old boy. These guys are professional fliers now. Expect regular posts containing pictures and writing soon.

Onward!

End of Summer

So here we are at the end of another week! It was a busy one for us, full of work and surprises. We'll get to it all in good time. This past Sunday, we headed to Oasis 21, which is this: http://www.sakaepark.co.jp/en/... place. The oval-ish thing pictured below is the "spaceship - aqua," in official terminology. Yes, official. This unimpressive shot doesn't tell the full story. The inner part of the "oval" (not the outer area) is a clear pool of water. You can go upstairs (free) on the elevator or by stairs, and have a great elevated view of the Sakae area shoppers and commuters. The pool of water acts to not only look cool, but block the sun and keep the areas below cooler. 

--------------------------------------

I obviously stole this next image from the website for those who don't want to click the link. It's a really cool space, because we were able to arrive at below basement level (via subway), come up a level or so, and be right among the shops and restaurants on the lowest level. There was also some anime/manga exhibition tent that was packed in the center area. I have no idea what it was all about, but it was very popular with the teens through twenty+ somethings. Then we walked up a curved ramp (still under the cover of the "spaceship" which was good, since it was raining, AND we hd Sydney in a stroller), to the field of green area. We hopped on the elevator, and were up top. 

--------------------------------------

Here's a shot of the view from the spaceship down on the field of green. It's a misleading photo, because it looks like the city is car-less, but the field is actually raised above street level. Very clean, green, yet Japanese-futuristic. I'd expect no less!

--------------------------------------

Here's another shot from our rainy/cloudy time up top. This is the Nagoya TV Tower. I believe the square bit in the middle is a restaurant? You can take an elevator up there and have a better view, but I'm sure they charge for it. 

--------------------------------------

Here's a view from the spaceship again, down on the street below. Notice the abundance of cars. Wait, I mean bicycles. 

--------------------------------------

More of the green space below and people with umbrellas. I wanted to take a shot of these uniformed school girls that walked below, but decided it was too creep-like. While you don't have to worry about getting shot in Japan, there seems to be an abundance of train gropers - so much so, that they have women-only train cars on some trains. This is facing legal challenges, but apparently it's a problem. 

--------------------------------------

So afterward, I took the stairs down from the top with the boys. Angela waited for the elevator with Sydney. The boys and I thought it was funny to look up and see the bottoms of feet on the platform outside the elevator. I believe Angela and Sydney (4-wheeled stroller) are the bottom right of the photo. 

--------------------------------------

Below is a photo of the stairs from the basement exhibition level up to the feet by the elevator. Even the staircase looked cool. Other than that, we just browsed around, and stopped to get shaved ice that the kids really loved in a nice little restaurant/bakery. 

--------------------------------------

This is a random night shot from our street. I've been in the habit of walking to the grocery store after the kids are in bed to grab last minute items for their bento box lunches. Since Angela both works full-time AND is already hard at work on her Master's in Physiology through Case Western Reserve, I am the part-timer/housekeeper/lunch maker/chauffeur (by bicycle & foot), etc.. It's really calming to make this extremely short walk, especially at night. We've recently stumbled upon a parking lot on the next block that all the stray cats hang out in. There were seriously about ten cats when I walked the boys home once, just hanging out - peacefully! Pictures of that to come... 

--------------------------------------

Of course, no week is complete without a visit to our (and the kids') favorite, Nan Master! There were no bug invasions this time. Sydney is also completely in love with curry. COMPLETELY.

-------------------------------------

I made the mistake of playing with the kids at the playground this week. Yes, the mistake. We have been avoiding it a bit since about two weeks after we moved in, because the mosquitos are ridiculous. I would like to go on record that in the US, mosquitos are usually dumb and buzz your ear, and make a scene, so you have plenty of time to slap them. Here, they are straight to the point. I can actually stand still for a minute and just look down at my legs, and they would just appear out of nowhere. Even when I am that vigilant, I still end up with 5+ bites the next day. And regret!

So, we stopped except for a short (20 min) play time. Well, poor Seth got a bite above his right eye, which became nearly completely swollen shut when he woke up. the next day. I took him to the doctor, which was overall a pretty good experience. Actually, one of our coworkers wrote a short note explaining what happened in Japanese. I stumbled through the mostly-English doctor form, and then through a bad game of charades (my bad) with the doctor, who explained how to give Seth the medicine. But then, the staff was nice enough to call over to the school we work at to give the instructions and advice to someone who would actually understand. Here's Seth later on, after his eye was doing much better.
Poor guy!

Oh, did I mention since we're "forced" to have this "terrible" National Health Insurance thing, that the visit was free? And the medicine, free? Yes. We just pay our monthly premium. Definitely beats Seth's last visit for a consultation in the US, where the doctor looked at him (for advice on his underbite), said "We don't work on kids this young, come back in a year", then was nice enough to send us bills totaling $400. For... great advice to return in a year and then she'd maybe have something useful to offer us then? Like another, larger bill? Mind you, I thankfully had the better of two insurance plans through my employer. Oh, wait, but the insurance company didn't cover it? God bless America. Really. We certainly need all the help we can get.

--------------------------------------

So I'm sure some people have wondered what the grocery stores are like. Well, after the produce section which actually is first (like back in the US), there's a lot of fish/ocean things. I myself have been too lost on each visit to properly document the amazing finds that people here wouldn't offer a second glance. I will let this speak for itself (apologies I couldn't rotate the image).

--------------------------------------

And............a pricier option. Pass.

--------------------------------------

Wisconsinites! You won't feel so far from home if you're ever in Nagoya, and shop here at our neighborhood Yamanaka. They have four or five different varieties of Johnsonville Brats. For real. The are indeed the same, US-made ones you will find in your Pick N Save or Piggly Wiggly. This was especially surprising, given that there are NOT cases loaded with sausages or other US-made meats. In fact, the vast majority of the seafood/chicken/beef is all store-packaged, so I believe they process it all. You won't find case upon case of Tyson/Perdue shipped from who knows where, packaged whenever.

--------------------------------------

Except for THIS back label!

--------------------------------------

I was walking the kids home from school one day, and couldn't help but notice this awesome garden. The owner used old cds, and shiny vinyl (or maybe... a Laserdisc????? Remember those?) to scare crows, I believe.

--------------------------------------

I couldn't help but snap a photo of this. I have no idea what it is, except maybe some sort of deodorizer, since it was in the cleaning/deodorizer section. But that advertising?? Oh my...

--------------------------------------

I let the kids get ice cream cones for the long, hot walk back to our apartment after running errands after school. This girl.... A beautiful disaster!! Luckily she likes to take showers now, which is right where she went as soon as we got home!

--------------------------------------

Today (Saturday - 30th) Angela showed me the way to Noah's school. Starting next week, he'll be going to a different branch of the school since he'll be six in September. Straight across from the school is a rice paddy. So serene. 

--------------------------------------

Soon after that, we pedaled our way to the big park near our house,Shōnai Ryokuchi Kōen. I stumbled upon this fountain one day, and let Seth and Sydney play in it. We were headed to a playground at the park, but instead stopped here. The fountain is a large circle, with a "moat" of water surrounding it. There's a large circle sprayer in the middle (with a metal grate over it, so you can stand on top of them), and maybe five or six smaller circles equal distance around the main circle (but inside the moat). They alternately spray a fine mist, then suddenly a big stream of water up to five or so feet in the air. Obviously, the kids loved it! They made friends with two other brothers, and were splashing each other and jumping around having a blast. Sydney mostly played around in the moat this time around, picking up leaves. Here's Seth and Noah (no idea how it looks like they're alone - there were probably fifteen other kids at least!).

-------------------------------------

Here's a closeup of the boys getting wet. Noah actually requested to put his shirt back on, to mimic another kid who would...(see next):

-------------------------------------

Do this:

-------------------------------------

Various kids.

-------------------------------------

Well, that wraps up our week. Tomorrow Angela will basically lock herself up somewhere to cram through a bunch of school work, and I'll try to keep my sanity and entertain all three beasts! Unfortunately, our lovely lower-80's sunny day today looks like it will give way to gray/rain/storms which we've been seeing too much of! Thankfully, we are located about halfway between the ocean and the mountains, so events like the recent mudslides in Hiroshima are not of a worry to us personally. Only earthquakes, which we, also thankfully, haven't experienced! Come Monday, we begin the regular school year, which is both exciting and terrifying! The boys will be in their required school uniforms, which is going to definitely be photographed!! Until next time...

Inuyama Castle

So to wrap up last week (belatedly), we headed on a short train ride to Inuyama. It's on the same train line as ours, and only took about thirty minutes to the north towards the mountains (and it was still relatively cheap!). There's apparently a bunch of attractions that we might visit later - a monkey park, Little World (an international-themed park), and various shrines. We chose a single destination since we have some short-legged family members: Inuyama Castle. It had been raining and/or cloudy much of last week, and Friday was no exception. And it was hot. The lowest temp we saw last week might have been 80 Fahrenheit, and that was in the middle of the night. Heat index temp was more like 95, and I think it may have gone above 100 at least one of those days. It's humid here. As we experienced when we visited Kyoto back in 2006 and 2007, you don't know what it's like to sweat until you're here. To all those back in the U.S. enjoying the mid 70's…. Well, this is a family blog.


The train ride was the most scenic we've enjoyed since arriving here. Inuyama is sort of this outcropping of Nagoya, and really is like a suburb of it. But we did see some small farm fields and rice paddies. Also, much like our neighborhood, most of the buildings are at most a few stories high - no skyscrapers or anything.

The stop we got off at is right before a bridge over the river. A quick walk across the street, and we were on a nice walkway above the river. It wasn't crowded at all over here, probably due to several factors: it was hot, it was a weekday, and it was a Friday before the Obon celebrations (or some were currently ongoing during this time).

Here's a nice (but cloudy) view to the west along the river:

A little further down the walkway, a shot of the buildings across the river, and the mountains behind them in the distance:

Our destination was Inuyama Castle, which is perched up on that hill even higher above the river.

Here's a signpost along the way, where the walkway turns inland to curve up behind the castle.

Right about this point, there's a small waterfall that runs down into the main river pictured before this. Here's Sydney admiring it:

As this path turned inland, the stream running alongside us was very beautiful. It was really wooded to our right next to the stream, and the air cooled just ever so slightly.

After what seemed like an eternity, we had to climb up and around a bend where suddenly there was a rush of people and cars. Apparently we took some secret long back way, and most people walk up through the town via another train station, or park nearby at the base of the castle. Whatever the case, suddenly there were people. I had thought maybe we were lucky and it wouldn't be crowded, but I was wrong! Here's a quick shot looking back after walking through some torii gates.

Sydney was in a stroller, which wasn't too much fun pushing up the hill. The path was concrete and stone, and not terrible if you were on two feet - but four small wheels? Not so much. But we persevered, and I ended up carrying the whole stroller most of the way to avoid giving Sydney whiplash. The boys made it up on "drink machine power" (aka - there was a "drink machine" at the bottom full of fruit drinks (most aren't 100% juice, just as in the U.S.). The sugar and cool drinks definitely helped them make it up. Then we got into a line that snaked around and inside. Here's Seth and Sydney on the final staircase into the castle:

A view looking up just as we were about to take off our shoes (yes, even at ancient tourist attractions) and enter:

Now, I wish I had taken a picture of the "stairs." In the U.S., you become accustomed to tourist-friendly things like big stairs, hand rails, and elevators. Even if it means defacing the place you are about to visit (like carving huge chunks out of natural stone walls or cutting down trees, etc..). Well, this is Japan. You can't climb a ladder? Stay downstairs! This reminded me of when we visited Tokyo and met my mother's Japanese aunt, who was somewhere in her late 70's or 80's at the time. We walked all over Tokyo, up and down stairs, and she kept right up with us youngins. Amazing. There were plenty of people in that same age demographic, and they had no trouble (or didn't let it show). There was one really steep ladder/stair to get up to the second floor. Nice, this must lead us to the staircase, right?

Nope.

Got in line for another nearly vertical ascent to the third floor. With three children, mind you. The boys did pretty well, even though the steps were a big step up for them. We got to the third floor. Done, right? Now we get to see that amazing view from the top outside balcony that we noticed from downstairs?

Nope.

Angela decided she didn't want to have any more fun with ladder-stairs, so she stayed with Sydney on the third floor. I started up to the next floor with the boys, hoping I didn't have to climb a rope ladder or anything. The next ascent wasn't too bad, and it was followed by yet another, small ascent.

Finally!

So the best part of this experience is that downstairs when you take off your shoes, they have people passing out plastic bags. You put your shoes in them as you step onto the wooden floor, and carry your shoes with you. Up. And up. Etc… But my main point is that there were at least 2 or 3 workers handing out bags and flattening the returned ones into a pile as people returned and put their shoes on. On these multiple, dangerous climbing apparati, how many helpful workers were there?

Zero.

But at the top, they had a helpful fellow directing the traffic out one side of the top floor, and another making sure you didn't circle around for a second helping of the view. Enough rambling. Here's a shot of the boys looking out toward the river side, facing roughly west:

Another:

A closer look at the roof, railing, and walking area up top:

"Boys, line up and smile real quick so we don't hold up the hundred of people behind us!"
This is the best one from the pictures I quick-snapped before I angered anyone, with the mountains to the north.

A view back east towards the bridge:

Back safely on the ground. Noah decided to wanted to take over photography with our point and shoot. All my pictures were taken mainly with my iPhone.

A picture of a picture:

Sydney pondering the meaning of life. Or wondering why we haven't eaten lunch and it was nearly 3pm.

Some nice lanterns back near the roadway where it was busy.

I just thought this little road looked nice and peaceful. You wouldn't know it connected right into the main road at the foot of the castle grounds area where the traffic was crazy.

We considered eating somewhere near the castle, but despite the late time, everywhere was packed. Not to mention, we didn't see any English menus (this doesn't always deter us, but when you're hot, sweaty, and have three hungry kids…). We decided to head back near the train station because Angela had seen some signs for Swan's Cafe, which was advertised in English. The real reason (partly), though, was because there had been a few rumbles of thunder and the sky was looking slightly MORE… ominous. You could actually see the rain coming down across the river onto the mountains. And Angela, for those who know her - secret fact: she is terrified of being outside during storms. We lived in Boston in 2002, and I used to always walk her home from work, and one day it started to thunder and lightning right after we got outside. That girl bolted all the way until she was home! So below is a shot heading back towards the bridge/train area:

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the cafe! It was nice, I'll even use the word cute. It was like a house, with the living room converted into a cafe area, complete with a piano and strange deer art "statue." Actually, it probably was a house before. The kitchen was right there next to the cafe area, and everything was quirky-artsy, and the staff was really nice. Luckily, the staff spoke some English too since the menu was completely in Japanese. The food and drinks were great, a little pricey, but we'd definitely go back.

So…. fast forward to this week. Work and school! I'll probably only be posting weekly at most, and will update Facebook to alert people to when I've actually written something. We won't be having any major trips or anything due to cost, although we're hoping to plan a quick weekend trip this fall to Kyoto. We'll see…

Here's Sydney, fully enjoying Domino's pizza this past week:

Here's a photo I've been meaning to take since we arrived. We walk right past a Toyota dealer on the way to school each day, and this Toyota NOAH (yes, NOAH) has been taunting me daily. I finally snapped a quick photo of Noah and NOAH, but the logo is a little hard to see on the shiny silver background with the reflection. Sadness.

That's our week! Well, two weeks wrapped up, I guess. Angela starts her master's program online through Case Western Reserve in the next week or so, so we'll be even more hectic and busy. I'll also take over the after school advanced English classes for the 6 - 8 year olds (I think this is the age group). Busy!