Live from Japan!

As I reflect on my time here, which I have been doing a lot lately with only 40 days left (!!!), I have begun to notice that something has been missing from our time here. Well, lets be honest, a lot of things are missing (like peanut butter) but some are more noteworthy than others.

When we came here both Aaron and I took a pay cut. We figured that the experience would be worth it. Little did we know that we would actually save far more money in our two years here than we did in our four years in Chicago.

This isn’t because we have been living an overly frugal existence. As this blog, and the travels contained within it show it has been quite the opposite. We have visited both extremes of Japan, Okinawa and Hokkaido, and tons of things in between. We took two weeks in Indonesia and another international trip to visit home. In many ways I feel that our past two years have been more indulgent than all my adult years back home.

So, if we haven’t been intentionally frugal, what gives?

Well, I think there are a lot of factors in play here. First of all, our living expenses are quite a bit cheaper.

Our rent is about $300 less per month than it was in Chicago. Granted, we have half the space.

We have no car, a change we intend to continue upon our return.

Our energy costs are low. We don’t central heat or cool our home. We don’t have a dryer for our clothes. We have an on-demand hot water heater.

We have made minimal purchases for our home. Knowing that we would only be here for a limited time, we chose not to upgrade many of our old (but still working) stuff. We lived with an ugly green pleather sofa. We made do with mismatched dishes. We kept our clothes in plastic drawers.

We both are not sized to fit into Japanese clothes and therefore, aside from a few packages shipped from home containing essentials and a small shopping spree in the Fall when we visited, our clothing purchases have been very close to zero for the past two years. Yes, upon return our wardrobes definitely need some refreshing, but I think we also learned a good lesson in making do with what we have.

The majority of the money that we have spent has been spent on food and travel. Instead of filling our home and life with new material things we have splurged on weekends away. Instead of new shoes, which I can’t fit into anyways, we have gone to nice dinners.

And, I think, all of this was pretty easy given that we aren’t marketed to. My Japanese is pretty crappy, so I still can’t really read or understand the various advertisements around here and we don’t keep up with much American media, so we miss out on that marketing as well. We don’t watch any TV, so we don’t see any commercials. The only radio we listen to is streaming public radio. The only new movie we have seen in the past year was Wall-E.

While missing out on so much marketing has made it really easy to remove ourselves from a consumerist/materialist lifestyle, it does make it rather awkward to come back.

I don’t know what’s hot anymore. I don’t know what’s cool. I don’t know which celebrity is popular or what’s playing on the radio. I don’t know what movies are in the theaters. I don’t know what restaurants are new. I don’t know what interesting new food products grace the grocery store shelves. I don’t know what people are talking about. I don’t know the new slang, hell I don’t even always remember how to talk English well.

I’ve been gone for two years, and sometimes when I think of all the things I don’t know, it feels like so much longer. I’m as out of touch as the parent of a teenager, so help me out. I’m coming back in 40 days, worried about the reverse culture shock that comes from feeling like a stranger in your own home country. So, what are some things that I need to know about America before I come back? How have things changed?

The Japanese summer holds a very special place in my mind, and I suspect that it will for quite some time. It is something that I fear and dread. Of all of life’s conditions, the one I hate the most, is being hot. And, as most of you haven’t had the opportunity to experience the Japanese summer, being hot in Japan simply isn’t an option. It is a state of being. It is inescapable and unavoidable.

As the stupid hot season approaches, I have found myself being thankful for each day that passes that I am able to survive without being drenched in an uncomfortable layer of sweat. It is already June 23rd, and with only 44 days remaining in Japan, I fear that my luck may have run out.

The forecast for today calls for a high of 91 degrees. While it isn’t quite as humid as Japan can get and the low for tonight should be in the 70’s which will bring some relief, it is hot enough to be uncomfortable, especially when you have a little babe that likes to be attached and doesn’t quite understand or care that it is “no touching season.”

Can you all help cross your fingers for us, we would love it if the stupid hot held off just a little while longer. We really aren’t looking forward to finishing off our time in Japan quarantined in our tatami room surviving with the help of the artificial cool of the air conditioning.

This second year has been filled with lots of new and exciting things, but it has also been filled with revisiting a lot of old favorites from last year.

This past weekend we took Ewan and went to ukai again. I love this tradition in Gifu. It is such a simple and beautiful spectacle that they have preserved.

I didn’t get a chance to see much this year. Ewan wanted to nurse during the time when the fishing was taking place, so I mostly got to see the evenings events through the eyes of Aaron. who was photographer for the evening.

The Mister Donut here constantly revamps its offerings. It is nice because each time you go in you can find something new, but frustrating when you find something you love, it isn’t there anymore. Oh how I miss you, honey glazed.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found these on the shelf when I visited today.

Really, how can one resist a miniature hamburger and fry donut set. I haven’t eaten it yet, I have just been looking at it with admiration, but when I do, I will let you know how it is.

It’s really happening. The fact that we are leaving Japan is slowly becoming a reality. With a mere 57 days left, we have started preparing. We have one suitcase packed and others that will be soon.

The hardest part, logistically, about leaving Japan is getting rid of all of our stuff. When we came we replaced two different JETs that had households worth of stuff. Both their households got moved into ours. At first it was overwhelming, too much stuff for a small space, so we worked to downsize. But now we really need to downsize.

This year the JET Program in Gifu took a bit of a hit. Starting in August, all high school ALTs will be teaching at two schools, instead of just one. As a result, there are far fewer new ALTs coming to Gifu this year. Both the ALTs that will be replacing us at our schools already live here and, as a result, do not need or want any of our stuff. So, we must get rid of it all.

It is notoriously difficult, and expensive, to throw things away in Japan. So, we are trying to give away all of our belongings. Dishes, pots and pans, laundry baskets, a genuine green pleather sofa, everything. So this past weekend we held our first in-home garage sale.

I wasn’t expecting to get rid of much, but I was pleasantly surprised. A number of people came through and took a bunch of stuff off our hands. All our bookcases are gone, the tv, tv stand, a few pans and baking dishes. And many people spoke for other items. It is great and such a relief to see things slowly move out, even if it is painful and sad at the same time.

The weird thing about this is that this has become home. I have grown to love everything about this place (except the kitchen, I never will get used to a kitchen this small) and I am sad to see it go. I have loved the simplicity of our lives. I have loved how we have spent our money and resources on seeing things and going places, rather than filling our house with nice stuff. As much as I initially hated my return back to dorm-ness, I feel that it was a good departure for me. One that helped me realize, again, what is really important in life.

As we transition away from Japan, we must transition towards the States. I hope that we can hold onto what we’ve learned, what we’ve loved, and what we’ve realized we want and need from life. If we can combine all those lessons while living in MUCH closer proximity to the family and friends that we have missed for the past two years, I feel that we will be truly lucky.

With only a few months left to spend in Japan, we finally made it to our first national park. Despite my new nursing mama breakdown about whether or not they would have food for sale at the park (I didn’t have any snacks in my bag) we made the trek. The answer was yes, of course, they had food for sale. How could I have doubted that any touristy type place in Japan wouldn’t have food, well, at least soft cream.

Anyways, I am glad we made the trek. It was a beautiful day, it was a beautiful spot, and I really enjoyed getting out and walking around in Japan’s beautiful natures. Take a look for yourself!

Along the little boardwalk frogs were plentiful, as were their eggs. I had never seen frog eggs before, so I was rather intrigued and now we have a lot of pictures of frog eggs.