Live from Japan!

It is interesting, as our time in Japan is coming to a close, all the different comments we’ve gotten from people about how we’ve spent the past two years of our lives. Given that it is at the forefront of our minds, obviously, and it seems to be at the front of others’ as well, I thought I would do a bit of reflecting, about this experience, about our choice to come here, and about what may happen in the future.

The most common response I get from people about our choice to come live and work in Japan for two years is a mixture of awe and disbelief, “It is so cool that you guys did it, I really couldn’t have.”

My answer to that is, why not?

I know, for the most part, it seemed like we were cool as cucumbers before we left. With the exception of a select few family members and friends, we generally didn’t let our guard down. We tried to be optimistic and positive around most people, in part because we were trying to convince ourselves and in part because we needed those people to be optimistic and positive for us. We needed their support and their energy so that we could also find that within ourselves.

Truth be told, I was scared to death getting on the plane two years ago. The only thing that got me in that seat, and kept me there, was the promise from Aaron that if I didn’t like living in Japan, we could come back. “What about the contract,” I remember asking through my tears. “We’ll break it,” Aaron had replied.

And so we left, me knowing that, if at any time I wanted to, I could come back. And, for the most part, I didn’t want to. Sure, I may have said that I wanted to go back to the States during some of my most difficult and trying moments, and during those moments Aaron would always remind me that we could, if I wanted to, but that we would have to make that decision when I wasn’t so emotional.

Once the emotions calmed down and I realized that I had also had bad days when I lived in the U.S., I am proud to say that I never wanted to go back. In fact, I was the first one that said that I thought it would be a good idea if we stayed a second year. I surprised myself.

I surprised myself, and you can surprise yourself too. We didn’t get the chance to spend the past two years in Japan just because we are lucky or because we are any different from any of you. We got this chance because we took a risk and it worked. We saw an opportunity and we jumped at it. We made the most of life.

It wasn’t always easy. Packing up our home, saying goodbye to our cat and our things, moving to a new country, getting established with new friends, learning how to do new jobs, figuring out how to live life using a new language, having a baby in the NICU for two weeks when we couldn’t always understand what was happening to him, raising him for the first few months without a safety net of family nearby. It wasn’t easy. It was far from it. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I’m not sure where life will take us next. For now, it is taking us to Chicago. What we do know is that we both aren’t so scared anymore. We both are more open to looking for, and seeking out, opportunities that will make us excited, happy, fulfilled and energized. And, when those opportunities arise, we won’t be as scared as we were two years ago, because we know, like most things in life, it will all work out.

We have nine days.

Our house is a wreck.

The suitcases are unpacked in a futile attempt to figure out a new, genius, way to make all the things we want fit.

There are heaps of stuff around our house, ready to be thrown away.

And now I just got the estimate for how much it is all going to cost. About 45,000 yen ($475) to throw away our trash. Unbelievable.

I’ll add this to the, seemingly, unending list of other expenses that we will be incurring in the next month and a half. Sometimes it all just seems impossible . . .

It was my last day at Gifu Kita on Tuesday and I had to give a speech to the entire school, staff and students. As I wrote the speech and practiced it in front of my mirror at home, I always found myself falling into tears at the same spots. I knew that, if I couldn’t make it through the speech without crying at home, it would be impossible to avoid the tears when I was in front of more than 1,000 people, many of whom have become close friends.

Saying goodbye to Gifu Kita was more heart-breaking than saying goodbye at all the other jobs that I have left in the past. First of all, being there has been an amazing experience, aside from becoming a Mama, probably the most influential and life-changing. Second, saying goodbye here is so much more permanent. While we hope to return to Japan, the time frame is unknown. So, unlike when we were saying goodbye back home to come here, we aren’t sure when we will be back and it is likely that many of the people, co-workers and students, that we are saying goodbye to, we will never see again. Strange.

So, that’s why the tears flowed. And, why they continue to do so. Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one that cried. It’s good to know that I have made as much of an impact on some of my fellow teachers and students as they have on me. It went both ways.

Many of you have asked about my speech, so even though I am a touch embarrassed, I am putting it here. Watch it if you want, try not to be too bothered by the insanely bumpy footage. The teacher who was filming told me that he forgot he was holding the camera a few times. 🙂

In addition to the art museum, another must see while we were in Kanazawa, was Kenroku-en. Touted as one of the top three gardens in Japan, we were told it was something that we couldn’t, rather shouldn’t, miss. So, we went.

While I’m not sure that I agree that it is the most spectacular garden that we’ve been to, it all seemed a bit dried out and there was a lot of work going on on the Monday that we visited, it was definitely worth a stop and a wander.

This weekend we found ourselves in Kanazawa celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary. Six Years!!

One of the highlights of the trip was an afternoon spent at the modern art museum. Originally we simply went into the museum to escape the warmth of the afternoon sun, but it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. And here’s why . . .

Where else could you get the chance to ride a tricycle like this, through the halls of the museum?!

Aaron and I had a lot of fun on the bikes, and many Japanese people really enjoyed watching us. So much so that the following day we were spotted at another tourist attraction by someone that watched us on the bikes. She came up to say hello and told us that she saw us. I know that we are conspicuous, but I didn’t realize we were that conspicuous. I guess . . . foreigners, with an incredibly cute and popular baby, riding giant trikes through a museum.

Of course, there were other cool things at the museum as well. Most of which couldn’t be photographed, but we did get a few shots of things that could be.

This was a pretty fun piece. In the courtyard of the museum, there is a swimming pool. The water is on top of a piece of glass and is fun because you can look down and it seems like the people are under the water, then you can go underneath and look up and out at the people above. So much fun.

Then there was this enormous labyrinth made entirely from salt. Don’t sneeze!

And I absolutely loved this mural and the cool matching rocking chairs. A perfect place to sit down and take a little rest.

After a recent post, about the stupid hot season, you all most have done a whole lot of finger crossing. So, I would like to say thanks. Thanks for all the finger crossing and thanks Japan for deciding to grant us a little bit longer before the stupid hot starts.

It is now July 3rd. We have only 36 days left. And Japan has decided to cooperate. We have had an entire week where we haven’t turned on the air conditioning in our home and have, except for a bit of time in the afternoon, been fairly comfortable. Last night, get this, we even had to turn off the fan because we were too cold! In July! In Japan!

And, lucky us, the forecast seems to indicate that the stupid hot might even stay away for at least another few days. Thank you Japan! Now, if you could just hold off until August 6th, I might leave this fair country wishing that I didn’t have to, with only fond memories in my heart. Is that too much to ask?

Over the past two years we have really mined out most of the local, easy-to-do day trips in the area. So, imagine our pleasant surprise when a group of friends took us out to this temple one day last weekend.

Not more than an hour from our home it was a sanctuary. In the mountains, surrounded by all the green that I so often find myself missing here in the concrete-wonderland that is Gifu city. With only a month left here in Japan, I am sad that we only discovered it just now, so thankful that we did discover it, and wondering how many other things are just around the corner that we may never know.

Behind the temple there was an area where you would get a little sheet of paper, dip it into water and apply it to the part of the statue where you needed healing.

Tanigumi temple is the last temple on a pilgrimage route and at the end people leave behind their pilgrimage attire and books.

We have no idea why the tanigumis at this temple were covered in rocks, but we couldn’t help but add some more to the stack.