Jan. 5, 2012 - Apartment move-in day!

By 9:00 a.m. the four of us and ALL of our luggage were downstairs to meet the real estate agent.  We loaded ALL of the luggage (reminder: we had 6 suitcases, 5 duffle bags, 4 backpacks, and a partridge in a pear tree) into two taxi minivans and headed to the new apartment.

We love it!  Drew did a good job picking it when he was here on business.  Though the "love" does have a caveat as there is a disagreement between the children over who gets which room.  Before we arrived, they both wanted the room with the cool sliding bookcase.  Now that we're here, they see that room is much smaller than the other one.  Drew took pictures when he found the place to email to us.  Here's one of the coolest room (tatami room) in our apartment and one of our backyard:

Meeting us at the apartment was the TGA representative (that's the company that Exxon hires to help their people relocate) and two representatives from the apartment management company.  The apartment management people, one of whom spoke no English, were there to go over the apartment inspection with us, give us guidance on house appliances and rules, and hand over the MANY keys.  We have two sets of keys to front door of the apartment building, to two different locks on the front door, to the garden gate, to the back door, to the mailbox, to the windows, to the trunk room, as well as two garage "shutters."  The TGA person was there to go over insurance with us, to give us some settling-in information, and to start work on our Alien Registration application forms.  We also had a person from the gas company, a person from Assist Solutions to set up internet/wireless network, and two people from the security company.  After they got the security system set up, they went over it with us, but we've already pretty much forgotten it.  Three times we've left the house since then and tried to set the alarm; failed each time.  I guess it would have helped if the explanation had been in English.  Oh, wait, it was.

The TGA person helped us order lunch from Domino's (her concern was for the kids; I think if it had just been me and Drew, we would have been expected to forge on).  Then we headed to the Shibuya (Shibuya is the name of our area of Tokyo) ward office to do our Alien Registration.  All foreigners staying in Japan for more than 90 days must register at their ward office, including the children.  We got lucky and were the first in line when we arrived, so the whole process took only about an hour.  Drew and I now each have a temporary registration form that we must carry around with us.  The actual card takes about two weeks; we'll go back then to the ward office to pick it up.  I'll be back again in three months when Lucy arrives to register her at the pet office.

We have to do Alien Registration first before we can do things like open a bank account or get cell phones because we have to show proof of registration before we do those things.  So after the visit to the ward office, it was time to go to the bank.  There we opened our Japanese bank account as well as cashed some of our traveler's checks.  After the bank we had to go pay the premium for our insurance.  Then because we were running short on time (we had two different people coming to the apartment between 5 and 7 - gas guy to replace a sensor and key guy to bring the kids their keys to the front door), we took a taxi to the subway station near our house.  There the TGA person was able to show us the grocery store and walk with us back to the apartment so we could hopefully remember the way.

Through it all, the kids were very good.  This must be rough with younger kids.  It helped that Greer had her book and Cooper had his book and electronics. :)

Our original plan had been to head back to the subway station after the two different service people came.  We were going to find a place to have dinner and do a little grocery shopping.  However, by that time, we (meaning the kids and I) had no interest in going out in the cold, the dark, and the unknown.  After all, we weren't too sure we'd be able to find our way to the subway station, and doing it at night would definitely up the challenge.  So we decided on Domino's again. :)  It's been a long time since I've ordered from Domino's in the U.S., so I don't know if they have options other than pizza, but here they have pasta, salad, soup, and a few other items.  Here was one of our key learnings of the day:

When we ordered ice tea out at restaurants, it had not been sweet.  When we tried that at Domino's for lunch, we got sweet tea (though not nearly as sweet as when you order it at a restaurant in the U.S.).  For dinner, we ordered the oolong tea and were much happier.

Thanks to Aunt Jen for solving the rest of Greer's book problem!  Aunt Jen is a teacher and couldn't bear the thought of Greer heading off to her first day of school without having read the first six chapters of her book.  She was one of the two people who found the first couple chapters online for us, and now for the rest of the six chapters, she's going to scan them and send them.  Yay!

Japanese word of the day:  Shibuya  (click to hear pronunciation) is the name of our ward in Tokyo

Jan. 4, 2012 - Our last day of vacation

Today is our last day before we move into our apartment, the last day before we have to rejoin the real world and really begin the business of settling in.

We decided to go to Odaiba, which is a district on a man-made island in Tokyo Bay.  This involved a trip on the monorail.  Since we were aboveground, we got to see a lot more.  I had heard that many Japanese don't have clothes dryers but instead air dry their clothes.  On the monorail trip, we saw lots of apartment balconies full of drying clothes.  We crossed Rainbow Bridge (though Cooper objected to the name - he argued it should be called the White Bridge) to get to Odaiba, and we had a great view of the Tokyo waterfront.  The bridge looks especially nice at night, and you can see Tokyo Tower (though my night shot is a little blurry).

After leaving the station, we headed to Decks Toyko Beach to look for a good lunch location.  While wandering around, we spotted this:

Anybody want to guess who kept bugging us to go there once we'd seen it (it's an indoor amusement park with arcade games - kind of iT'Z on steroids)?  We told Cooper we'd stop by there at the end of the day, and so he kept asking us when that would be.  For lunch, we decided on a Japanese restaurant that served shabu shabu.  Shabu shabu is a Japanese variation of hot pot.  The first couple of courses were not big hits (to put it mildly), but everybody liked the main course.  We were brought thinly sliced meat and vegetables, as well as rice and dipping sauces.  Then we cooked the meat and vegetables ourselves at the table.  It was very good!  Our chopsticks ability, though, is still quite low.

We then headed toward the Miraikan (the National Museum of Emerging Science), enjoying the stroll, despite the cold and windy weather.  I'm sure that area is quite crowded in pleasant weather.  On our walk, we thought perhaps we'd ended up in New York City:

The museum was interesting - there were exhibits about robots, environmental issues, space exploration, and more.  Greer wanted to make sure this photo was included:

For those worried about Cooper, yes, we did go to Sega Joypolis after the museum.

Thanks to Aunt Jen and to Lori for finding a place online where Greer can read the first few chapters of her book online!  Maybe we won't be on the "bad parent" list now!

Japanese word of the day:  go  (click to hear pronunciation) means "five"

Jan. 3, 2012

Well, we had lunch at Burger King today.  I thought it would be a lot longer before I wrote those words.  We decided to take the kids to a movie, getting there took a little longer than we thought, and there was a Burger King just as we exited the subway.  Fast, convenient, and, compared to many of our other meals, not expensive (though I can't say "cheap").

I wanted to take a picture of the menu, but it couldn't be seen clearly with the kids in the picture, so I took two:

The cinema was quite crowded, probably due to the New Year's holiday.  As I mentioned earlier, New Year's is an important holiday in Japan.  Many businesses close down for several days around New Year's.  TGA, the company that works with Exxon families to help them relocate, is closed from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3, and the management company for our apartment is closed through Jan. 4; hence our move-in date of Jan. 5.  Here's where Drew experienced a problem with cross-cultural communication.  Drew realized that TGA was back in the office a day before the realty management company, so he thought we might be able to move in a day earlier.  He proposed this, TGA came back with why they thought it might not be a good idea, he replied to their concern, they came back with a different concern, etc.  After an exchange of several emails, he finally realized they were trying to tell him "no" without actually saying "no."  Then he thanked them for looking out for him and said Jan. 5 was an excellent move-in day. :)

We had checked out the movies in advance and picked one of the movies in English - Real Steel.  The Adventures of Tintin was also playing in English, but we had seen that over Christmas break in Ohio.  Purchasing our tickets we came across something new:  we were asked where we wanted to sit in the theater.  We were given tickets with specific aisle and seat numbers on them.  Another note about purchasing the tickets: Drew first went to the hotel concierge to see if we could book the tickets online ahead of time.  But we couldn't because you have to be a resident and put in your home address.  No fly-by-night movie ticket purchases!

As we came out of the theater, we heard a drum beat start up.  Lucky us!  We were just about to witness a performance on the Japanese drums.

After the performance, some of the performers were talking to members of the audience, so we asked one if she spoke English.  She didn't, but her friend did.  That's how we found out it they were called Japanese drums, or taiko, and we found out the name of their group, Wadaiko Dojo Dondoko.  We took a short video of part of the performance, but the quality of our video was so poor that we decided not to upload it to the blog.  Instead, here's a link to a YouTube video of this same group performing in the same location on Jan. 1.  They performed there Jan. 1, 2, and 3 as part of the New Year celebration.  (I guess the person who did this video is working with slightly better equipment than my old point-and-shoot camera. :) )

Then we wandered around the area a little more and found a very large Starbucks that was also a bookstore.  They had a small English section, but no luck on Greer's book.  We also came across this pond that was home to Space Medaka, which, according to the English sign, are descendants of fish born in space during a 1994 space shuttle flight.  Of course, we couldn't read the Japanese above the English, and it might have been talking about the joke played on the gaijin. :)  (Though I did find this info about Space Medaka (click here) online.)

Then we stopped for dinner at an Asian restaurant.  Everybody picked a dish and we all shared, which was good since every dish arrived at a different time.  We had steamed soup buns, stir-fried shrimp with chili sauce, fried rice with spiny lobster and asparagus, and shredded beef with bell peppers.  I had to list them because it was amazing that everybody (read: "Cooper") liked everything.  We even all liked the jasmine tea.

Japanese word of the day:  shi  (click to hear pronunciation) means "four"
Note about this word of the day:  Four is considered an unlucky number in Japan because shi has the same pronunciation as death.

Jan. 2, 2012

Thanks to Nick and Maren for letting us know the right way to say "Happy New Year."  Among friends, it's "Akemashite omedetou."  More formally, it's "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu."  (Click here for pronunciation.)

Also, I meant to include a link to another blog when I sent out that mass email earlier.  When we announced our transfer to Tokyo, questions about our trip to Kenya this summer immediately dried up.  We never got to share (bore) most of you with our pictures (and there were literally thousands of them).  Well, my sister-in-law (also named Jen, but with the last name Donnalley) wrote a blog about the family safari.  It's at donnalleyfamilysafari.blogspot.com.  Check it out if you get a chance.  It was an amazing trip.

Kindle mishaps:  First, Greer left her Kindle on the plane when we landed in Tokyo (in her defense, I have to point out that she WAS sleeping).  However, we called the airline the next day, they had it, and they sent it to our hotel (740 yen for the delivery, quite the deal).
Second mishap:  I relied too much on the fact that she had a Kindle.  ASIJ (American School in Japan) sent us an email in December about the first day of school in January.  In the email, they recommended we obtain a copy of The Master Puppeteer by Katherine Paterson and have Greer read the first 6 chapters.  Well, as you might imagine, December was somewhat busy, so I just told myself we'd buy the book for her Kindle when we had the chance.  Today, I had the chance.  Only it's not available on the Kindle.  Or the Nook.  And I can't really get it shipped to us in the next few days.  And the English-section of the bookstores here aren't very large (not that we were expecting them to be).  So I think we'll be showing up Monday at school as "bad parents who don't make sure their children do their homework."  Hopefully, we won't be the only ones?


On the positive side, today we made our first friends here in Tokyo.  One of Drew's Exxon colleagues, Rodney Webb, and his family moved here in August.  This is their second stint in Tokyo after a couple of years in Houston.  We met them near their house in Akasaka, close by Roppongi Hills, and took the subway to Hibiya-Koen, a very nice park.  There are a lot of gingko trees in the park, which I was told look amazing in the fall when the leaves change color.  They have 3 children, a boy in 3rd grade and 2 girls in 5th and 7th grades, which fits quite well with our 4th and 6th graders.  The kids played on the playground equipment while the adults talked, at least until we all got too cold.  Then we headed back towards their house, with a stop at a grocery store, where Whitney helped us find the detergent (grocery shopping is definitely going to be a challenge).  We need to do laundry as soon as we move into our apartment.  As you might guess from the iced tea story, we would rather wear quite dirty clothes before we do any laundry at the hotel.  We visited at their house for awhile, had dinner, and then headed back to the hotel.    

We forgot to take any pictures today. :(

Japanese word of the day:  san  (click to hear pronunciation) means "three"

Jan. 1, 2012 - Happy New Year!

Today was a quiet day.  We worked on getting the blog started.  The video of the hotel room proved to be quite a challenge as it was so long, but our technical person figured out how to lower the resolution so that we could post it (that was after a lot of time spent dividing it into multiple files as an alternative). 

We asked at the hotel desk about a place close by we could go for lunch.  However, since it was New Year's Day, most places near the hotel were closed (or at least the places the hotel would send guests were closed).  Rather than spending the time to take the subway, we decided to just have lunch in one of the hotel's restaurants.  Talk about sticker shock!  Exxon pays for us to stay in a pretty nice hotel, but the food is on us, and a pretty nice hotel (especially in Tokyo) has expensive food.  My mom nearly had a heart attack when I told her the price of the lunch, so maybe here I should just mention the price of one of the items.  We already knew (from Drew's previous trips) that a soda in the restaurant was around 950 yen (about $13).  We avoided the soda and ordered ice teas instead.  Want to guess how much an iced tea was?  1350 yen!  We had never had $18 iced teas before!  Note: Drew saw that they poured it out of a box and didn't actually make the iced tea.  We think we'll stick with the water.  In the interest of a balanced story, we should say that it was a very good iced tea.

We did decide to go out for dinner.  The concierge found us an Italian restaurant in Roppongi Hills, an area of Tokyo where some of the Exxon families live.  Dinner was about the same price as lunch, but we got a lot more food.  And an ice tea was only 400 yen.  But don't expect free refills - Jen and Greer got seconds of their hot tea, and there were four hot teas on our bill.

Here's Greer and Cooper outside the restaurant:

Here's one of the very helpful subway signs.  Without them, we'd never get to where we want to go.

Japanese word of the day:  ni  (click to hear pronunciation) means "two"

We also wanted to include a Japanese phrase for today to say "Happy New Year."  However, it was beyond our abilities to figure out what phrase to use.  You can click on "Happy New Year" for a link to one of the pages we found with various expressions.



Dec. 31, 2011 - First full day in Japan

Well, we were evicted this morning from our sweet suite. :(   On to the regular room for us - just like the riff-raff we are.

We hung out at the hotel for the morning, enjoying our last moments in the party suite.  We then headed out around lunchtime for the Asakusa area.  This involved our first trip on the subway, though not Drew's first trip since he was here on business a few times this fall.  So far, the subway seems easy enough to figure out .  After exiting the subway, we headed toward the Sensoji Temple.  Many Japanese visit a temple around New Year's as part of their New Year celebration.  The main street leading to the temple was quite crowded, with many shops selling souvenirs and Japanese snacks.

The kids each received about $50 worth of yen from their grandparents for Christmas, and it's burning a hole in Cooper's pocket.  I originally wrote "in their pockets," but Greer disagreed with that assessment and requested a rewrite.  However, they were BOTH quite interested in the souvenir stands.  We convinced them that they had plenty of time to buy souvenirs since we're living here for a year and a half.  No need to add to our huge stack of luggage while we're still in the hotel - souvenir shopping can wait until we're in our home.

We sampled several snacks as we walked along the main street.  We can't tell you what any of them were since we had only Japanese characters to go by.  The first was some type of dough ball with a meat and onion filling (we think).  We all liked that one.  The next was some kind of rice thing on a stick - it struck out with all four of us.  Then we tried a rice cracker flavored with soy sauce (we think) - nothing exciting, but we all ate it.  Then came some pastry-type thing with a sweet bean paste filling.  Jen, Drew, and Cooper liked it, but Greer deemed it "too sweet."  We think that was her way of saying she didn't like it, but she just insisted it was "too sweet."  We found it hard to believe her when the next snack we tried was a giant meringue-type cookie, quite sweet, and Greer ate most of it.  We wish we'd thought to take pictures, and then we could have found out later what everything was called. If we happen to see the various snacks again, we will be sure to take a picture!

We made our way to the temple.  We weren't quite sure what some of the Japanese people were doing around us, and no signs in English.  Maybe we'll be able to google it to find out.  At midnight on New Year's at the Buddhist temples they ring the bell 108 times.  We weren't going to be sticking around for that since we were still all pretty jet-lagged.  Then we decided to find some food  besides street vendors for a 3:30 meal ("linner?"),  and we headed into a small (6 tables and tiny chairs) noodle shop.  We can't remember the names of the various dishes we got,  but they were all pretty good.  We should have written the names down so that we could remember them.  All of us have a long way to go in our chopstick work.  I guess that's one way to lose weight.

Here are some pictures we took near the temple:

We had to work to keep the kids up until 8:00.  Hopefully just a few more days and we'll be adjusted.  Drew, lucky guy, adjusts pretty quickly to new time zones because of his amazing ability to sleep anywhere, anytime.

Japanese word of the day:  ichi   (click to hear pronunciation) means "one"

Greer picked "one" because it was our first full day in Japan - I think I know what she wants the next nine words of the day to be.

Dec. 30, 2011 - We say "hello" to Tokyo

We landed at Narita Airport at 3:30 pm on Dec. 30, about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  Since that was about 12:30 am Houston time, Greer and Cooper were out and were not interested in waking up.  We had to haul them out of their seats and get them moving off the plane.  They were not happy to be awake, and they were even less happy when we told them they had to stay awake until 8 pm to try to help them get adjusted to their new time zone.  Maybe next time they'll listen to our suggestion of a nap?  No, probably not.

Immigrations and Customs went smoothly, and then it was time to try to load our as much of our luggage as possible into the taxi van.  We fit in 6 bags and arranged for delivery of the rest for the following day.  While Drew and Jen were arranging the delivery and converting some money to yen, the kids waited in the van with the taxi driver.  Cooper was already asleep before we made it back to the van, and Greer quickly followed once the van was moving.  It was about an hour's drive from the airport to the Conrad Hotel, so the kids had a good nap. 

When checking in, we discovered they had made a mistake with our reservation.  Instead of two beds, our room had only one bed.  New Year's is a big holiday in Japan, and the hotel was fully booked.  However, they felt terrible about their mistake, and they put us in the Royal Hamarikuyu Suite for the night.  Lucky mistake for us!  The daily rate for the suite is normally $7000!  The kids took video and lots of pictures as we told them not to get used to it.

Greer picked a small selection of her pictures to post on the blog and included a few from the hotel website to avoid showing our mess (since the kids didn't take the pictures until the following morning).

Living and Dining rooms

View from our lounger and the living space

 

Drew wants a bathroom like this in our next house

Sleeping in Style

Warning: the kids' video is a little long. :)

Japanese word of the day: konnichiwa  (click to hear pronunciation) means "hello" or "good day"