Trekking Barris: August 2015

Drum Tao Festival - learning the hard way

We learned the hard way that the term 'festival' is used quite liberally and that one food stand might constitute a 'festival' (spending 4 hours before a concert, in the rain, at a 'festival' might be torture!). We also learned that just because it's not raining when you leave for an all-day bus trip and no clouds are in the skies, that does not mean the weather won't change quickly and pour. We got soaked and you can imagine how pathetic we all looked huddled under a hotel comforter -so much so that a couple Japanese men insisted on giving us their spare ponchos.

In the end the Drum Tao musicians and dancers were great, with the 3.5 hour bus ride each way and waking up at 5 AM to leave by 6, it was a long and tough day!

Funny things from Area Orientation

Before we forget, we had a very entertaining Japanese woman full of energy who laughed at the wrong times and then made us laugh (hai, hi, hai!) and taught the quick 6 hour cultural immersion; here are the highlights:

* Japanese are very respectful and polite and say long expressions, but between friends they just say the first word. For example, domo arigota goizou means thank you very much, but to get to the point you can just say - domo - which just means very?! And you're welcome - sounds close-enough to "don't touch my mustache!"
* if you get lost look for the symbol that looks like a samurai soldier, and if you want to go to Fukuoka look for the 2 signs that look like a crazy cat trapped in your bedroom!
* we also practiced with chop sticks and saw the various learner chop sticks for kids! Jeff for years has been putting a small paper wedge in between them and using a hair tie on the end for the girls to use, but of course here in Japan they have Hello Kitty ones!
* we learned how to ask where we are, for help (differentiating a help by scream which means ambulance/police and a more subdued help for what we consider help - ie help me buy a train ticket for a train I'm about too miss!!!)

It was fun and most importantly we are starting to make friends. There is a guy here I used to run with occasionally that good friends of my triathlon buddies in Naples. The girls each day tell me how much they like it and have made more friends. They have been going to kid watch while we have been in area orientation.

First few weeks in Sasebo

We flew out Sunday August 16th and right away on the LAX to Narita flight I could tell we were going to love it here. Everyone has told us how helpful and nice the Japanese are, and the flight crew and people on the flight definitely were. With the last minute government booking none of us had seats together but we were able to get 2 seats directly in front of another 2 seats. Rather than have the girls complain about who got to sit next to Mom the entire way, we put the two of them next to each other and us behind. An older Japanese guy sat next to Bella and he was so sweet and helpful to them the entire flight - changing their channels and helping with their meals. Not once did he seem at all bothered to help and he was very nice to all of us when we deboarded. I highly doubt we could have left 2 kids, talking loudly with their headphones on, watching TV next to just anyone and had them help for 11 hours!

Bella and Morgan finally fell asleep about 30 minutes before arriving in Tokyo. I couldn't rouse Bella, so I had to carry her off the plane, while Morgan stumbled and Jeff managed with our 8 carryons - 4 roller-boards and 4 personal backpacks each! Bella was still asleep for the flight from Tokyo to FUK and the entire 2 hour drive to Sasebo, but once we got to the hotel guess who cheered -"I'm NOT tired!!!"

Wednesday we took our Japanese driver's test - 50 question written test with symbols included and behind the wheel. I will never again make fun of foreign drivers and am very happy to plaster the student driver stickers on our new car. It was hard! We had to reverse into a parking spot - and my new supervisor and Jeff had to yell as I was about to go into the bushes. I thought for sure I failed but she just said I need more practice. Like - yeah a lot!

It's been hot and humid here, but there is a beautiful outdoor pool next to the Lodge which is nice. Morgan instantly got invited to join the swim test after doing a quick test to be able to play in the deep end. She was invited to swim at the last meet of the season but without a car we declined. The fall swim season starts in about a week. We hope to get Bella into group lessons too. They also have a diving team and we are checking to see if Morgan can get a waiver as the lower age limit is 8.

It's beautiful and green and has been rainy. Two days ago we had typhoon warnings and they shut the base down. We had a slow morning and had to check facebook for updates. It was exciting. Jeff gave me a lesson on how to hold an umbrella in serious wind. I actually preferred to get wet but after a little while I figured how to hold the umbrella perpendicular to the wind and horizontal rain!

We have been in an area orientation class and the girls have been going to kid watch. They have made friends and love it. Morgan gets her class assignment on Friday at a meet and greet. School starts Monday. Bella has a spot in the daycare.

Today we were looking for a house and poor Bella had to go to the bathroom. She called from inside that there was no toilet paper. I told her to just shake and not worry about it, but she had gone number 2. I told her to hang on while I pushed some buttons and sprayed water EVERYWHERE. It was warm water too which she thought was too hot. I guess later I saw there were different buttons for the amount of spray. I ended up getting soaked too because her bum can't fill the opening to the toilet. The agent looked horrified when we both came out wet and Jeff didn't want to know the details until later. Ha!

It has been an experience. This Saturday we are going on a full day tour to see a festival. My job is great and I really like the people that I work with. So far - we all give it major thumbs up!

Here is a picture of our new car. We still need to get insurance and complete some paperwork.

La Jolla Cove

More photos from Michelle taken our last week while we enjoyed our stay in La Jolla.

Summer Summary

With our pending departure to Japan, Jeff timed his last day of work to coincide with Morgan's last day of school.

My good friend Jennifer and I trained for a months and then road the 420 mile, 25,000 ft of climbing week-long Colorado Bicycle Tour passing over the Continental Divide 4 times! The trip started with a rocky start when the valet drove our bikes on the roof rack into the parking garage, but we were able to rent bikes and still complete the trip. Here are some pics:

While I was in Colorado, Jeff took the girls to Michigan to see his family, sister, cousins and grandparents. They had a great time!!

The end of June we went with Grandparents to see Bid Dad Voodoo Daddy, a fun big band, swing band play at the Embarcadero. The girls loved it!

Fourth of July we went up to Laguna Beach to see John, Kaitlin and Caroline and watched the fireworks in San Diego.

July 8th we got the official orders for Japan with a start date of July 26 which we successfully pushed back until August 16 so we could go to Caroline's 1st birthday. As you can imagine, July and August were busy!

We managed to go to a lot of free summer concerts - Coronado, Point Loma, Del Mar, Kate Sessions, Mission Hills and La Jolla. We had a bunch of going away events and lunches, and happy hours. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we do know the time will go fast and this is a great opportunity for our family.

I must say Jeff did a fabulous job getting our house ready to rent, zero-scaping the front and back yards, building a fence, and repainting the entire house! We also oversaw the moves which I think went fine, but at the time packing ALL the girls toys and ALL the kitchen silverware seemed a bit extreme especially when we still had to live in the house! But now that we are in a small hotel room we are happy to have limited things.

We also packed our nice camera which has some summer photos still on it! So in the meantime, it's our cell phones. Right before leaving San Diego my parents gave Jeff his early birthday present - a waterproof camera - so we will take pictures with that.

Lastly, we could not have done the move without my parents help. They were tremendous help taking care of the girls, helping us buy things or haul things in their car and doing our laundry. Love you guys and looking forward to your visit!

Here are summer photos and happy memories from our last 10 days staying at La Jolla Cove and Suites, and from Caroline's 1st birthday party which was the day before flying to Japan.