I know it has been a while since my last post I’ll try to give you a rundown of what we have been up to.

In March we had our first visitors!!!! We were so happy that Caleb’s parents were able to come and visit.  We had fun showing them this big city and sharing our home.  Here are some pictures of our time together.  The kids were also on spring break so they got some good time with Grandma and Grandpa too.  The game of the week was “ticket to ride”  We took an open air tour bus, enjoyed hanami (cherry blossom viewing), tasted sake (rice wine), played games, worked on quilting, visited Tokyo tower and parks and more.

Here are some pictures of their time here. (click arrows on side of pictures to scroll)

Caleb’s job has gotten a bit busier now since the  spring.  He is regularly visiting physicians throughout the region.  Sometimes these are overnight trips and sometimes just for a day or evening.  Because of the geography of Japan he often flies or takes a shinkansen (bullet train).  I was explaining this to someone recently, as another way our lives in Japan are different. When we lived in the US we drove a lot.  We would drive an hour or 8 hours.  Taking a flight to another location in the midwest was not something we did often.  He also has a new title as EP Business Director and has a team directly reporting to him!  In many ways he is just now getting the position and leadership he came here for.  We are both hoping that he is able to better lead and make change to to organization in this new role.  

In another list of accomplishments we have all learned to downhill ski.  While we were in Seattle visiting family in December Caleb went with is siblings to Steven’s Pass.  Caleb had good teachers (his siblings)  and has natural athletic ability and was confidently skiing down new trails.   He had such a wonderful experience he was very quick to try to convince our family that WE HAVE TO TRY SKIING once we get back to Japan.

Here he is with his 2 brothers, sister!

Visiting Sapporo Snow Festival and skiing are two things that are very popular winter activities in Japan. So made plans to enjoy the winter with these activities.  We were able to snag a decent (small) apartment in Sapporo and get flights to this city in the northern island in Japan in February.  It wasn’t necessarily a budget friendly trip since we booked so late but since we are trying to embrace this time in Japan we decided to go for it.  It was a quick flight (a little over an hour)

We spent our 4 day 3 night trip enjoying ice sculptures, huge snow sculptures (some with light show projections), eating tasty ramen, and skiing.

Here are pictures from the snow festival and fun things we ate: ( hover over picture and click arrows to scroll through the pictures)

While in Sapporo we could take a quick 30 minute bus or taxi ride to a small ski resort.  We got private lessons for our family since this was the first time skiing for 3 of us.  It was nice to have an instructor help us with our learning.  The kids were quick learners and quite fearless.  I on the other hand was quite terrified, fell over A LOT and squealed “I CANNOT STOP”  on at least one instance.  But through all the falls I continued to learn and was feeling much better by the second day.  I am so glad we decided to do this together.   Stay tuned to hear about the kids ski trip with school and Caleb and my get away!

Skiing pictures: ( hover over picture and click arrows to scroll through the pictures)

On March 11 I celebrated my 35th birthday!  Typically we love to have all of our friends over and celebrate birthdays with a big party.  Since we know so few people her and I don’t think our neighbors in the apartment would appreciate a Simpson style dance party we spent the day a bit differently.  We were super blessed by some friends of ours who invited us into their home for a homemade pizza party on Friday.  Our first time being invited over to someone’s home.  We felt so loved, but also missed our Minnesota friends.

It was great that we had good weather and that my birthday landed on a Saturday this year.  No one enjoys having their birthday on a weekday, it’s just such a bummer.  We started the day out with some coffee and heading to the gym to do our Crossfit open workout 17.3 .  It’s a fun and exciting time at the gym for everyone.  The Open is a set of 5 weekly workouts happening on consecutive weeks in which athletes from all over the world compete to get the best scores at their local gyms.  Workouts are judged and scores are posted on crossfit.com leaderboard.  Top qualifiers from the area will go to a regional competition, the top qualifiers will go to the Crossfit Games (which you may have seen on TV) You can read more about the crossfit games workouts here  It was great to do something I love (crossfit) with someone I love (Caleb) and have the kids join in the excitement by attending the event!  Caleb is doing all the workouts RX, as prescribed,  I am doing a scaled version of the workout, which basically means it’s lower weights.  I’m hoping to be strong and healthy enough next year to do RX!  On a side note I sprained my thumb while we were skiing in February.  I was a little bit concerned that it would not allow me to compete in the open at all. But luckily Caleb was able to tape me up and working out hasn’t seemed to make it any worse as long as I am careful.

Overall the workout went pretty well for me.  I am still not super confident doing squat snatches at increasing weight for more than a couple in a row. So doing scaled version allowed me to do power snatch followed by the overhead squat, which worked well for me.    Caleb felt a bit off during the workout on Saturday and ended up repeating the workout on Monday and was able to get at least 10 more reps the second time.   He felt better about his second score. Way to go Caleb!

Here are some of our pictures from the workout: I love this first one!  (move mouse onto picture and click on right/ left arrows to see the album)

After we got home I got to open my presents.  Caleb did such a good job shopping for special Japanese gifts.  I got a beautiful yukata (japanese robe) a musical jewelry box, and a  tea set that matches our sake set. I love everything!  So many pretty things that I will treasure forever!

So nice to get a good workout done in the morning so we could celebrate and EAT later. We went to an amazing steak lunch as a family.   The food was delicious and I was soooooo full but managed to eat (and share) my fun birthday dessert!  YUM! YUM YUM!

Caleb also surprised me by telling me he wanted to take me to a home improvement store to by some big house plants.  It’s funny the thing we miss. I never thought I would be so excited to go to a home improvement store on my birthday.  We were so impressed with the selection of things at this store it is totally like a Menards, Loews, or Home Depot in the US!  We drove the the store and parked in the parking garage.  It was awesome to walk around and look at the plants.  We used google translate and other websites to make sure we were getting good plants for our apartment.  We ended up getting 5 large plants and proceeded to try to fit them into our Prius.  I was doubtful, but of course the engineer was determined AND made them fit in the car.  If it wasn’t funny enough driving in the jungle car when we got home we loaded them all into our small elevator in our apartment.  As we were on our way up the elevator stopped to let some other people on.  To our neighbor’s surprise there we were peeking out from plants. I still laugh thinking about this.   We all decided it may be best if they waited for us to go up and unload the plants before they rode the elevator up.  Definitely a memorable and fun birthday! I even got 2 packages sent in the mail filled with goodies.  Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun quilting stuff! Thanks Amy for the US snacks and treats!!! I feel so loved!

On Sunday we went o a park and played badminton!  Pretty silly little game, but we had fun!

Here are some pictures from the rest of our weekend!

(move mouse onto picture and click on right/ left arrows to see the album)

If you know me very well you know that I am somewhat crafty, and also somewhat impatient.  Over the years I have done some sewing, quilting, and various pinterest inspired crafts.  I enjoy being creative but often lack discipline.

I had worked 3 years on my last quilt.  I had a love hate relationship with it.  Just when I thought we were getting along, it would laugh in my face and wouldn’t lay flat or I’d sew the wrong pieces together.   When we were packing up to move to Japan I had finished the quilt top, but found it was much smaller than I wanted, and it WOULD NOT LAY FLAT!  I was about to chop the thing up and make pillow shams out of it.  Luckily my mother in law was visiting and rescued the poor quilt.  She had a couple suggestions and agreed to take it, add a border or two, then take it to a quilt shop to have it quilted.  I said good bye to the headache and hoped it would cooperate for her.  Well guess what?! We saw my in-laws at christmas time, and she had my quilt finished!  It is so beautiful!  I’m so happy that she was able to help get it finished, we both put lots of work into it and it makes me smile every time I walk past it. Thanks so much Colleen!!!!

When I heard that there was an interest meeting for a Quilting Circle happening at Tokyo American Club (TAC) I emailed the leader and started to get more excited about getting back into quilting and sewing.   I left my sewing machine in storage in Minnesota, however as part of our expat package they gave me a “Spousal Allowance” for self development, education or to seek employment”.  I think of it as a bribe to try and keep me happy because “if mamma ain’t happy, no body’s happy!” So I began to research sewing machines. The voltage in Japan is 100V and in America it is 120 V.  which means not all appliances from America will work in Japan, and vice versa.  I spent hours and hours trying to figure out what type of machine I wanted I did internet research, asked the quilt group leader and multiple forums for foreigners. Did I want  something that was computerized? did embroidery? allowed free motion quilting? Should I buy an American machine then use a transformer?  Should I get a Japanese machine, then try to translate and entire manual? Or find an English manual? Do I try to buy in Japan? Buy in US and have shipped? Amazon.com? Amazon.jp? ebay? SO MANY CHOICES!

After much nervous research I decided to order a Brother HC1850  (click to read a review) off of of ebay.  It is American.  I decided, and Caleb encouraged me that it would be better to risk that the machine may not work optimally with a transformer than be frustrated from day 1 with NOT being able to read anything about the machine.  Plus if I like it, I can take it back with us to the US.   The machine is coming from the US and is not here yet but I am so excited to get it!  actually came today.!!! I unboxed it and watched the instructional cd, plugged into a step up/ step down transformer and it seems to be working just fine, at least for the couple lines of sewing i did! YayI  I am so happy for my new toy.

Another task was trying to buy fabric.  with a little internet research (again- what did people do before the internet)  I discovered there is a whole area in Tokyo called Nippori fabric town.  It with filled with craft and fabric stores!

Check this out! It’s one (of many) articles I read about shopping for fabric.  I planned my trip, made myself a cheat sheet of possible words in Japanese I may need,  wore my walking shoes, and hopped on the train when the kids left for school.  In about 45 minutes, and 2 different subway lines I was there.  The Fabric Street was easy to find since it is a bit of a Tourist attraction, here were even arrows on the sidewalk.  Once I got to the right area I was a bit overwhelmed, there were so many little shops  that mostly looked the same. There was one bigger store I had heard about called “Tomato”  I followed google maps and made it to the Tomato Store.  It was 2 floors and had fabric in big rolls.  My quilt teacher told me I was supposed to buy Yukata fabric.  I had done some research but really didn’t know what I was looking for.  I was a bit confused because I hear this store was supposed to be really big and have 5 floors, yet the store I was in was only 2 floors and didn’t seem all the large.  After looking around a bit I finally figured out how to read a label on the fabric to find the section of cotton fabrics. I knew these would work for my quilt even if they were not a Yukata fabric.  I set to work choosing my 9 fabrics that would coordinate to make my “around the world quilt”  I decided to go with a blue, tan and pink color scheme.  Picking out fabrics for a quilt take quite a long time, and to add to the difficulty they were on long rolls as opposed to shorter bolts that I have been used to in American stores.  I probably spent an hour and a half in the Tomato store and finally made my selections.   I went to the counter and asked the store clerk to give me 2 meters of each of my fabrics. I mostly just held up two fingers and said 2 meters please.   I wanted to try one more chain fabric store so I hopped on a train and found some solid fabrics I liked at the second store.  This store seemed much more like a JoAnn’s Fabrics in the US.  The fabric was on smaller bolts, they had sewing machines, craft supplies, and accessories.  I was pretty exhausted but think I would have done just fine if I want to this store in the first place. Here are some pics from my little adventure, and the last one is from my quilting group. (click the arrows to scroll through pics)

The next day I got some updated information about the supplies I needed for my quilting group. I found out I got wayyyyyy  too much fabric.  I should have been more persistent in looking for yukata fabric, or actually asked someone for help.  Yukata fabric is only 14 inches wide, and my fabric was over 40 inches wide.  I only needed 1 meter and I bought 2 meters. OOOPS!

I took a second trip to Nippori Fabric town a couple days later in search of a rotary cutter, mat and quilting ruler in inches.  Of course you cannot find a ruler in inches here.  I settled on getting the mat and rotary cutter.  AND found out that just a couple stores down and across the street was the bigger Tomato store.  I guess I was so focused on my google map, and looking at what was directly in front of me I didn’t consider that there was possibly something bigger and better just ahead.  I went to the bigger Tomato store. They had a huge selection and some discounted fabrics.  I also recognized the yukata fabrics that I was originally supposed to buy.  Oh well, my fabrics till work just fine. and I will be able to make more of a bed quilt instead of a wall hanging.

I had my first quilting group meeting and we discussed color theory( the way you want the colors of your quilt to be arranged) how to measure and cut with a rotary cutter.  I have used a rotary cutter before but found out that I probably rushed through it, and didn’t take the time to make sure that I was being precise.  This is probably one of the many reasons my last quilt was such a headache! There are 4 other ladies in the group, 2 have been quilting for quite some time, and 2 that are newer to quilting.  everyone seems nice and we ate lunch together in the cafe at TAC before leaving.   We won’t meet again for a couple more weeks but I have homework to get my fabric cut into strips and sewn together.  So far I have been trying to take my time and have patience as I cut the stips.  I got them all cut yesterday so soon I will get to use my new sewing machine to put them together.

Well congratulations if you made it all the way through this very crafty post.  I’m hoping to post about our trip to Sapporo, skiing, and snow festival next.

So it’s official, we have survived 6 months as an expat family in Japan.  I know we have some amazing stories to tell, and have been on some amazing journeys, seen new parts of the world and learned so much already but to be honest it has been really hard.

We took our home leave trip over Christmas break and we were so happy to see so many people we love.  We choose to fly” economy comfort”, instead of the “business class” we were allotted.    By sacrificing the lay down flat seats and other special privileges we were able to pay for multiple legs of our trip to see ALL OUR FAMILY  and seeing some friends in MN and STILL have some budget to spare for 2017!!

We made quite the journey we traveled from Tokyo, Japan to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where we stayed 3 days and had a tight schedule to maximize time with our friends.  From Minneapolis we flew to Chicago, Illinois.  My parents picked us up at the airport and we got to spend a week in the wide open spaces of the country. From Illinois we then flew to Seattle, Washington, where all of Caleb’s family flew, or drove in.  We spent a week at an Air B&B home.  From Seattle we made the last leg of travel back to Tokyo.  It was hard to leave each destination, not knowing when we would be back again.  I believe it was most emotional for us to leave Seattle possibly because it was our return flight to Japan but possibly because it is still our desire to some day live in Seattle.  Even with the winter chill the landscape, mountains, and nature were wonderful to take in.  Who knows what the future holds!

It was amazing to see SO many people we love and that love us.  I think what struck me the most is that in Japan, while we are so far away, it is easy to feel isolated, and lonely.  We walk around most of the time feeling like a “nobody” to everyone. Our entire Facebook feed fills up while we are sleeping, yet is unchanged while we are awake. There aren’t many people that will laugh at our jokes, or seem happy to see us, we don’t get hugs from people at church, and very few people in our time zone seem to want to develop a deeper friendship with us.  (I will say there are a couple  exceptions and for you we are very grateful) While we were were in Minnesota, Illinois and Washington we were surrounded by people who actually care about us.  People who took time out of their schedules to hang out with us, welcome us into their homes and show us kindness.  I made a joke on and off during the trip that I was “gathering hugs”  Thank you for being our friends and family! Thanks for all the hugs! 

Here are some photos from our trip!

I recently posted on facebook regarding one of our favorite children’s books, “Fredrick” by Leo Lionni.  It is a wonderful story of a family of mice.  In the story all of the  mice except for one  are constantly working and preparing for the future.  Fredrick is the outsider, he spends his time gathering  sun rays, colors and words.  I won’t spoil the story completely…. But Caleb has referred to me as our family’s Fredrick lately.  I am not used to not working….. I have always had some sort of job since high school and have felt happy about contributing to our family income in some way but now I am not “working” yet to work I do is valuable.  I  take naps, spend time outdoors, gather hugs, read books, blog (not as often as I’d like) , and take classes on photography, flower arranging and Japanese because I know that my family needs me to be alive, engaged and happy this is how I gather the sun rays.  I need to be their Fredrick,  I WANT to be their Fredrick. I want to work out with my husband every day at 6:15 am because I love spending time with him and love the challenges of Crossfit.  I want to be available and alert when my kids get home from school and need help navigating homework, friends, and teachers in a new school in a new country.  I want to be engaged and loving towards my husband after my kids are in bed, dinner is made and we settle in for the night.

Here is a link to a youtube version of the story book:

Funny things:

-While in the US I found myself eavesdropping all the time.  I guess I was just happy to hear people speaking english and also realizing I often listen in on Japanese conversations hoping I can maybe pick up a word or two and validate my Japanese lessons.  But truth be told,  I am a very slow learner when it comes to foreign languages.  

-Target is glorious! And Kohls.  We had such a fun time shopping at American stores. The Target in Seattle even had a escalator for carts! So cool!  If you know us very well you know that neither Caleb or I are huge into brand names or feel we need to spend top dollar on our clothing.  But let’s be honest we like what is familiar we like to have clothes that fit in styles we like.  Months before travelling to the US we created a shared shopping list using the “AnyList” app (is you haven’t heard of it, it’s great).  Here are some items on our list:  workout clothes, insulated mugs, Aunt Jemima syrup, grape jelly, crystal light, dental floss, deodorant, dress shirts, kids socks and underwear, ibuprofen, benadryl and sudafed. I am happy to say we managed to get most of the things off our list.

-We still remember how to drive on the right side of the road.  We just recently got a car in Tokyo  It was a long process but Caleb fought to get us our Prius. We have taken a couple weekend trips to go to an aquarium, shopping or other errands.  Before moving we both got our International driving permit.  It’s actually really easy.  All you have to do is go in to AAA and apply. It allows you to drive in almost any country for up to a year before getting your license in that country.  I have not quite yet braved the driving in Tokyo but Caleb has done a great job learning to drive on the left and navigate the signs in Japanese.  While in the US for our home leave trip we were happy either rent a vehicle or use our own van, that has been in storage! And we remembered how to drive!!!