Summer, let us be done!

Long time no post...

August came and went so quick that we barely had time remember what month we were in. Zeph had a 3 week vacation in August which was great! We took a trip to Yokohama and enjoyed some tasty food and a fancy hotel for a few days.
This summer was the hottest Japan has seen in 113 years!!! It felt like it.
Luckily, it seems to have left us and the weather in a span of about 2 days went from a scorching hot and humid to a lovely, cool 72ish. Life is good again and I can go outside for more than 5 minutes. A couple of days ago we turned off our central air for the 1st time since June... literally. So glad we don't pay that bill. Yikes!

September has not been extremely eventful, mostly because it also flew by. Dinner or lunch with some friends here and there and many trips to Baskin Robbins and Costco. Other than that, pretty low key... in a good way.

All is well on the baby front. We saw her smile for the 1st time last month and there are pretty much no words to describe the joy that came along with that. She is "genki" (healthy and good) from what the doctors say and she likes to suck her thumb (3 times we have seen her do this on our visits). 2 months to go and we will have a new addition to the Scotti Family!

Being that the weather is getting better, Z and I look forward to some day trips in Tokyo this coming month so we'll have more to share then. But for now, Japan is still treating us well and the always new and improved Fanta drinks and Kit Kats are keeping us nice and entertained.

Tradition:

A recent observation we made was how interesting it is that Japan and the people here have kept so many of its oldest traditions and still maintain many ancient practices.

At any time of the day when you drive in a residential area there are homeowners squatting in their field, tending to crops, rice, vegetation etc; and often wearing the traditional "conical" shaped straw hats.

There is not a day that passes that you won't see a woman in a kimono somewhere in town. In thinking about this tradition, If this was a practice we had back home (wearing garb that was worn wayyyyy back in the day) we would have girls looking like Laura Ingles and Anne of Green Gables on the street. Not gonna happen... for the most part.

The train and bicycle and truly a primary form of transportation to this day. Don't get me wrong people do have cars but you see just as many bikes on the street and the trains never cease to be packed.

Just to mention a few.

From shrines and festivals to kimonos and Buddhist hats, this is one tradition-keeping country. Even if they themselves don't always know why they do what they do- some things are just tradition!

Such an amazing thing to keep traditions going for so long!!
Just made me think of why we do the things we do...

Anyway, have a great October everyone!!

It's hot!!

Its been a crazy past month. I took a trip to LA in June because our visa situation was in essence not working. We're giving Japan another chance to get it together ;) and hope they don't blow it.

Had a great time in LA. Tony & Karen picked me up from LAX and took me to my favorite Mexican food spot immediately, Pepe's. A taco never tasted so good!! Got to spend time with some friends and a lot of time with our family which was awesome. Rachael accompanied me to multiple ICEE tastings and I don't think she hated it.
I got showered with early birthday gifts and the baby scored an awesome stuffed giraffe from Auntie Rach and inherited daddy's first baby blanket :)

I enjoyed LA weather but was quickly greeted by "Japanese summers" when I got back to Japan on June 23rd and it was 90 degrees and pouring rain. Not so fancy.
Loved my visit but missed Zeph and had to save him from eating anymore McDonalds.

Things have been pretty low key with a few exceptions. Its hard to want to leave an air conditioned home when its hot as all heck outside and raining.
Sunday we found an International grocery store which was like visiting Disneyland for the 1st time.
Corn tortillas, jalapenos, turkey (for thanksgiving), red vines and enchilada sauce all in one place equals a good day and worth the 2 hour train trip in the rain.
We had dinner at TGIFridays that evening in Shibuya which was awesome!

We got a new IMAC a couple weeks ago and it has changed our lives ;)
Renting movies and Anthony Bourdain episodes on Itunes makes life a little more comfy. Lately we have been spending our evenings reading my geography book ("Geographica: World Atlas and Encyclopedia"-check it out) and trying to figure out where things are in the world and ending the evening with a show or movie. Not bad.
Well that's how my night ends. Zeph stays up working on papers and being productive. I have a good excuse though ;)

Last doctor visit was on July 6th and our baby is good and says hi. We find out its gender on our next visit August 3rd. 4 and a half months down 4 and a half to go.

This week was the Chichibu summer festival. It was pretty great. Beautiful, traditional floats are brought in from the surrounding neighborhoods as part of the festivites. One of the main streets is lined with all kinds of different booths which range from yummy kebobs, shaved ice, fish on sticks to turtle catching games for small children. The first night of the event ended with an hour fireworks show. This fireworks show makes Disneyland's fireworks show and the 4th of July fireworks (at least that I've seen) look like little sissies. Just amazing!

Zeph wants to thank McDonald's for helping him manage while Claire was away. He reports that he pretended he was eating a taco every time he sunk his teeth into a cheeseburger... or chicken mcnugget, or pancake, or sausage mcmuffin, or shaka-shaka chicken, or (hey hon, will you insert the rest of the menu before you publish this, thanks, Z). Also, McDonald's contributed to the number of drinking glasses we have in the house; every time Zeph ordered a lunch or dinner combo/set, he got a glass commemorating the World Cup. We will not be forgetting the world cup anytime soon as Zeph has racked up a modest 12 glasses. Yet, bizarrely, Zeph lost weight while Claire was gone. Makes one wonder about the validity and fairness of the claims made in movies like "Super Size Me". Zeph wants to become McDonald's "Jared", but wasn't Ronald McDonald "Jared" before Jared? Who knows? Good luck with that Zeph.

So many things...

It's been a pretty busy past couple weeks thus the reason for the late blog.
Well I suppose that first and foremost in the past couple weeks is the announcement of our baby. On April 25th we found out we are pregnant which came as quite an unexpected surprise but we are truly happy and excited about it.
"Having a baby in a foreign country?!?!" Some might say. But we feel very safe and at peace with everything so far. Japan is pretty up on technology if you haven't noticed and people have been having babies here for quite some time from what I gather.

Luckily we have been blessed by people here in Chichibu who are willing to go with us to doctor appointments to translate and see us through until baby Scotti arrives in December.

We waited to break the news until Rachael came to visit a couple of weeks ago in order to surprise her. And it worked. Best surprise we have ever pulled off. Her face brought new meaning to the word "priceless". Truly one of the best moments of my life.

Having Rach in town was such a blast. She actually LIKED the shops I took her in and she refrained from pacing behind me and breathing down my neck wondering when we would leave.
Zeph doesn't do this.
Just in case there was someone like this. She wasn't.

Some of the things we did: Explored Chichibu, put the 100Y store back in business, shopped in Harajuku, crossed the street in Shibuya, stayed at the Hilton in Tokyo Bay, Zeph and Rach went to Disney Sea, we shopped in Odaiba and lets not forget the photo booth sessions. And of course we ate all kindsa junk.

The week ended this past Tuesday when Rach and the Dittrich family left. A very sad and quiet day in Chichibu.
We wanted to tie Rach down and not let her leave.

Joey & Juliana you have been nothing but amazing friends to us since we've known you and have been such a help to us since we got here and we are going to miss you more than you know but we are excited for your future in Canada. And of course looking forward to visiting you ;) Chichibu is not the same without you.

Our visa situation is well... a situation. Looks like I am flying back to LA on June 10th in order to come back into Japan on another tourist visa in hopes that I can get the proper visa within 90 days. As much as I am going to miss Zeph and our home here in Japan I am looking forward to seeing our family & eating a substantial amount of mexican food. Look out taco truck!

Eat of the week: A delicious pita bread filled with roasted chicken, lettuce, tomato and some tasty sauce at a Turkish Donar kebob stand in Harajuku.

Quote of the week: "If we are really honest with ourselves, often our plans don't work out as we'd hoped so instead of asking our young people 'What are your plans?' maybe we should tell them this: 'Plan to be surprised'." - Dan in Real Life

Golden Week...

So one of the great things about Japan is there are Holidays all the time...which means vacation for us so we're not complaining.

Zeph had the past 2 weeks off because of Holidays that are being observed. Last week was "Golden Week". Its a week that observes 4 different national holidays within 7 days. (Showa Day- which celebrates a former Emperor, Constitution Day- which celebrates a post war constitution put into effect in 1947, Greenery Day-a day dedicated to environment & nature and lastly, Children's Day- Families pray for the health and future success of their sons by hanging up carp streamers and displaying samurai dolls, both symbolizing strength, power and success in life).

Unfortuantely, the extent of our celebrating was resting at home since Zeph came down with a cold. During this time we have have gotten slightly hooked on the show Heroes so we've spent a little time... alot of time watching that and are currently in season 3. We watch it so much that in most of my current dreams I myself am a Hero or everyone else around me is. Yes, we are addicted.

Thursday Zeph was feeling a bit better so we went down to Arakawa River in Nagatoro. Its a beautiful river (with awesome rocks) and there was almost no one there. I love that just 20 minutes from our home we can be in a quiet and relaxing "retreat" as Andrea put it. The water was nice and the weather was warm.

Some random-ness:

City Song- At noon and 6PM everyday our city plays a song over loud speakers for the whole city to hear. It's not loud or annoying...just a nice little song to let you know that its noon or 6. Kinda silly.

Amazon- Japan has a version of Amazon and its kinda great. We can order anything from books to houseware things, make-up, clothes, music and have it shipped to our local convenience store. The awesome thing about it is that we can pay for it when it gets here or pay in advance at the store. 2-3 days shipping since Japan is so small.


BBQ -The barbecue sauce they have here taste like A1 sauce. Costco has the good stuff though... next trip there I am getting some!!

Eat of the week: Yakitori

We have actually added pictures for this weeks pick to try and emphasize the magic that is Yakitori. This past week we discovered a "Yakitori" man outside of our local grocery store- Belc. Yakitori is grilled chicken on a stick in some delicious teriyaki/soy sauce. Like a shishkebab but glorified. In the words of Zeph "this place has taco truck status!". Our favorite is Negima- alternating chicken pieces with leek all grilled up. We somehow managed to ask the guy for his schedule and found out which stores he will be at for the next several weeks. Yes, it is that good. Did I mention that they are only 80 cents each??


Word of the week: Chotto Matte - Which means "wait a second"

p.s- Within the next 2 weeks we are going to have a special guest contributor to our blog so keep your eyes open!!

Zeph's Corner

Several weeks ago, I asked Claire if I could write one of our blog entries. Given how wonderful and generous she is, her reply of "yes" was rather unsurprising. But, as some of you may know, I was born a procrastinator and for the last two weeks I've been constantly reminded that I need to write a blog entry because, as Claire put it, "MY BLOG HAS FOLLOWERS". Today the situation escalated in the Scotti household when Claire vowed not to make dinner til the entry is finished.


The Makoto Incident, etc.
Children are strange, and I have the feeling that this is a universal (and not just Japanese) thing. This is what has stuck out to me the most in the last month or so. What exactly must be going through your 6 year old head when you decide that Zeph-sensei's classroom is the place to expose your "no-no secret place"? For those of you who didn't hear, my student Makoto pulled down his pants, started jumping up and down, and screamed "chinko! chinko" (translation: weeny! weeny!). This was perhaps the most revealing incident that happened in my classroom in the last few weeks, but not the only one. There is also a five year old boy named Komei. Every Tuesday he enters my classroom and grabs a bin full of small stuffed animals (or plastic fruit or whatever) and deliberately throws them across the room, all the while laughing hysterically as if he were the reincarnation of The Night Stalker-if Ramirez is still alive, then this phenomenon is even more troubling. Does little Komei help Zeph pick up these toys? Nooooo, despite the fact that he most certainly knows I'm not nearly as limber as I used to be. Lastly, there is Shoma. Shoma is one of my favorite students. He is my lone student on Saturdays; he is also 6 years old. Last Saturday I was teaching Shoma animal names and some action words. So, I would say things like: "Shoma, throw me the cow" or "catch the cow". One time, after giving the latter command, Shoma caught the cow and then I heard a "mooo"; that's right, his butt decided to participate in the English lesson. Indeed, this happened three or four times. After having ignored it a couple times, I finally asked him in Japanese "Shoma, what was that?" This sent him to floor laughing really hard, which (predictably) caused him to indulge his flatulence even more. For those of you who are wondering, and you know who you are, they were short and exceedingly violent bursts of air, much like the sound of quickly letting a little air out of a very full balloon. So, I had to end the day by teaching Shoma the word "fart".

Settling In
Indeed, we are settling in. We are becoming locals. In fact, we were eating at one of the restaurants in town (Grazie Gardens, where they have decent wood-fire ovens and, therefore, decent pizzas-especially the cheese pizza and the four cheese pizza with gorgonzola and honey) and a Japanese woman couldn't figure out how to get the drink machine to deliver water. So, I had to show her; I'm fairly certain that she was humiliated. We've gotten used to shopping at the supermarket; Claire bought a suit at the department store (BTW, she had a successful interview with K&M modeling agency in Tokyo, but I'll let her share that with you). Claire and I took a drive for about three hours yesterday, just exploring the countryside, and we found a movie theater and Sweet Factory (yes, the same one from back home).

Also, I got my work visa processed which was important. Unfortunately, getting Claire the appropriate visa has been frustrating and more difficult. In order to celebrate our half-victory (and a certain tradition that I share with Ryan Smith) we ate dinner at Outback Steakhouse of all places. A taste of home is nice. A taste of steak is even better, but Outback did not make the cut for eat of the week:

Eat of the Week: I took Claire to Chichibu's most famous soba restaurant. We enjoyed handmade soba (noodles made from just buckwheat flour and water) served chilled and accompanied with a tasty dipping sauce, and a variety of tempura (a big old succulent shrimp, pumpkin,a single shiso leaf-interesting, and a green pepper). It was really good. So, you dip your noodles in the sauce and then eat the noodles. When the noodles are gone, they bring you a pot of the water that the noodles were cooked in, which your pour into the cup containing the dipping sauce. You finish your meal drinking that delightful concoction.

Claire, my dear, you can now cook dinner.
Z

One month mark...

I can't believe this Monday will be one month since we arrived!! In some ways we feel like we just got here.

This week was nice. Fast but nice.

A couple of weeks ago we met this really great couple from our church (Chris and Melissa) and they invited us over last weekend to stay the night on Saturday and go to Sunrise service with them on Sunday. We had such a great time eating tasty food, playing Wii sports, Monopoly deal and some really great conversation.
Sunday we went to KBF for Sunrise service (at 8:30) which was nice. After the service the four of us went into Tokyo (Chidorigafuchi to be exact) to see Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) which are now in bloom. I have posted pics on FB if you would like to check them out.
There was a ridiculous amount of people both at the Cherry Blossom viewing and in the train stations- total madness but... it really does make the whole experience so much more exciting. The trees were truly amazing and beautiful. The weather was also nice to us so a made for a really great experience.

Our train home was down due to an accident so we had to take a different route which meant taking a brief stop in Shibuya. There is a "famous" crosswalk right off the train station where everyone walks at the same time going all directions (kinda like in Old Town Pas) and just the sight of SO many people all in one place is just crazy. It was awesome.

This week has been pretty low key. I did cook dinner every night (with the exception of last night when we enjoyed a very yummy Shepherd's pie a la Juliana). Cooking is still a bit of a challenge for me as I'm still trying to get a feel for the grocery store. Simple is currently the key until I am positive that I am not buying fish gut or something of that nature.

Today Zeph went with Joey and the kids up to Hitsujiama park to see Cherry Blossoms while I had coffee at Tully's with Noriko (one of our newly acquired friends who I'm going to possibly swap English for Japanese lessons with). After that we all met up with Juliana for lunch at Asian Garden (Indian Cuisine I told you about last week). Buttered Curry... so so good but sounds so so unhealthy, eh? We'll pretend it's not.

Compared to home, we do a pretty good amount of walking here and much less eating out so slipping up once in a while isn't so bad ;)

Tomorrow, Costo!!! You know you're an adult (or in another country) when going to Costco is as exciting as going to a theme park as a child. I'm having a hot dog and a piece of pizza...maybe.

Eat of the week: Corn on the cob from a street vendor in Tokyo. We don't know what the guy put on it so we didn't ask (we couldn't have if we wanted to anyway). It was so good though.

Word of the week: Nani -means "What?"

talk to you next week :)

Getting settled...

Zeph has been on vacation this week. Yes 2 weeks into our trip and he gets vacation. Kinda awesome.
Last Saturday he and I went to Higashi Kurume to teach English to Yukiyo's (a friend from church) piano students. This is a job I'll be doing in the future on my own. It's the last Saturday of every month and the kids are from ages 3-12. After our class we went into the city of Tokorozawa and did some brief site seeing and got some good pictures.
Sunday night it snowed!! It was gone by morning but not before Zeph got some pictures (to be posted soon).
Tuesday Chris and Amanda left :( We spent most of the last few days before that playing an awesome amount of Monopoly Deal, eating endless snacks and desserts, playing with Hana-chan and watching Different Strokes. Good times.
After they left on Tuesday we spent most of the day unpacking our suitcases and getting settled into the apartment.

Some random things:

What do you guys know about Rasberry & Mixed fruit Kit Kat??? That's what I thought. They are kinda amazing. There are ridiculous other types of Kit Kat's as well. Green Tea, Banana, Cherry Blossom (in honor of the upcoming Cherry Blossoms blooming) and some others.

Last Wednesday Zeph went to a good Thai restaurant by Seibu Chichibu train station that served good food but an average Pad See Eew (guessing on the spelling)-The lady that worked there saw that his mouth was burning and brought him a free Fanta (a Thai Fanta) and the flavor was Pineapple, Orange-Banana. He said it was "different" when I asked if it was good.

Line drying clothes or pay $6 for a hour dryer across the street??? Line dry it is. We have an awesome washer so I'll learn to deal.

Weather is silly here. Cold one day, raining and warm the next... kinda like LA just more extreme.

Japanese Television: There are no words to describe the craziness that is Japanese television. It's colorful, loud and just so random. We watch it for several hours a day and have no idea what they are saying or what is going on. Except for a half hour at 7PM when they show an abbreviated version of the news cast that is dubbed in English. At 1:30 everyday there is a movie in English. So far there has not been a movie on that rated over a 6 according to IMDB. Here are a couple of movies we sat and watched in their entirety just because they are in English.
Babe 2, Tremors 3, Glitter (yes with Mariah Carrie which rated a 2. something on imdb) and Officer and a Gentleman.

We say "hi" to strangers who look like they might speak English...Why you ask? In hopes they might wanna be friends? Not really. It comes from being linguistically parched. When we see someone who doesn't look Japanese, we see a mirage of English.

Yesterday we began to look at/study Katakana by using our Japanese study book to translate the flyer for our city's local pizza company- Pizza-la. You can compare Pizza-la to Domino's on an off day. A large "Seafood & Special Basil Sauce" pizza (12 small slices) is over $35.

Zeph asked me today if I miss any food back home. I don't quite yet. Cinnamon Toast Crunch a little... mostly because I can't get it here so I've been thinking about it.
He said he does. He misses Sahara- The Mediterranean restaurant on Colorado. Feta cheese, chicken kabob etc;

So next week there will be pictures of our trip so far.

Eat of the week: Asian Garden - Indian cuisine. This place is so good. It's a buffet and the staff are Indian (and they speak english!!) Best Nan you've ever had, curry, veggies, rice soup and free refills.

Word of the week: Kirin - Giraffe... and also the name of a beer.

New things...

This week has been filled with all kindsa things-

Friday Zeph drove our car for the 1st time while here. We got lost going somewhere really easy, we almost ran over a small Japanese child and at some point I had to get out of the car to direct Zeph out of a really small space that is called a street. If you stretch out your arms, that would probably be wider than this street was. No joke.

It's gotten better as the week progressed.

Last Saturday Joey and Juliana had a little welcome gathering for us and we met some really nice people who hopefully we can become friends with. Kids everywhere, it's kinda like a circus... a fun circus though.

Sunday we visited our new church KBF in Tokyo where we also met some awesome people. The church service was not what we're used to. That's okay though. We feel like we should be there until led somewhere else. The people are so warm and kind which was a really nice intro to a new church.

So would you like to hear about the food??

Oddly, enough we haven't had anything that is gross or un-recognizable as food yet. I thought the food would be an issue (as I don't like seafood) but we've had some amazing food thus far.

Here are a few things...

Gyoza- last Sunday in Tokyo with Joey. Ridiculously cheap and tasty. They are fried dumplings with pork/veggie goodness on the inside. 500 yen- ($5) for 12 dumplings, soup and rice. Not bad.

Mon Chalet- Chris and Amanda took me to this place right here by the apartment- French food- Awesome battered-like veggies (not tempura) with rice and salad & a drink.

Eden- Zephs favortie place- I think- Traditional Ton Katsu restaurant that specializes in pork fried in Japanese bread crumbs served over a mound of cabbage and comes with miso soup and rice. There is a tasty sauce (A1 like) that you pour over the pork and cabbage that makes the dish.

Kaiten Sushi- You sit by a conveyor belt that has all kinds of sushi and you can pick from that or you can order from a little computer thing at your table. $1 per plate. You can't get that at home and its better.

Kan- Italian place- really hidden little treasure in our city- Curry Risotto with baby shrimp, tomatoes and asparagus. With an amazing starter salad and a drink. 1000 Yen ($10)

Becco (something like that)-This past week I went to the Hanno train station with the girls and there is a little Italian place in the station that was great! For 850 Yen ($8.50) lunch menu- A medium (by US standards) sized Margherita pizza with salad and a drink. Leftovers indeed. So good though. (btw there was a Starbucks in the station too...best Cafe Latte I've ever had- no joke).

Lapin Noir (the black rabbit) - No they don't serve rabbit. Its a super cute bakery/cafe by the apartment- All organic type of place. The smell of bread is amazing walking into this place. Great little pastries, bread and lunch sets- Zeph had an awesome carrot soup here and I had a tasty little pizza thing.

Chateraise- Bakery/Ice cream place across the street ( very dangerous). Best ice cream ever! Thats all I have to say. Choco taco type of things, ice cream- cream puff things- strawberry taco thing. Its just dumb how good it is.

They do also have McDonalds... which we have only had once. It was good. Same as at home except you can get Gingerale as one of the drink options. Kinda cool.

Ordering is pretty easy based on where you go. Luckily we have had Chris, Amanda, Joey and Juliana with us so they do the ordering. A lot of places have pictures so you can point but I think we are also starting to pick up some words so we can survive when they all leave :(

Amanda has shown me how to make several things- Curry, Yakisoba, Udon, Cream Cheese stuffed chicken and some other yummy things.

Our Visa stuff seems to be working out so thanks for your thoughts and prayers for that. We may not have to leave the country after all (which was a possibility). Zeph went to Tokyo with Joey this past week and filed some necessary paperwork. Now we just have to wait and then file mine once his goes through.

Alright those are the highlights. More next week.

We are officially in Chichibu, Japan!

So much to tell but I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

We left on Sunday. LAX went ok. Our luggage wasn't over-weight and we didn't have to pay to bring Zephs guitar. Yay that!
They made us go through extra security because Zeph didn't have a round-trip ticket or a visa. No big deal...all in all. A little stressful at first but it was kinda nice to get escorted past the security line and not have to wait.
11 hour flight. Good food, good movies (Rach guess what i got to see before it came out on DVD?? Don't hate!), no turbulance and we didn't have to sit next to any annoying people.
Narita airport was easy and our luggage all arrived and was all there the second we walked up to the baggage-claim. We dropped all our stuff at a courrier to deliver the next day (and we got it the next day).
4 or so hours of train rides from the airport to our city. A very authentic intro to Japan.
By the time we arrived in Chichibu we had not slept in over 20 hours. No, we didn't sleep on the plane because we had our own TV's so we watched movies and played video games. Our own fault but we were still tired.

Chris and Amanda had a bed made for us when we got here and it was the best thing ever!!! BTW, they are the friends whose position we are taking over here in Chichibu :) We have been so blessed by them so far and I'm so glad they are here to help us get situated before they go back to Canada.
Zeph has taken me around to see his old stompping grounds from when he was here in 2004 and I love everything so far. The people are nice and the city is peaceful. The grocery store even has Chipotle Tabasco sauce... random I know but a little bit of home goes a long way.

Zeph has been going with Chris everyday to meet the classes he will be teaching and that is going really well... the only bad thing so far was Zeph falling down the stairs in our apartment building on his way to a class the second day we were here. He's fine... the wall not so much.

The food is good. Mostly because we've just been eating Amanda's cooking and it's awesome. Yesterday we had hamburger sushi at this place by the apartment. A piece of burger over rice with some ketchup.
Don't knock what you haven't tried people. It was good.
Tomorrow we are going to Mister Donut in the morning and baby sitting Hana (Chris and Amanda's baby) in the evening. Saturday we are going to a party and Joey and Juliana's and then Sunday church and Tokyo. Fun times!!

P.S. I'll keep it shorter in the future.

tomorrow is Plane Day...

tomorrow we leave. plane leaves at 2:10p.
We're slightly exhausted. This day has been crazy.

We are in go go go mode and I think this feeling of non-stop-ness is distracting from any realization of what is happening.
Saying goodbye to our best-friends today was hard. That we felt. Not fun.
Missing people is hard.
We are going to have alot of fun but today, tomorrow, the airport- no fun. Airports are made to make people cry- they are cold and the walls are too white. I think this is an excuse.

Originally, we wanted to take 3 check-ins and 2 back-paks.
After 2 and a half suitcases in and all of Zeph's stuff still in the closet... we decided to take a 4th and 2 carry-ons and 2 back-paks.
It will be a miracle if we can make it through check-in without hassle. This I don't look forward to.
Our paper-work never made it here so we will handle it in Japan...We're not worried about it.

We can't believe tomorrow is the day. 2 months ago we moved in with Zephs parents and it feels like 2 weeks ago! We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends...
There are way too many things to be felt in the moment. A little overwhelmed.

The good news is... my next blog will be from Japan!!!

ok so 7 days-

The countdown is here in its truest form and starting to show its lovely colors-

Things are rolling and being arranged. It's starting to settle in a little bit. Moments of deep breathing in have become more obvious in my day along side of "stay calm" reminders to myself.

I just keep reminding myself that we have time- Not sure if that's true or just a lie I am telling myself to keep it cool. If by 7 days you mean "time" then I guess we do.

We just need to be organized. I feel like I need to prepare to be organized but I feel like I don't have time for that- make sense?
Tomorrow I will begin organizing our clothes and start doing things on my check list.
We have visited with so many good friends and family so far and are sad that there are some that we won't be able to see before we go... We really do feel bad.

Paper work still has not come and I'm not sure it will before we go thus we will be traveling on tourist visas... not ideal but out of our control.
This week will be busy...super busy.

Our friends took us out last night- and it was kinda awesome- We are so blessed to know and be part of so many wonderful peoples lives. I want to pack you all in our carry-on. Not our suitcase, our carry-on. That's how much we like you.

Ok so yeah- one week.

2 Weeks Notice...

Yikes!

The thought of leaving in two weeks from today is almost incomprehensible to me. I can't foresee getting everything done that we need to. I keep imagining us on the plane and realizing "oh darn we forgot..." and that "..." will be something really really important. Not a fabulous feeling and I am trying to ignore it and just be organized.

Still waiting on important paperwork to come through, still need to pack (although we did buy luggage today) and still need to see a whole buncha people.

Slightly overwhelmed and busy-

Aside from those two things... we are really excited and truly cannot believe how fast this has come upon us. We have two weeks left here and then its on to a new thing for a while...


P.S- trying to diet and eat all the great tasty things that we will miss at the same time... not an easy task.

Leaving in one month!!!

So I thought I would blog our trip. Mostly for us but also for our family and friends.
I am starting today because well... from here on out it is Japan, Japan, Japan!

In a month from today we'll be on a plane ride. A long plane ride.
So much to do.
Pack, oraganize, eat a lot of Karen's cooking, breathe in LA's smog, watch a lot of the Food Network and most importantly enjoy our friends and family's faces.

We are looking forward to the adventure. We anticipate good times.

If you feel so inclined:

We need prayer for paper work to come together, finances, Zeph's final classes and papers to get done with as little stress as possible and wisdom for packing.

So here is to many blogs to come...