Unpacked at Last

My two-day saga of searching for a large number of clothes hangers finally ended today, and I managed to unpack all our clothes and get them stored in the closets and all the suitcases stashed away out of sight. One thing I have learned is that it's hard to find a specific location in Tokyo because I can't read Google maps and I can't always find a good list of a specific chain of stores to see which is most convenient to me.

Today we walked to the Midtown Tokyo development, which includes high rise offices and apartments as well as a shopping mall and outdoor park/entertainment area. The walk was very nice, along narrow hilly streets near the U.S. Embassy residences. We went to the Muji store, where I wiped out their inventory of hangers and we picked up a baking dish and a measuring cup. We walked through the Dean and DeLuca store, which was very stripped down and expensive compared to what one would expect if you've been to the store in Manhattan, but we picked up some nice olive oil, parmesan reggiano, and crusty bread along with a salt and pepper shaker. Then we went to a regular grocery store and managed to find everything we need to make our special Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookie recipe. And I learned that rice is really expensive here! I can't believe how the cheapest 2-pound bag of rice can cost 1200 yen, about 12 bucks U.S.

After we finished our shopping, I realized I didn't know how to tell a taxi driver where we live, so we lugged our shopping bags back to our temporary apartment, about a mile away. I love all the walking, but the kids weren't enthusiastic about the return trip.

Getting Situated

Today was our second full day in Tokyo, and already it's starting to feel more familiar. Oh, but what a huge change from our million acres of national forest! We started with brunch at the ANA/Intercontinental Hotel, a large and very expensive buffet, so we loaded up on both American and Japanese breakfast. Kai and I also ventured out to the market and picked up some goodies to stock our kitchen. We had a great time wandering the aisles and decoding the labels. While we were there I noticed an American woman being shown around by a Japanese woman, who I think must have been giving the American an orientation of some kind. I guess I've already passed that part of the program. That reminds me, though, that I need to get cracking on my Japanese language instruction. I am remembering more and more Japanese but I really need some structured learning so that I can start to converse rather than just understanding bits and pieces here and there. All of us ventured out this afternoon on the subway to Omotesando and enjoyed the crush at KiddyLand, and on the way home we had to try out some of the vending machines on the street. All lots of fun but quite tiring.

Here at Last

Wow! What a journey.  We left California yesterday at 7:30 a.m. after Uncle Richard stopped by to drive us to the airport.  After he got a glimpse of our pile of luggage he understood why we needed to take the big truck to the airport -- 9 suitcases!  We took Alaska Airlines to Seattle on a small turboprop, and then transferred onto our ride to Tokyo Narita -- an Airbus A330, a very nice airplane.  We all watched lots of movies but didn't get much sleep since we were in the coach section.  I finally got to see August Rush, which was at our local Quincy theater just a few weeks ago but I was too busy to see it.  After traveling over 5000 miles, we finally landed at Narita airport and had no problems at all getting through immigration and customs and getting our visas stamped for three years.  We also declared all our household belongings that are being shipped from California.

The worst part of the whole trip was the interminable bus trip from Narita to downtown Tokyo.  Those last 10 miles (oops, I need to start thinking in kilometers) were in very heavy traffic, and the whole thing took 2 hours.  The bus took us to the ANA Intercontinental Hotel, and from there we piled our luggage and ourselves into two taxis and finally found the temporary apartment.  The tour of the apartment by the desk manager was a blur, and we watched a bit of Anthony Bourdain's show in Tahiti before we tumbled into bed at 9 p.m.  That was 6 a.m. California time, a full 24 hours since we got up to leave yesterday.

Oh what a different world this is, even seen at night from our fourteenth floor apartment -- lights everywhere!  When my brain is a little less fried I'll get photos to post.

It really hit us that we're leaving

We'll be missing the pitcher plants at the Butterfly Botanical area this summer, one of my very favorite places in Quincy. It's one of the few alpine bogs left in the Sierra Nevada and a true treasure.

Today is the first time that it all seems real, as we have our last conversations with friends and family. Kai had his last flying lesson and we had to say goodbye to our flight instructor. We made arrangements to drop off the dog with Nanny Rose and I couldn't believe I wouldn't be talking to her every week or so to catch up on life, discuss the kids, or figure out logistics for an upcoming trip. The coffee shop guy said goodbye, Jane from the Arts Commission said goodbye, my mechanic said goodbye.

So here it is midnight, I just finished up my conference calls with my new work colleagues, the suitcases are half packed, and I'm thinking sadly of how much I'll miss everyone. One thing I'm certain of, though, is that the rain falling on my roof will be the same rain we'll see in Tokyo, and that we'll have new friends before too long.

Last Weekend Home

After a few moments of being frozen in front of the headlights, I managed to get organized yesterday and complete a large number of items on my to do list. And then I went out with my sister to our local theater to see a movie. Now if I can just finish up one big memo for work that will get people working on tasks for a project we're finishing, I can go off the radar at work for a week and finish everything up, get on the plane, and have the luxury of a four-day weekend to adjust to being in Japan.

Oooh, I just remembered that I need to go to the bank and get a large amount of cash in Yen to take with us to Japan. You need Yen to open an account there, and cash is used a lot more in general. I'll add that to the list.

Sometimes you get overwhelmed

And then you need to drink a beer. At 3 in the afternoon. I have officially reached that point where I honestly don't know how this is going to happen. Everything I try to tie up ends up creating more things on my to do list. The house is a mess. The contractor has a million questions about the home repairs he's doing. I need to go buy paint. And today I organized a going away party for my youngest's class, where I made one batch of mochi from memory, ruined it, looked up the recipe on the internet, went to the store to get more supplies, and made a second batch that turned out great. Thank goodness I catered the sushi! The party went well, and it was a great way for Kai to close out his fourth grade year at this school. He has one more day tomorrow and then freedom for a whole week! Well, maybe more because I haven't gotten it together to figure out how to wire the application fee for his school in Japan without spending a huge amount on the wire fee. Sigh.

Visa Shenanigans

We got home late last night from San Francisco, where we had to go in person to submit our visa applications. This required a five-hour drive from Quincy, except it stretched into six hours since I had to pull into a field just north of Woodland to do a conference call for work. While I talked the kids walked the dog (oh yes, we had to bring Liberty too because our dogsitter was away) and stared philosophically out across the fields, a stiff wind blowing into their faces. We stayed at the cutest little dog-friendly Marina Motel overnight, where I had a very difficult time wedging my four-wheel drive large truck into the petite little garages. Crissy Field, a drive through the Presidio, and dinner at Pompei's Grotto completed the day. The kids immediately decided that when we move back from Asia we should live in San Francisco, and I had a hard time disagreeing.

The next morning we got mobilized and to the Japanese consulate by 9:00 a.m., where we took passport photos and headed upstairs to submit our visa applications. This is where three important tips come in:

1. When you embark on a move like this, get lots and lots of passport photo prints of each family member. You need them for everything -- passports, work permits, visa applications, school applications. I ran out of prints and my printer is now packed up and on its way to Japan so I couldn't print more.
2. Apply for the visa in person, and bring every member of the family with you. Alternatively, bring only the adults but sign all the applications and passports of the kids yourself. The consulate was very picky about making sure that every little detail matched between the passport, the work permit, and the visa application for each member of the family. And of course, I misunderstood some of the questions so there was some back and forth. Luckily, I had called the consulate beforehand and got the strong impression from the woman on the phone that I had better come in person, although she refused to say I had to come in person.
   
3. Bring all the backup documentation. I have two accordion folders with everything related to the move, and I brought them both just in case there was some question or piece of information that conflicted.
   

Oh, and a fourth tip: Don't drive a big truck and expect to find parking in the financial district! I was feeling like a total country hick with my wide truck and high roof racks.


We managed to finish up at the consulate general's office just in time for me to get on another conference call while the children took the dog for a walk along the Embarcadero, where they stared philosophically across the bay with a stiff wind blowing into their faces. They will probably have stories to tell about their mother forcing them to stand on the corner while she irresponsibly chose work over her children. But the day ended nicely with a brunch, shopping, and another long visit to the beach at Crissy Field.

Twelve Days

We've got only twelve more days until we leave this rural California logging town for the intense urban atmosphere of Tokyo. It feels real now that the movers have come and picked up about two thirds of our stuff to ship to Japan. It will take six weeks for everything to get there, and for the next week I'm going to work on getting our house cleaned and set up as a vacation spot for our friends and family. This morning I took my camera on my walk to capture last night's spring snow.