Moving day!!!

March 5th, 2014

Today we moved in to our house!! One month and one day after getting to Japan. It's pretty tiny, but anything looks like a mansion after living in a hotel room.  I think it's about 1300 square feet.  Our last house was over 2400 square feet, so this will take some getting used to.  At this point we just hope that all of our stuff we had shipped over...fits into this tiny house!!!

cute house

We got our first shipment which had most of the kids' toys and all of our clothes.  For some reason we forgot to pack our kitchen stuff and linens.  I believe I mentioned that we should have our kitchen stuff sent over in the first shipment, but the Enginerd says he never heard that statement.  Weird.

We tried to make dinner, but we couldn't figure out the stove.  So we decided it was a pb&j night and try again tomorrow.  One of our American neighbors came over and brought us some pots and pans to use while we wait for our big shipment to come in.  She was stumped for a bit as well, but finally figured out that it's an induction stove and we needed the stainless steal pans. 

stove top

We got our Japanese fridge, but they won't let us have an oven because we don't have a hood/vent for the oven.  :(  We were pretty bummed.  We do have this microwave/oven/toaster though!  It should work fine for anything other than a big turkey. 

micro/oven/toaster

Japanese fridge

We have a tatami room.  That just means the type of flooring.  Google it.  I did!  I thought it meant that it was the dining room where they sit on the floor, but I guess it's just the flooring.  We're using it for our playroom.

tatami room

All of the electronics are in Japanese so we are trying to learn it all.  The garbage is just a nightmare.  There are 3 separate bins, burnable (food/paper), cans/bottles/PET, and plastic packaging.  BUT there are also non-burnable items (hard, non-recyclable materials), paper/cardboard recycle.  M & TH we put the burnable out, T we put the plastic packaging out, F is cans/bottles/PET and 1st and 3rd W is paper/cardboard recycle, non-burnable is every other W.  IF YOU MESS IT UP, THEY BRING IT UP TO YOUR DOORSTEP AND MAKE YOU DO IT AGAIN. They're not messing around folks.  This was the basics.  There is so much more like clothes and large metal items, etc.  SO MUCH INFO!!!!

3 main garbages

these go in 3 separate garbages

We are very thankful to live in an area that has both Japanese and Americans.  The Americans have been so helpful to us.  They are letting us borrow household goods and taking us places and making us feel right at home.  We live about 2 blocks from the water/boardwalk.  There are palm trees!!  It's stunning here. We love it.  Now come visit us!  :)