After two months in the States, Tess and I have finally made the move to Japan. At the end of April, Brian essentially came over to pick us up. We reunited in Cooperstown, and then spent 10 days saying "hi" to friends and family. We saw Tess's great granny and celebrated my brother's 40th in Brooklyn. Although rushed, it was a fantastic farewell, and I left feeling sad, but enthusiastic about the adventure that lay ahead.
After the 12 hour flight we got a car to our corporate housing in Tokyo. I was immediately struck by how quaint and village-like it felt in our new neighborhood (near Roppongi Hills). The street was buzzing with open air coffeehouses, fruit and veg stands, tiny noodle houses, sushi bars, and yakitori stands. I had braced myself for soaring skyscrapers and unfriendly urban busy-ness, and although the big buildings do exist, this was nothing like what I expected.
The first day or two was a bit of a wash. We managed some grocery shopping, and some strolls through the neighborhood to the swings, but everything else was swept away by jetlag. The flat that Brian had chosen before he came to the States had unfortunately fallen through, so early the first week I was asked to go out with our real estate agent. She showed me three places in this neighborhood (which I already knew I loved - not only for it's village feel, but also for it's expat community, and for Brian's ability to walk to work in under 15 minutes). I could have moved in to any of the three places, but ended up choosing ours for it's proximity to the park and overall layout. We'll be moving in at the end of this week, and I can't wait to start settling in. Living out of suitcases for 2 1/2 months is getting old!
Brian and I are trying our best to get out and see things. So far, we went to the biggest design fair in Asia, explored the crazy shopping area that us "gaijin" (westerners) have seen on films, eaten delicious food, and toasted weiss beer at Tokyo's Oktoberfest (...yes, in May!). English is very rarely spoken, but we are managing. Next week we hope to start language classes, but until then it is a lot of pointing and smiling. I try to buy one mystery food a day, and so far I have found most "pleasantly edible". We are enjoying the amazingly cheap sushi and avoiding the cantaloupes (they average about 17 quid/25 dollars).
Brian feels aftershocks every second or third day, but I have only felt one, and that was yesterday. To me it felt like someone was very gently, and very rhythmically trying to shake me out of bed. It lasted about 20 seconds and, if it had been turbulence on a plane, I don't think it would have warranted the pilot to turn on the fasten seat belt sign. In fact, even our nearly empty, mini hotel-size shampoo bottle didn't topple over. That said, the earthquake was later reported as a 5.8 on the Richter scale, and only 70 miles from Tokyo. It definitely made me a touch anxious, but again, not much more than the background nerves that I get with turbulence. It was cool when it started, but after 10 seconds I really wanted it to stop.
At certain moments this all feels overwhelming, but ironically I am finding the transition easier than my move to London. So far, it seems, that the westerners really look out for one another. I have already had playdates, coffee dates, offers to take me to baby stores, and recommendations for babysitters. Yesterday we had brunch with 5 couples and their kids from all over the world, and tomorrow I am heading out for a girl's night out. We have also befriended a very nice Japanese couple who seem to love chatting in English, and have gone so far out of their way to help us ... including driving us to IKEA, and patiently helping us with four hours of shopping.
It is certainly unfamiliar, and I definitely feel far from home, but there is an overall feeling of warmth and welcomeness. In addition to the expat community, I honestly think the Japanese are happy to have us here ... perhaps even more so after the earthquake and tsunami. So, two weeks in, and I'm feeling really happy.
If you are reading this, it is likely because you received my mass email. Apologies for the lack of warm fuzziness with this approach, but it seemed the best way to reach out.
As my friend Oona pointed out … “everyone and their dog” is asking about our plans to move to Japan. It’s a slight exaggeration, but still a good name for our first blog entry in four years.
Two Fridays ago the three of us woke up (in London) to the awful news of the Japanese earthquake and resultant tsunami. Suddenly the plans we had been working on for three months to move to Japan were in question. We were meant to be saying our final farewells as Brian headed out that night. He was bound for Australia for a one-week meeting before he moved to Japan.
Just 24 hours earlier Brian was hand couriering our passports between the US and Japanese embassies. We desperately wanted everything sorted, and were at our wits’ end with the long and drawn out process. We never imagined that we would later be thankful for every single day that those damn visas were delayed.
In the end, Brian did head out to Sydney that night … not knowing if/when he/we would move to Japan.
Originally we had planned for Brian to head to Tokyo while Tess and I visited friends and family in the USA.He would move in to corporate housing and start apartment hunting. Once settled, I would join him in early April. Brian’s mom and dad were going to help us with the move, spend some time in Tokyo, and then head to Australia and New Zealand to travel.
Now, everything is on hold. After one week in Australia, Brian decided to stay put. The Google office in Tokyo remains open, but very quiet. Many Japanese have moved to a temporary office based out of a hotel in Osaka, and most ex-pats have taken a chartered flight and are now working out of their San Francisco office.
In the meantime, Brian will continue to work in Australia for at least another two weeks. His goal is to get to Tokyo as soon as he can, but we are very realistic and cautious about this decision. Obviously there are endless concerns and worries. (I’m sure I don’t need to outline them all here.)We are exploring lots of options, and will keep you updated via this blog.
In the meantime, my mother and her husband are spoiling Tess and me. We are basking in the Atlanta sun, and I’m enjoying the extra help and yummy cooking.
We are sad to be apart, but even more distraught for the Japanese people.
Oops, sorry for the absence. Got a big update on Australia, and will get around to it at some point, until then, you'll just have to know that it was great, a truly life changing trip.
As an interim update the annual Boatrace was held 2 weeks ago, how great is it that something so broadly name can only refer to one thing, THE Boatrace. The annual Thames rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge. 4 1/2 miles starting from our little borough of Putney and winding along the river and ending in Mortlake. This was the 155th rowing of the event which began way back in 1829, the story is fascinating, check it out
We along with a few hundred thousan of our closest friends lined the river (outside of a pub, ahem) to watch this baby kick-off. Cambridge jumped out to an early lead only to be overtaken and outpaced by the Oxford eights. The atmosphere was great, as atmospheres generated by people, esp. college students drinking all day are (for reference see Boston: Patriot's Day, Munich: Oktoberfest, New Orleans: Mardi Gras).
If you ever have a chance to be in London for The Boatrace watching it from the shores of Putney are the best place to be, just outside the Duke's Head. The bigscreen tv set up across the river allows you to not only see the start but watch the entirety of the race unfold.
So congrats to Oxford, though they still trail Cambridge 79-75 in the alltime standings. Imagine, 155 years of history and for all intents and purposes it's been an even split. I guess future toffs will continue to support this race to determine once and for all which uni is the dominant one. As for me, I say Oxford is the best, that is until next year...
For most of you snow isn't a cause for excitement. Well, when you live in London and less than an inch of snow wreaks havoc on the city, 6 inches is a blizzard.
Snow is a truly magical thing, it reduces adults to children and brings a smile to all our faces. At first we doubted the meteorologists who don't exactly have the best record for predicting the weather here (or anywhere for that matter).
So as we were getting ready to head to bed on Sunday and prepare for another week the snow began to fall. After a few hours there was a generous coating; we like many people popped outside to get pictures of this rare but wonderful event:
Sweet.
But of course we expected the snow to taper off to a rain and be a slushy mess by morning. So
after watching the Steelers jump out to an early Superbowl lead it was to bed with fingers crossed but prepared for normalcy to ensue, or would it...
And there you go, London gets hit
with the most snow they've had
in 20 yrs. It's about time because
we NE'ers were missing the fluffy
white stuff.
Lest we get used to it, now it's cold and rainy again. I guess the only cure is a trip down under...
From one of the travel e-newsletters I receive, the top cities to visit for 2009:
1) Washington DC
2) Cape Town
3) Vilnius
4) Milwaukee
Book your travel early...
Had some visitors over the Christmas period, we tried our best to make them feel as if the UK was their home. So Kirsten and I took Mads and Martyn to Royal Albert Hall for a night of caroling by the London Mozart Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Aside from the encouragement for the whole audience to sing it was a special experience in a beautiful venue. Befitting our social standing we were in the 2nd tier in a private box, directly facing the stage, the Royal box was just below us.
Finally we spent Boxing Day and post-Boxing Day with the Gowars. It was two days of over satiation of food and wine, mixed in between were some long walks through the woods, a stop in a classic English pub (Barley Mow) and general lazing around watching sport and playing board games. A very nice way to spend a few days extending the Christmas spirit.
Just another post from your friendly multi-lingual bloggers...
Last Thursday we treated ourselves during this holiday season by taking Thursday off and Eurostarring it down to Lille. We'd heard that it had the best Christmas market in Europe, how can you pass that up?
We arrived in Lille at 10:30 after a lovely first class train ride - the Hennigans ride in style! Skies were overcast but we were undettered as the Christmas spirit runneth over. After a wander around to orient ourselves we went straight for the big obvious central Christmas market...and wandered...and wandered...and wandered. Now Lille ain't a big place so it was a case of covering the same ground repeatedly looking in vain for the "best Christmas market in Europe". Finally we found it! All 30 stalls of it. Needless to say this did not speak well for the rest of Europe's Christmas markets. Despite the underwhelming nature of the market we enjoyed the short time we spent in it. The mulled wine was delicious (according to the K-dawg), the raclette was a nice surprise and well worth it, and the rest of the swag stalls provided some amusing sights - especially the Canadian stalls selling Montreal Canadiens jerseys, red flannel shirts and maple syrup.
Mercifully Lille is a pretty little city of 220,000 people. The Citadelle, which the Pentagon is based on, is surrounded by a huge park and a lovely place to wander around for a while. We weren't able to go into the actual grounds as there are still over 1,000 soldiers based there, rumour is they haven't come out since 1943 (ha! - that one never gets old). We were able to wander into the soldier's entrance and get a nice picture of the ornate main gate.
On our way back into the heart of the city we passed the Lille zoo and spent about 30 minutes watching the monkeys from a hill overlooking their pen. Funny little creatures and oh so cute.
We spent the next several hours checking out all that Lille had to offer. The neat shops and restaurants of the cobbled and winding roads of the Old Town, a look into the past at the Hospice Comtessa, the Vielle Bourse (though there were no chess matches going on), and who could miss the biggest book store in continental Europe.
We finished up our trip with a ride on the Ferris Wheel set-up specially for the Christmas season, it provided lovely views over Lille at night - although it did take a little while to choke down the nervousness as the thing creaked all the way round.
So the reco is - go to Lille, but don't worry about hitting the "best Christmas market in Europe".
Kirsten and Brian were married on July 15, 2006. A few short months later we picked up and moved to London to have a wonderful adventure as the new Mr. and Mrs. We're going to track all our trips and experiences so we can stay connected with friends and family all over the world.
