July 25, 2010 First days in Japan

On Wednesday, July 21, a relocation company representative took the kids and me on the train to get our alien registration cards. We then went to the bank. There are no joint accounts here. Our account can only be in Phillip's name. I can get an ATM card, but Phillip must order it and must sign for it. Seriously? Anyway, after lots of waiting around for the kids, I took them to McDonalds for some "comfort" food. Then, we got bad news, our air shipment was delayed.... bikes, computer, xbox, wii, books, board games, clothes... After Phillip got home from his long commute from work (Procter and Gamble is across a walking area), we went to Gourmet City to pick out dinner.  (Everyone liked the tuna, and we used our rice cooker for the first time.)  The store is literally on the first floor of our building. We forgot salad dressing, so the kids went back by themselves. They had to ask 8 people before someone knew what they wanted. They laughed really hard. I think we will all have to keep a good sense of humor. We visited our dear friend John Mang who lives 2 floors above us. He was kind enough to give us a key to his apartment and use of his wii and board games. This would prove to be critical for Thursday and Friday. (Most American wives and kids are still in the states for summer until early August, so there are not many kids here.)

On Thursday, the kids got a tour of the Canadian Academy where they will go to school. They really enjoyed it, and I think their favorite thing was the number of Mac computers the school had - everywhere. I also enjoyed the "indoor shoes" concept.  Children must change into their clean indoor shoes before entering their classrooms.  This helps to keep the building clean.  Did I mention that it is very hot here? 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) and humid? Our 15 minute walk to the school left us sweaty and with red faces. Nice intro. :)

We tried to eat the hot dogs that Phillip had picked out at the store the night before, but we think they may actually have been fish dogs. Yikes! Then we got the news that the air shipment was delayed again. Oh, and the internet would not work on my laptop, and I could not figure out how to use our apartment phone. I am so thankful for the front desk of our apartment building. It is like having a concierge every day! They sent someone up to help with phone and connected me with English speaking rep at internet company (after I had tried on my own for hours). They even read my mail for me!

On Friday, we learned that the air shipment was sent to Anchorage. Alaska. At this point, all 3 kids were in tears. Again, thank goodness for John's wii and board games! Thank goodness also that the kids can make up games and play together. Jessica said, "Well at least we have each other!" No truer words! (We do get Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network in English.) We played some board games, listened to music, and taught Matthew to play Euchre!

On Saturday, John took us to the local cafe, to look for cell phones, and to Price Club. He also gave us a tour of Gourmet City. (He is quite the chef.) Now I know a little bit about what I am buying. Most labels are in Japanese. Good luck interpreting those pictures! Remember the "hot dogs"? Our air shipment finally arrived. Yoohoo!

Phillip left for Seoul Korea today (Sunday), so I am on my own with the kids for a couple of days. We just hung out at home today (did I say home?), played some games (a lot of xbox), and made Udon noodles and broth. I am very proud of the kids for trying different foods. I know it will make our experience more rewarding. We have been a bit shocked at the lack of availability and cost of some items that we love. Matthew has not had strawberries since we left the US, and milk is 4X the cost in Cincinnati. I must say that English muffins have become a staple - breakfast, snack, and back up option for dinner that we don't like! :)

I start Japanese language lessons tomorrow. I am sure this is going to challenge my brain! :)

Peace and Love.
Tina

July 20, 2010 The Move

As most of you know, our family decided in late January that we would move to Kobe, Japan this summer with Phillip's job at Procter and Gamble. We also decided that I would take a 2 year leave of absence with the company.  Even though Phillip has been going back and forth since March, it has not seemed real to me. I was still enjoying Cincinnati friends, the children's school, activities, sports, and my work. Now, we have arrived in Kobe. This is real. The journey has begun for Maloney Adventures Abroad.

This is my first time to blog.  Hopefully, I will learn as I go!

Getting Ready for the move

While June was fun for us to spend time with friends and enjoy Jacob and Matthew's baseball and Matthew and Jessica's swimming, it was pretty stressful. We had to decide for all of our belongings which of 6 buckets the item belonged: pack with us in suitcases, air shipment, sea shipment, storage, Goodwill, or trash. Also, Phillip was out of town a lot of that time, and my oldest brother passed away. We sold our house and our van. Very stressful. Not a lot of sleep. I honestly think I only survived because of wonderful family and friends and many, many prayers!

Then, the movers arrived July 6. We had a brutal last week of cleaning, purging, packing, and saying goodbye to wonderful friends. I cannot thank our friends enough for everything they did for us - taking us to dinner, having us over for dinner, taking our children for play dates, helping to clean out the house and do various chores around the house in preparation for sale..... more importantly, for spending time with us, praying for us, and providing words of encouragement. A special thanks to Dawn and Melissa for the awesome going away party and for all the many, many things you did for us. Also, thanks to the Petermans not only for a place to stay, but 7am breakfast before our departure flight on July 11! I cannot possibly thank Jeff enough for doing everything from fixing a faucet to returning our internet box for us. To all of our friends - Thanks and we miss you!

One last goodbye to our Terrace Park home

Enjoying Hawaii

At last, we arrived in Maui. We stayed with Phillip's brother and family at a beautiful condo in Hanoi Kai overlooking the Pacific Ocean and multiple pools. Wow. This was our first trip to Hawaii, and I honestly think it could be the most beautiful place on earth. We snorkeled, did boogie boards, hung out at the pools and beaches, and experienced a luau! The week went quickly, and we headed out to the airport.

The move trip

On Sunday July 18, we flew from Maui to Honolulu. After a 4 hour delay, our flight was canceled. Delta sent us to the Marriott Waikiki Beach. We had a suite with amazing views. Late that night, we still had not heard about our flight. We called the front desk and were told to catch a 7:30am shuttle for the airport and that more information would be delivered to our room. The next morning, I found a piece of paper slid under our door which read: "To Whom it may concern. Delta flight 677 canceled 18 July. Shuttle bus 7:30am." That's it! Where do we catch the shuttle? When is our flight? The shuttle never showed, so we took a cab. Once we got to talk to a Delta agent, we found that we were re-routed through Toyko to Osaka (Kansai airport). Alas, we boarded the flight for 10am departure. The kids had so much fun in business class. It was like an amusement park - food, drink, their own movie screen, reclining seats, slippers, and oh yeah, those cool things that cover your eyes for sleeping!

We went to Sky Club in Tokyo at 1:10pm and were told that we had to take a bus to Terminal 2 to check in with Japan Airlines for 5:20 flight. So, we left our backpacks and headed to check in. This all went just fine until we tried to take the bus back to Terminal 1. The driver would not let us on the bus. He pointed to our flight # and terminal # and he said (in Japanese) that we had to stay. After trying multiple times to explain that we had to get our bags, he finally let us on the bus and said, "no lounge. come here." Well, once we were back at Sky Club with our boarding passes in hand, we, of course, stayed to enjoy the sushi, snacks, and drinks. Then, we just hoped that the same driver would not pick us up.... well, he did. Fortunately, there were no additional issues!

We finally arrived at Kansai on Tuesday, July 20, at about 7pm. (Note we crossed the international date line.) We took a 1 hour bus ride to our apartment building. Phillip and Jacob ran inside "Daiei" or "Gourmet City" to get milk before they closed at 9pm. While waiting outside, Matthew said, "I just think Terrace Park is my home. I want to go home." That boy just breaks my heart. The kids checked out the apartment and settled in for the night.

We are really here.

In the words of my daughter Jessica, "Peace and Love."

Tina