The Little Things - Good and Bad

This entry will be little glimpses of our life here in Japan.

Little things that are challenging:

1. Our little kitchen (that one is from Terence). Total kitchen space - counter, sink, stove, convection oven, cabinets above and below all in about an 8 foot strip.

2. The child with one hand in her mouth and one hand in her pants as you approach to shake hands. This one was from Willem. "I was going to shake the one not in her mouth until the other one went in her pants." (For some reason, perhaps in order to manage the total lack of privacy, there seem to be short times when Japanese people forget they are in public places - this is also seen on the trains when adult men decided it is time to clean out their nasal passages.) 

3. Body odor on the train - sharing a train car with 50 other people returning home from a long day of work. Our boys have experienced Tokyo trains during rush hour.

4. Waiting days for your clothes to dry. After they come out of our washing machine (the same one we used 8 years ago - and it wasn't new then) they get hung on an assortment of racks out on the balcony and on hangers from the curtain rods. When it is rainy and cold it can take days for them to dry.

5. The lack of insulation - hauling your heater from room to room and squeegeeing over two cups of condensation off the windows some mornings.

Little things we love about Japan:

1. The bath - plug it in, push a button and it fills the tub and heats the water to the temperature and depth of your choosing. Then, even hours later you can bathe with water up to your neck that is still at the temperature that you chose.

2. The man on the train that not only gave up his seat at rush hour for sleeping Xavier and Christy, but also watched out for Willem and Tai who were by a door and at risk of getting swept off the train. He even got off at our transfer stop with the boys to make sure they stayed on the platform and didn't get separated from us in the crowd. 

3. Getting hot and cold drinks from machines whenever you want.

4. Watching Evergreen Kids Choir sing original gospel songs and their own version of "O Happy Day" - Evergreen Choir is the ministry of one of the Preschool Directors and is made up of a group of 60 Japanese elementary and junior high kids. 

5. Excellent public parks and community centers - where you 

can play dress-up in an old farm house, make cool crafts and projects from wood, jump on giant bouncy clouds, climb on a series of stone and mosaic dragons and, best of all make, as much noise as you want without worrying about neighbors.

6. Being given a cup of hot green tea, coffee or British tea as you come in to work

There are many more little things that we like about Japan but we will save those for another time.