Wiersch You Were Here

Yes, I have been saving up that blog title.

Bear with me while I try and capture our first couple of days.

We left on December 25th and got to Narita airport at 3:00 pm, 11 hours later to us. We took a two hour bus ride then a 10 minute taxi ride to our house. Mike had left the heat on in the family room but the coldness of the rest of the house was still quit a shock. My first jet-lagged thoughts were that the cold would drive us out.

The house is a very traditional Japanese house with a lovely garden, larger than any of our neighbors who mostly live in more modern, more western two-story houses that take up their entire lot.

We did a whiz-bang opening of Christmas presents and then did our best to get some sleep that night and adjust to the time zone. The beds are harder than we are used to and the kids are having to get used to sharing a room. Also, Mike and my bed is smaller than a double and we are used to a king.

Next day, because my mom is here and could watch the kids, Mike and I walked/ran to the subway then went to Shibuya to buy a used car. It was chilly but as long as you are moving, it's not a problem. Here I am waiting while Mike gets Yen out of the "bank" and 7-11.

I can't begin to describe how nerve wracking driving is. It is the combo of the left hand drive, the tiny tiny streets and the completely different driving etiquette. Despite that, I managed to drive and get gas, all using left hand turns of course. I've yet to run into someone on our tiny street and have to back up to let them by and I still don't really have a sense of how wide the car is. Luckily it was scratched by the previous owners.

The

next day

we went

to Costco. It took an hour to drive there. Once inside, it is rather comfortingly familiar. Some of the products are exactly the same. The packaging size looks even more ridiculously large given the size of the average kitchen. Of course, instead of two gallons of milk packaged together they combine two quarts. I think we are going to have to cut down on our milk consumption.