Settling In

Arriving during the winter holidays was both a blessing and a curse. Things were closed on December 23rd for the Emperor's birthday, Christmas was a regular work day here, and then nearly everything closed for the days surrounding New Year's. Also, today, January 11th, is also a holiday here: Coming-of-Age Day, celebrating people who will turn 20 this year. Both kids have only been in school for three days, so a holiday right now is just soooooo helpful as we try to get into the school routine. 

I digress. Back to our first few days in Japan: there were some tasks we had to hurry up and do before the New Year's closings, but there was also just a lot of exploring local parks and playing inside, owing to the slower pace of the holidays.

On our first full day in the apartment, Mike had to go to Tokyo to sign some paperwork related to his grant. I stayed here with the kids. I didn't know where anything was in the neighborhood, it was cold, and I was tired. All I wanted to do was anything but make this seem like a super-duper-fun-awesome adventure. And then - as if by divine intervention - a whole series of emergency vehicles started pulling up slowly in front of the city conference center right next to our building. There was no actual emergency; it was some sort of emergency vehicle exposition. Which we could watch FROM. OUR. LIVING ROOM. The divine is in the details, right?

The kids were totally occupied by the vehicles, which left me time to work on figuring out the washing machine. Here is the machine's control panel:

This is actually a lot like how I vaguely remember our washing machine looking when we last lived here. Know what I no longer remembered? What any of it meant! I am enormously grateful to a fellow knitter and former Japan resident who helped me figure this out via my international text messages (iMessage pictures). It really takes a village. I still have only a limited understanding of all the controls, but, hey, our clothes are getting clean, so, well, I must be doing something right!

Alas, my luck with the emergency vehicles and the attention spans of small children lasted only so long. So, armed with Google maps and a desperate need to find somewhere for my kids to burn off some energy, I set off to find a playground with the kids - a process that would be repeated many times as we got to know our neighborhood. As it turns out, when the neighborhood map placards display an icon that looks like a little pink girl and a little blue boy in the middle of a park, that sign means toilets, not playgrounds. Useful all the same, but a little challenging when you've promised the kids a playground! Anyway, I'm happy to report that we've now found several playgrounds and some local wildlife.

Also, during those early days, Mike and Natalie made a trip to city hall to sort out some paperwork. I understand very little about what actually happened on this trip. Based on these pictures, it seems clear that Natalie met the city mascot, possibly attended a wedding expo, and then had some cheesecake. A solid day's work, if you ask me.

Sometimes, we just play inside.

Next up: our journeys beyond our neighborhood.