Well, I did it. I got married. Which is not to say . . . well, technically -- legally -- we've been married for almost a year. At least in Japan, anyway. We did all the paperwork and took it to City Hall, and they stamped it all officially (they didn't even say 'congratulations'), and then we went out to McDonald's. We had a weird little ( Read more... )

I'M LIVING IN A HOUSE!!!! It's kind of unbelievable. As in I still don't really believe it. I keep waiting for someone to come and kick me out ( Read more... )

People in Japan love to talk about the beauty of the four seasons. I wonder why nobody's noticed that there are actually five. The rainy season - poor, ignored season number five -- has shown up early this year, possibly as an attempt to get some attention. It's been spring, all sunshine and flowers, for a month or so, pretending to be about to ( Read more... )

I know it's bad timing. But I still can't help but be excited about my house. Our house. A few hours to the north, a bunch of people have just had their houses washed away by tidal waves, and here I am jumping up and down because our staircase got delivered. But, at the same time, it seems kind of rude to not be happy about it. If my house got ( Read more... )

I love Japan. For many reasons. But the biggest one right now is how all the people here are handling this disaster. If this had happened practically anywhere else, after the tidal wave there would have been looting, massive panic, people trampling over small children in a rush to get to the airport to save themselves, and angry newscasters ( Read more... )

I'm fine. To tell the truth, I didn't even notice the earthquake. It seems kind of impossible, but Gifu is far enough away that the intensity was only a 2 or a 3 on the Japanese scale, which you can only really feel if you're holding still. I'm pretty sure I was hoisting small children up on my shoulders at the time, and didn't notice a thing. ( Read more... )

I think my life in Japan would be just about perfect if I could only have an oven. A REAL oven. One that goes under the stove and has two shelves and a big, squeaky door and is big enough to cook something that's bigger than a sandwich ( Read more... )

Once, just once, for the first time in a long time, I want to go to bed feeling proud of myself, thinking, "I did a good job today ( Read more... )

So, it looks like Crazy Plan #257 is a go. We're buying a house! Not just buying a house. Building a house! We had a big, long meeting with some guys in suits who talked really fast and used a lot of words I'd never heard before, not even on the JLPT Level 1. Luckily, Dai (in addition to being a fluent speaker of Japanese) went to a business ( Read more... )

Dai and I have been shopping. For something even more expensive than motorcycles. Even more expensive than COLLEGE ( Read more... )