From Planet Japan

The pace of life here is very slow and relaxed compared to San Francisco and I am enjoying it.
The main activity is our house planning- meeting with several companies, looking at their design plans (conceptualized from our ideas and theirs).
Finally as of last week, a company named DAIWA presented a plan that we really like and now we are waiting to hear the estimate next week.
We've been meeting with architects and interior designers from various companies, all very interesting.
At first when we started the planning, we were thinking with our "San Francisco" minds: "Oh it's so inexpensive to build a house here let's do anything we want!" Since anything you buy in SF is easily 800K.
Now we've had to take a step back and think about what we really want to spend. We decided we want a low monthly payment so we can use our money for family activities, traveling and of course saving for retirement. If we have any additional income in the future, we might buy property on the ocean or in the mountains.
We decided to keep our house cost below $260K, so our mortgage will only be $900 a month and the interest rate for 35 years will be 3 percent.

To us the price seems so inexpensive, compared to CA. From my experience, in San Francisco, the most expensive and "chic" designed homes all replicate some aspect of Japanese design and here it's just the way it is, so we are going to have a home that would cost easily a million dollars in SF, but here, we can have it for $260K.

The design we have worked on with Daiwa is 3 bdr, plus office and a large room for my classroom, where I plan to teach, if I can find any students!
I can't tell you offhand the measurements, because Japanese have a different way of measuring Area and I'd have to convert it all.

And more and more about the house.....next step with DAIWA, if we like the price is getting approved for the loan.
We were already approved with another company, Misawa (they sold us the land) but I'm not sure we will go with them.
I'm not 100% keen on their style, plus their homes can't be reformed, so when Noi inherit this house, she won't be able to change it.
We want to have that option, because 25 years from now, the house will need a little reforming and the technology will change and if she wants to live in Akita, she will want to remodel it.

Work wise we are just doing KC Communications and I'm thinking about lesson planning for my school.
It just so happens that the largest English school in the area where we will live just closed down, so that's a bonus for me!
But at the risk of sounding lazy, I want to teach, but I don't want to teach too much.
Teaching has a high burn-out level and I want to enjoy it AND at the same time be Noi's mama.

Well, coming to Japan has been tiring.
I have so much energy all the time, but the last 3.5 months in San Francisco were too CHAOTIC.
I'm surprised I managed to make it to Akita without having a nervous breakdown.
That was one of the most stressful situations of my life.
We were working on projects until the last 24 hours before leaving and a few of them continued over after arriving in Akita.
Up until last week, I haven't had a chance to slow down, but now we've only received one project in a week, so it's been better.

Hideto and I bought bikes and we've been biking everywhere. We just use his parent's car when we need one, but it's so easy to bike to get everything we need. Japan is cool that way, everyone bikes and the sidewalks are wide for biking. Noi loves sitting on the back of my bike and whizzing around the city to all the parks. There are a lot of parks here. Every 3 blocks there is a little park, because the parks also serve as an evacuation "safe" spots for earthquakes. Noi is loving all the parks. Yesterday we went to the main city park where we were married and we played there and watched the GIANT black birds. Noi loves them and so do I. They are amazing and I'm sure the inspiration for Hitchcock's "The Birds".

Other than that, not much else going on, just eating a lot of chocolate.
Trying to adjust to Japanese diet again.
A lot of fried food here and I can't handle it.
It makes my stomach hurt, but on a positive note, the fruit and vegetables and meats and milk are 90% better than in the states.
Basically everything is produced locally and it's so good and seasonal of course. A more natural diet.
And trying to get used to be the only white person in site. Everyone stares at me. It's funny, but also sometimes annoying, but I don't care really.

The leaves are now changing and it's very beautiful. Next week will be the peak and also the peak of mushroom season, so we'll go to the countryside and pick up mushrooms from farmers and make delicious dishes.

All for now.......

I Almost touched an Elephant and Giraffe!

We spent the afternoon at the Akita Zoo, only 15 minutes from Hideto's parents house, and it was great! I was blown away by the atmosphere, not because of the design of the zoo, but because of the freedom the animals must feel. I did my internship at the MN Zoo and I've been to a lot of zoos, but this one was different (in the top 4 in Japan), because the animals were in cages, but they didn't seemed trapped. It was open and airy. At one point, a giraffe was less than arms length away and when the zookeeper was feeding the elephants, one was about 2m away! There were two leopards sleeping in an open cage right above our heads. The camel's cages were so open that people could walk in them and that is how many of the cages were, except for the dangerous animals. The chimpanzees were very close and all the birds were in open places. There were no animals in enclosed glass cages. Also, I saw the cutest little monkey from the Amazon Rainforest, about the size of my hand with a very long tail. Too cute!!!!!! My FAVORITE part about the zoo was the cage labeled "Humankind" and you can stand in it and take your photo! After leaving the zoo, which is next to a beach, we went there to see the amazing sunset. The sunsets in Japan are like the sky is on fire and the sun is burning red, thus the Japanese flag.

Playing with Dragonflies

One of the reasons I wanted to move to Akita City, is it's a big city, but within 20 minutes you can be in complete lush green nature and magnificent parks. We went to a mountain park and played with Hideto's family and then went to a hotspring. It's Autumn and this is dragonfly season. We spent the day catching dragonflies and playing ball games. I didn't know that it was so easy to catch dragonflies when I was growing up in MN. I tried to do it at my brother Kurt's home in CA, but it didn't work. I think the dragonflies in Japan are different. If you put your finger up in the air, they will land on your finger and it's easy to grab their wings and hold them. Noi has been watching "Bug's Life" and she loves bugs, so it was special for her to see the dragonflies. She is also into ants! After having a picnic and hanging out for most of the afternoon, we headed over to an amazing "sports" complex with an interesting pool with a gigantic slide and an outside bath and indoor hotsprings. I enjoyed another hotspring. Akita is the only prefecture (state) in Japan that is blessed with three things- great water (for growing rice and making sake), hotsprings everywhere (wherever you dig a hole in Akita, you can hit a hotspring line), lovely beaches, and lush green forests. I feel very blessed. Better than all of that, Hideto's family is amazing!

The Rabbit & The Moon

In Japan, every year in Sept. and Oct. there is a little in-house offering to the full moon. The Japanese think the shadow on the moon looks like a rabbit. Hideto's mom said this was the first year in many that she could see the moon so clearly and it must have been so clear because Noi had returned to Japan. She also set up an offering for the moon in one of their tatami rooms that had a large glass sliding door so the moon and the rabbit could see the offerings, which were fantastic sake (made at the factory behind Hideto's parent's home, which happens to be one of the best sake in Japan, did I mention I've been having a glass everynight?), edamame, and the most delicious grapes! (grapes are very expensive here, but there are unbelievably delicious. I've never had them in the states). Everyone in his family came in and lit the candles and then said a prayer to the moon, asking for good luck in the year, etc. I felt very lucky to be here. Of course Noi couldn't stop eating the edamame and grapes and usually it's bad luck, but it's okay for kids to do it as long as they say "thank you" to the moon!

Last 'Lion Party

Tenderloin Sayonara!
Here are pics from the party and I think Dav and Mie have THE cutest baby on the planet!!!!!!!!!!

Talk about Lost in Translation

Geez, I think I'm in the movie!
So, now we are meeting with companies to talk about building our home and so far 2 companies we've worked with made a sketch of the home for us and then today we met another company and I asked them to do it and then it turns out they want us to pay $1000, if they do it. We are not going to do it, but it's really tricky. I have no idea about the vocabulary about building a house, so I have no idea what people are talking about. I feel weird. Then hideto started talking about what if they are mafia? Okay, this is creepy. Just to end on a funny note, here is a great photo of hideto.

Green Landing

we landed in the land of the Green. japan is so green green green. and after we arrived it rained rained rained. i loved it! instead of listening to crazy people scream at night and sirens blaring at ear busting levels, i now fall asleep to raindrops and insects singing and wake up to not sirens and crazy people screaming, but birds and bugs singing. it's amazing!
not to say that before we left i didn't feel like i was about to pass out from exhaustion. 5 months of preparation and still up until the wee hours of our final night, we were still packing! and after arriving in tokyo and hideto's uncle meet us and so kindly took us to the domestic airport and a lovely restaurant, i almost passed out. that was the most tired i've been in my entire life. but since arriving, everything is starting to become calm. just as i thought, it's critical to be near your family when you have a small child and run your own company. since we are staying with hideto's family, his parents have been helping us watch noi and for the first time in 2.5 years, i feel like i can concentrate on my work 100% and noi is so happy to be in a home with her grandparents. the other day was the holiday to celebrate grandparents and old people. it's a national holiday and what an amazing country to have such a holiday. so everyone was together and we toasted to hideto's grandma and his parents. it's really amazing that hideto's grandma is still alive. he's really lucky. i could write more about the move, but it conjures up nightmares! basically we sold all our stuff. about 100 people came to our apt. and on top of that, i couldn't believe how many unwanted things we had. it was very liberating to leave it all behind. we have been going to look at model homes everyday. basically you can't go wrong with any japanese style house. they are all excellent. we are steering towards the "simple modern" style. it's a reality check to be here. when people shyly tell us the main model home, which looks like a hollywood mansion, is about 500K, hideto and i just laugh. for that price in san francisco, you can't even buy a condo. we've decided we don't want to spend that much on a house here. we are going to go about 250K and still have a 3 bedroom home. the best part of all is we will only be paying the same amount we paid for rent and parking in San Francisco and our place will be 3xs as big and NEW. no more lead paint! and the homes are all environmentally friendly. everything is built to save resources and in the states, that is something unusual and costs more. another funny thing, at least i think it's funny, is that at all the grocery stores, all the food is grown locally. there are even co-ops. and it's considered "normal" whereas in San Francisco, to get this kind of food, you have to buy it at a "organic" store like Whole Foods and Rainbow Co-op and it is so expensive. Here it is all less than half the price and incredibly delicious. every time we eat a vegetable we say, "this is so good!" and it is. akita is not a small city, it is a big city, but you can still be driving in the city, and you drive through rice fields. it's incredibly calm here. and the views of the mountains are spectacular and as i said in the beginning, japan is so green! it feels so alive, yet it is very calm. another interesting thing about being here is i don't feel so far from america. i have skype with a local san francisco number and with itunes i can pick up san francisco and minnesota radio stations that i like very much. and i feel like japan has changed a bit since i was here working in 1993 or maybe it's because i'm older, but people don't seem to be surprised to see me. sure they look at me for a moment, but not anything more unusual than the way i used to look at black people in san francisco, since i never lived with black people before, i wanted to look at them, but just because i looked at them doesn't mean i'm racist, i just like to look at them because it was something new to me, just like how people look at me here sometimes and i don't think anything is strange about it. hideto and i were at the grocery store the other night and i turned around and a white guy was shopping near us and i said "hi, how are you?" and he kind of bowed to me and he said, "pretty wet" and then laughed. it was pouring rain out. and after we left, hideto said, "that guy bowed to you." i thought it was kind of funny he did that, because i won't bow to other non-japanese in japan. i will bow to japanese people, but even though i live here now, i am not japanese and i wouldn't bow to a white person in america, so i won't do it here. that is one thing i noticed before about non-japanese people living in japan. sometimes they act weird if you try to talk to them, like they have to act like they are japanese and usually you don't start talking to someone that is a stranger in a grocery store in japan, but i would in america, so i would here. it's very interesting. i am not japanese, so i can't pretend i am, but i will follow their customs, yet i still have to act american too, because i want noi to know about that side of me. and now after i moved here, i have to make a real effort to always speak to noi in english and now i feel a responsibility to speak with hideto in english too, otherwise he will start to forget english too, just as i had started to forget japanese in the states. it is quite interesting though how just after being here for only a week, i can already pick up a lot of japanese that i had forgotten. and i think it's weird how people say things about how japanese people don't like things to be different, because i noticed that people really want to study english and try to speak it, if they like english, but they don't have the chance. when we go out, hideto and i speak in both english and japanese and people always tell us how great it is that we can do that. and before when i was in japan, i always felt uneasy about speaking to someone in english, but now i notice that some people like it, because they have studied english, but haven't had the chance to speak it with someone, unless they paid to go to a class, and they seem happy to try to reply. like today i asked a man, "is that a woman or a man?" i was referring to a person in a poster, and he answered quite clearly, "a woman." and he seemed happy that he understood and could answer. overall right now i'm feeling very happy to be here and in the end, especially since i have a family, my main concern is about my family, which includes hideto's family too. well...gal just answered my skype, so i'm going to talk to her in israel. i love technology!

I'm happy!

so I feel like my postings have been so up and down...well, life is up and down. but overall i'm happy. i guess when i write in here, deeper thoughts come to my mind. hideto said to me, "the reason I love you is no matter what happens the day before, when you wake up each day you are smiling and happy." so i am a happy person. it's just so interesting with this move, there is so much to reflect upon it's too emotional. when i moved to SF, i brought everything that belonged to me because my parents sold their big house and moved to a tiny one and told me to take what I wanted to keep. then came my move, new work, new friends, everything shipped home from Japan, my father's death, marriage, graduate school, noi, starting our business, and so much more and here i am going through everything, reliving everything at once, and on top of it, being so busy with work with major deadlines, it's just crazy! so many emotional things at once. i feel like i'm going to get to japan and just pass out! and i really wanted my sisters to come visit me this summer since i am so busy and i went to visit them last summer, but they did not come. that sucks. and i told my mom i felt guilty about not going to see them and she said, "why? they should come to see you." so that made me feel bad too. life is so interesting. these days i'm feeling that everyday is an amazing gift from god and i am so lucky to have this wonderful life and that as you get older, life becomes better, but life also has it's sadness, which i never had to deal with when younger. the older you become the more there are things you miss, like the people that pass away. it was so hard to deal with my father's death, i can't even think about my mother or my siblings, because i'm sure i will outlive everyone. i might end up in a close race with my sister cory and that would be interesting. which brings me to another interesting point about all these thoughts, i was listening to Ray of Light by Madonna, a spectacular CD about how life changes when you create a child, and she talks about her mother's death and about what her daughter she should remember after she is gone, and it made me cry a lot. i wish my father was here to see noi and madonna was singing about that and it touches me. and this makes me wonder if i should try to have another child for noi, since our family is so small, relatives included, then she will have someone to love her as family after hideto and i die, but is that really a reason to have another child? well, so much to think about right now, which is why my postings are like this!!!
well, on the super positive side, so many of my fabulous friends are coming to town! like colin, corey, my brother, and i'm arranging a ladies day/night out which is going to be exceptional. i can't wait.
and today i didn't do anything, except a million things! as usual! but i really wanted to go shopping for useless items, go to the gym, eat chocolate and one other thing that is so top secret i can't write about it-it's driving me crazy!!!!!!!!
now, i'm thinking about having a house. gali told me when she went to ohio, she was so surprised to hear about people our age upgrading to their 2nd house while us bay area people can't even afford to buy our 1st house. Wow! what is it going to be like to have our own house? I'm so excited!!!!!!!!
well onto lighter topics, noi was so cute tonight! when we were reading books for bed, instead of reading, she wanted to sing them to me. she sang 2 books. she is such an amazing child!!!!!! i am so lucky and blessed and i especially feel this after trying to have a child before her. LIFE IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe I created her. I'm so lucky.