My Life in Tokyo

It seems that it’s about time I started recording some of our adventures and thoughts about our new life in Tokyo. A blog seems the best way to do it. Here, then, begins my novice attempt.

To start, I’m going to cheat a bit and copy from some emails I sent recently. Chances are, you’ve already read what follows. I apologize for the repition; still, it makes this a more complete journal.

How it all began . . . .

Here we are, at last, settled in Tokyo. Mark was given the opportunity to move here for a few years to head up computer system development in several areas for the Asia region of his company. We think we will be here for about 3 years. We are really excited to have the opportunity to live in Japan, especially for the opportunities it will give for Isabella (who will be 8 in a week) and Juliet (now 14 months) to learn a new language and experience another culture. Once we made the decision to relocate, we had to move fast in order to get Isabella settled in school as close to the start of the year as possible. Here’s what we’ve been up to!

After the possibility of this move first came up in mid-June, we had a whirlwind of a summer. Following a trip to Glacier National Park with the Poppele family and a short visit to Seattle to visit friends, we returned to New York to begin the enormous task of preparing for the big move. We came to Tokyo for a week in August to look for housing and find a school for Isabella. Back in New York, we spent some time at the summer house we had already rented in Croton-on-Hudson and tried to see friends and tie up loose ends. We spent Labor Day weekend in Mayfield, Kentucky with Mark’s family. Isabella began the school year at her old school in New York while I tried to sort through all our worldly possessions, figure out Juliet’s vaccination schedule, get fluoride vitamins, take a truckload of stuff to Goodwill, sell the car (making 2 visits to the DMV in the process), and plan a farewell party for Isabella, just to name a few things. It was a crazy couple of weeks, ending with 3 nights at the lovely Holiday Inn Chinatown after our furniture had been packed up and sent to storage. Our New York apartment is now empty and awaiting tenants to whom we hope to sublet.

We left New York on Saturday, September 16 and arrived in Tokyo on Sunday the 17th.

We were able to move right into our apartment with rental furniture, dishes and linens. Then we began the enormous task of getting settled here! We applied for our residence permits. We got the all-important cell phones. We have finally bought some furniture of our own and expect it to be delivered next week. Isabella has started school and Juliet is enrolled in a class at Gymboree. We have found a Japanese babysitter for Juliet. Mark had just begun to get settled at work when he left on Saturday for a business trip to New York.

Every day is an adventure, and usually exhausting. It is very frustrating to be unable to communicate, and even more frustrating to be unable to read! I went to the drugstore to buy lotion, and couldn’t find any. Dozens of bottles labeled in Japanese, and no clue as to what they contained. Some things are easier, such as baby food, which has helpful pictures of the ingredients on the label.

Isabella is in 3rd grade at the New International School. She has Japanese as an Additional Language every day. Her regular classroom has a both an English and a Japanese teacher, and lessons are given in both languages. Every child learns violin as part of music class, so she has been working hard on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The curriculum revolves around themes and they are currently studying the ocean. In the first week they made an enormous accordion book with the help of a professional artist. The school is not close, and she has a bus ride of more than an hour each way. It is a long and tiring day. But she has made several friends and is happy at school, and we are delighted with the opportunities it provides.

Juliet has a terrific new babysitter named Noriko. She is the mother of an 8-year-old boy and lives nearby. She and her husband are separated and she wants to work to become independent, so she’s babysitting while studying at home for a license in early childhood education. She will speak to Juliet only in Japanese, and last week went to the library to get some Japanese picture books for them to read together. She’s also an enormous help to me. Last week, I planned a furniture shopping trip by myself to Ikea (more on that adventure later!) and asked her somewhat casually if she knew how to take the train there. The next day, she arrived with the instructions written out in complete detail: which station to go to, which side of the street to enter on, the exact fare, and every single stop along the route written out! She’s a real treasure and I feel incredibly lucky.

Mark and I will begin our language lessons soon with the JAL Academy (that’s JAL as in Japan Airlines–I guess they have to train a lot of people in Japanese!). We will each have a teacher who comes to us a few times a week. As it turns out, it is pretty easy to get around here without speaking Japanese (unless, of course, you want to buy lotion). That’s nice for now, but it means we will have to put a concentrated effort into studying if we really want to learn the language. And we really do! I want to learn Japanese just for the fun of learning a new language, and so that I can talk to people here and learn more about the country. And if we’re here long enough, I really want to send Juliet to a Japanese preschool. That means I’ll have to be able to communicate somewhat with the teachers. I hope if I start now, I’ll be able to do that in a few years.