All Good Things

This week we said goodbye to my dad and step-mom after six fun, memorable, and sometimes hectic weeks. The next phase of their travels takes them to Beijing, China where they will be visiting my brother and his family for two weeks.

Over the years I have realized that I have a very high capacity for people invading my personal space. There are tons of quotes out there about house guests who overstay their welcome, but for the most part I have never really understood what people are complaining about. I love the company, adult conversation, and the extra hands to help out with the kids, housework, etc. It could just be that I  have been really lucky in having helpful and interesting people staying over and not annoying, nagging guests.

Whatever the case is, we have all really enjoyed having them in our home for the past month and a half. The boys were overjoyed by the extra attention, bike and wagon rides, and trips to the park. I will have to work hard to get them used to being ignored again :) We were also really happy that they got a chance to meet Rosie since we won't be making it back to Canada for at least a few years.

Thank you for all your help, love, and patience in dealing with the pandemonium of our daily lives!

Just Around the Corner

William this morning before the dining room
warmed up. It was nippy 3˚, hence the tuque and blanket

Winter is fairly cold here in Fukuyama. Not snowy, -30, 70 km/hr wind kind of cold like in Manitoba, but since our house is drafty and barely insulated you feel the cold all the time. We use a space heater to warm the room we are currently occupying and the rest of the house remains at a brisk 5 - 10˚ C, especially on the floor where the children spend most of their day. This method of heating may be more eco-friendly than the central heating that we are used to back home but it is by no means less expensive. In the winter months here we spend more than twice as much heating one room at a time compared with our whole house in Canada. This is partially due to how expensive electricity is here compared to the hydro electric power that we use in Manitoba but also because there is virtually no insulation in older Japanese houses. The floor has a large open space below it with only wooden flooring separating our freezing toes from the outside. The windows are single pane and there are gaps in some areas where they don't quite fit properly. On windy days you can feel drafts coming in from everywhere, and the walls are thin and barely insulated.

For me, the worst part of winter here is not feeling constantly chilly, but feeling confined to small areas of your house. The children roam, open doors, and inevitably want to play in the room that is not currently being heated. Half of my day is spent saying "shut that door behind you! You're letting cold air!". By the time spring rolls around we all have an intense case of cabin fever from being cooped up in one small room most of the time. I am pretty sure that I will never get used this aspect of winter in Japan.

There are a few things that make winter lovely as well. It rarely snows where we are and usually hovers around 1˚ C or so. This means that we can actually spend time outside every day in the winter, go for bike rides, and enjoy the neighbourhood parks without fear of exposure and frost bite. You can grow hardy vegetables even in the winter and there are plants that even bloom in January. Coming from a place that is dead and sterile for at least 1/3 of the year I still haven't gotten over how amazing this is!

Last year around Christmas I noticed a shrub which I had never encountered before, the wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox),  or ロウバイin Japanese. It quickly has become my favourite flowering shrub and I really looked forward to its blooming this winter. In our area of Japan at least, it blooms throughout January and February and has the most amazing jasmine like smell. The blossoms begin as little yellow balls and open into yellow multi-petaled pendent flowers that last for quite a few weeks. Some trees are so densely covered in them that it looks like there is buttered popcorn popping off of their branches. You can't help but notice their wonderful scent whenever you pass by one and if you are anything like me, you will stop and inhale deeply for a few seconds before moving on.

Sweet osmanthus (Osmanthus fragrans), or キンモクセイ, is another strongly scented flowering shrub that grows here. Its orange flowers usually open in the autumn but unlike the wintersweet, I find its scent cloying, too sweet, mostly abhorrent. I am willing to admit that I am the odd one out on this because most people I have talked to love the smell of sweet osmanthus. Unfortunately, the osmathus all bloomed in Fukuyama right at the peak of my morning sickness this fall and I could barely stand leaving the house for fear of running into its smell. It seemed like everyone in the city had one growing in their garden. Sometimes I could see the orange flowers while I was still out of scent range so I knew to hold my breath but usually they were hidden behind a wall and I couldn't help but get at least one horrible whiff of them. I hope that I don't forever have an association with extreme queasiness and their smell. 

The bane of my morning sickness

These tiny double daffodils are beautiful and
super fragrant. Love them!

Even with the relative mildness of winter weather here, this winter has seemed extremely long to me. I am sure it has something to do with my crappy pregnancy circulation, but I also have a hunch that this winter has been slightly colder than the last. This theory is completely based on which dates I took pictures of flowers I saw beginning to bloom (yay for photos that are accurately dated!). Last winter I took photos of daffodils blooming in early January, but this year I have only noticed them starting to bloom in the past few days. This week I also spied a plum tree down the street whose buds are beginning to open. Winter can't last forever! 

In Retrospect

Is it a bit late to do a recap post on 2012? Maybe, but you'll have to forgive me as I reminisce about the highlights of the last year.

2012 was a year of calm and stability compared with the storm of change that was 2011. This was our first full year in Japan and full of positive experiences and growth. Both Dustin and I have become more comfortable and confident in our jobs, Dustin teaching and me managing our household and family in a foreign country. Even the simplest things can be complicated here, mostly because of the language barrier and different systems, but we have managed to find a secure rhythm and routine to life over the past year.

Last year at this time, William was 9 months old. I was still dealing with him waking every 3 hours, breastfeeding, and all the energy that must be devoted into entertaining/corralling a young, super active baby. People always say: "Enjoy these moments because they grow up way too fast!", but these are people whose children are already grown and out of the house. When you are up all night with a sick infant or just had your bookshelf dismantled by little grubby hands, you kind of wish they would grow up at least a little bit faster. They do grow up though, and over the course of the past year William has become much more independent, self entertained, and capable. He was also sleeps though the night! Woo hoo!

I can't believe he was so little!

William has developed a true affinity for Japanese food.

Theo has grown so much too. November 1st marked his first full year of yochien and his Japanese has gotten quite good over that time. He now even talks in the local Hiroshima dialect as well as standard Japanese. He has become extremely close to his brother, always making sure that he is entertained and well looked after. I feel so lucky to have two children who don't just put up with each other's company, but seek it out and enjoy it.

The last day of school, March 2012

Best friends beating the summer heat

We were also able to escape the tiny confines of our apartment and move into a house that is just the right fit for our family. If I were to pick one event this past year that has had the most positive influence on our lives it would be this move. So much stress and annoyance was generated by being squeezed into cramped quarters and having no personal outdoor space for our children to tear around in. We love this old house!

We also left behind bit of the summer heat and headed back to Canada for a family visit. This will probably be the last trip we make back west for at least a few years, so it was good to see every one. 

While we were in Canada, I was able to spend some time with my sister and her newborn daughter Josephine. This is my first niece and I am so glad that I got to meet her!

We were also able to rent a garden plot in our neighbourhood, which is something we have been wanting to do ever since we got here. This picture is pretty old, since we have already been harvesting veggies from our garden for a few weeks now.

Through Dustin's work, our church, and random chance we have developed an amazing group of friends over the past year. We have met so many loving, supportive people and I can't imagine what our life in Japan would be like without them. Sniff, sniff...I love you guys!

Overall, 2012 was a fantastic year. Welcome 2013, if you are anything like your predecessor we are in for some good times!

Japanese House Tour Part 2

A couple of people have asked me when I was going to finish off the tour of the house we moved into a few months ago. Without further ado, here is the other side of our house and the second floor. 

If you remember from my last house post, when you enter the house there is a door to the left, a door to the right, and a flight of stairs. If you were to go up the stairs (be careful, they are super narrow and steep!) you would find a landing with a closet at the top:

There are also two bedrooms. One of them is a very tiny three tatami mat sized one with a closet. This is Theo's room for now, but Dustin has all sorts of grandiose plans of building bunk beds for the boys in here.

The second room is six tatami mats and this is where William, Dustin, and I sleep.

Here is another angle of the room showing the closet that takes up most of the side wall.

There are double fusuma doors that lead from our room into Theo's bedroom.

For anyone who does not live in Japan, we all sleep on futons. In our case, that includes a bottom memory foam layer, a thin mattress, comforter, and pillows. They are super comfortable and we have never had to worry about Theo rolling out of bed. You actually fold them up every morning and place them into the very large deep closets in the bedrooms. Here is Theo modeling the size of where I stuff our futon.

Now back downstairs...when entering the house, if you were to take the door to the right of the stairs, you would find yourself in the kitchen, dining room, computer room. As this is the business end of the house, the toilet and sink room is also located here.

The back curtain hides the sink and mirror, and the door in the back is where the toilet is located:

Here is what lies beyond the green curtain. It was a bit weird to me at first that the shower, sink, and toilet are all in different parts of the house. Now that I have gotten used to it though, I think it is very practical to have them all separate.

Here is the small toilet room, which contains two windows, a wall cabinet, and typical Japanese sink/toilet with heated seats and all sorts of built in bidet options.

When the toilet flushes, the tap on the sink runs too, so you can wash your hands.

Here is a close up of the control panel that gives you all of you squirting and spraying options.

and with the side panel open. I think this controls how warm the heated seat becomes, but since we have only been in this house since the summer, we haven't tried it out. Truthfully, we leave it unplugged all the time because I can't even imagine the mess I would have to clean up if Theo decided to play around with those buttons.

Here is a view of our computer corner. Dustin built the desk not too long ago and it is a major improvement over the teeny one we bought when we first came. The wooden door leads to the entry way and the window looks into the front yard.

Here is a long view of that room showing the dining area

and the other direction showing the kitchen area.

Behind the fridge is a back door that is in a little dropped down alcove. The back door leads out to our little veggie garden and compost bin.

This is our little kitchen. It is miniscule compared to kitchen's back in Canada, but compared to our apartment it is great. I still can't get over how much space we have comparatively.

Lastly, here is another shot of our yard since the grass we planted filled in. It is so nice to have something other than rocks and sand for the  children to run and play on!

So there is the intimate tour of the innards of our house. It is weird to think that we have only been living in it for 3 months now. I am sure a lot is going to change over the years.

Japanese House Tour Part 1

It is always amazing to me how little time it takes to accumulate things. I have moved a lot in my life and each time I manage to pare my things down to only a few suitcases. Inevitably time passes and those few suitcases multiply.

So, it has happened again. Somehow, without being really aware of it, the few suitcases of personal items we brought to Japan increased until we are now able to comfortably fill and furnish a small house. Our furnishings are still pretty spartan compared with most of the Japanese houses and apartments we have been to though. Dustin and I have noticed people's tendency to have towering mountains of furniture and assorted stuff that stretches to the ceiling and covers almost every available bit of flooring. I am pretty sure that I would lose my mind if I had to spend every waking moment keeping the boys from bounding into, climbing, and toppling endless stacks of stuff. Maybe this is why children here are kept out of the house in day cares, kindergartens, and endless extra curricular classes from such an early age.

Without further ado, here is a tour of one half of our new place:

When you enter through the front door, you find yourself in a large, old style genkan. There is a 36 cm step from this concrete entrance area onto a wooden landing that takes you into the rest of the house.

ただいま!

From the landing, there is a door to the left, a door to the right, and a flight of stairs leading to the second floor. Today, we will enter through the door on the left. 

Beyond the door is a small sunroom with large sliding patio doors on the left and a tatami "living room" on the right.

Here is a view of the sunroom from inside the tatami room.

This is the tatami room that we have turned into our living room

And here is a different angle of the room showing the traditional shrine alcove which has been turned into our TV corner. This is no reflection on how much importance we place on our television, but was just a nice out of the way spot for it. Theo seems pretty pumped about playing Smooth Moves. There is a big closet with double sliding doors on the back wall and a door that leads to the washing machine and shower area between the closet and the couch.

When you go through this door, you find yourself in a short hallway where the washing machine is located.

To the left of the washing machine there is a doorway that leads to the fully waterproof bath/shower area. 

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of using a Japanese bathtub, here is a closer look at it. It is not as long the bathtubs we have in the West, but much deeper. It is about 50 cm deep so you can immerse much more of your body in the water. 

It also has a complicated and new fangled set of controls that allows you to adjust the temperature, fill the tub at the touch of a button, and circulate the water in the bathtub through a heater that maintains it at the same temperature throughout your bath. Also, the water can be saved and reheated in the future to whatever temperature you like by pressing a button. This might seem strange, but since you fully scrub yourself down before getting in, the water is clean enough to save for the next bath. 

The thing that attracted us to this house was the perfect blending of old and new. We are guessing that it was built during the post war reconstruction period, which puts it at about 60 - 65 years old. There are a lot of aspects that have been kept in their original state, like the large, deep genkan, or entranceway, the worn wooden stairs and landing, the deep windowsills, and old exposed timbers. However, much of the inside has been completely updated. In the few months before we moved in, the windows were all replaced, all interior walls and doors were repapered, new wooden flooring was put in the kitchen and dining room, new tatami was laid, all new cabinets, sinks, and counters were put into the kitchen and bathroom, a new western style toilet complete with a washlet was installed, and the shower room and bathtub were replaced. In other words, it is like living in a completely new house, but without the impersonal, plastic, modular feel of most new houses in Japan. We get to enjoy the history and layout of a traditional Japanese home without any of the inconvenience or deterioration that usually accompanies a 65 year old structure.   

That's enough house touring for now. Next time we will find out what lies beyond the right hand door and up the stairs!