OK, week #1 is in the books. We arrived to Japan almost exactly 7 days ago. Pat’s highlights/lowlights of the week.
(+) The apartment is fantastic. Tracy and I are very happy with it. Once we get it all setup the way we want it will be a nice home for us the next few year.
(+) The whole moving experience was really great. The Japanese moving company was amazing. I have never seen a more conscientious set of movers in my life. They literally saved us weeks of unpacking and putting things away by doing most of it for us.
(+) In just one week we have met many great people livening either in the same building or the area. The Expat community here is great and we should have no problem making friends.
(-) Our home computer was DOA when we unpacked it. The hard drive crashed. Luckily I think most of the data was backed up. The funny thing is that I was very close to buying a new one before we left but decided not to. Bad move.
(-) Its taking time to get Sean adjusted to the new time zone. I think we are very close to having him there. The first few days were particularly rough with him getting up at 3 AM.
(-) About the only complaint I have with the apartment now is the fact that taking Riley out is quite a chore. At home I would just open the front door and let her loose. After a few minutes she would scratch at the front door to come in. Not so here. Now I have to get my shoes on, grab the dog, leash, and a baggie. We take the elevator from the 20th floor to the main lobby on the 3rd floor. There we change to another set of elevators and head down to the first floor. We then go outside to find a place for her to do her thing. Then we do the whole thing in reverse. The good news is that Riley does not seem to mind.
(-) Because we have been busy with the apartment we haven’t had much time to explore yet. That will come with time.
(+) Tracy broke out her Japanese cookbook and made an awesome Japanese dinner Friday night. It was very impressive
More to come later. Also if you haven’t noticed we updated the picture on the top of the site. That is the sunset off our balcony. You are looking out over our island toward Kobe which is on the other side of the water. You can see the buildings out on the horizon.
