Number 24

Japan Chronicles 24 (ni-ju-yung)


Where to start? Well, I guess first of all is to let you know that we have set a departure date. We will be leaving Japan on April 10th. We will spend one week in the Los Angeles area and then return to Denver on April 17th. We are all very excited.

A week or so ago, someone asked me if I was tired of being in Japan. I had to think for a while, and I am not even sure what I answered. As I considered the question later, I realized that no, I am not tired of being in Japan, but I am tired of having our lives unsettled.

Japan is a wonderful place and we have enjoyed our time here and we will enjoy the remainder of our time here. People have been so generous and kind to us. But, I have learned something, that coming from America where our culture is such a melting pot, I had not realized. No matter how well I learn to speak Japanese or understand the culture or even how long we lived here, we will always be ‘foreigners’. I don’t mean that in any negative way at all. I just simply mean that looking like we do, we will always draw attention.

Before we return home, we will be ‘forced’ to spend another few days in Guam. It’s a tough life, but someone has to do it! The great part is that our friends down in Ayase will be there at the same time, so it will be a two family vacation.

Then, for the last 10 days or so of our stay here, Dana will be on vacation. His parents are coming to Japan and we are going to spend the time touring Japan. I have been having fun making plans and arrangements for that time. We plan on seeing Nikko, Mount Fuji, and the Kyoto/Nara area. I am really looking forward to that, too!

This week has been one of rehabilitation. I mentioned in my last chronicle, that I was having some back problems, well, it turns out that I have a herniated disc. My Japanese teacher took me the ‘hospital’, which is really more of an orthopedic clinic, and acted as a translator. I appreciated her help so much. The doctor took x-rays and said basically that with 3 months of rehabilitation, I should be back to normal. This was a little longer in the recovery time than I had hoped for, but ah well!

Basically, I go to rehab, twice a week where they use lasers, magnets, heat, electricity and air to make my body heal. Not sure how it all works, and don’t know if it matters! After over 2 weeks of dealing with it, my back has slowly showed signs of improving. That is all I want. I do think this has eliminated any possibilities of going SCUBA diving in Guam, but oh well. I am going to do as much rehab here as possible, so hopefully by the time I return home, I will be doing pretty well.

Because of my back, we haven’t done much. On Sunday, we went to church and went to Oarai aquarium with some friends from church. I can’t remember if I mentioned them before, but they are from Slovakia. They have been living here for a few years now. They have a daughter who is Catherine’s age and looks an awful lot like Catherine, except her name is Kristina!

The aquarium is pretty small and has only a few short shows, but it was a perfect opportunity to get out for a short time and have a little fun. The girls and I had been to this aquarium before. It’s the one where they got to pet a dolphin. We showed Dana around and the girls also had fun being with Kristina. They didn’t get to pet the dolphin again, but everyone enjoyed the shows.

I’ve been giving the idea of organization in Japan, so thought and so now, I’ll try to share a few of those thoughts. Since space is at a premium here, it must be used efficiently. There are all sorts of contraptions to organize anything. I think I’ll just try to share a few ideas.

Shoes have always been an issue in our home! As you probably already know we don’t wear shoes in the house in Japan. What this means is that near the front door, there must be a place to store shoes for the entire household. Most of the time this just takes the form of a cabinet with shelves that are spaced so there is enough height to put a pair of shoes. The cabinet generally has doors on it, so the area looks neat.

For us, this shoe idea has had its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, we don’t spend as much time searching for shoes under children’s beds. On the minus side, they usually don’t make it into the cupboard and instead remain on the floor of the entryway. I think this idea has some potential, but one thing I think is a must for this is a decent size entryway and a bench where your family can sit down and put your shoes on.

Moving on, don’t just throw something in a drawer when you can separate it and make it look neat. The object of course isn’t just to make your drawers look neat, but to enable you to find what you want quicker. Everything has its place and if it doesn’t get rid of something else or don’t get it!

A cute idea that I have seen for storing belts is to us a piece of corrugated cardboard that is about as tall as the belt is wide and maybe 10 inches long. Join the ends to make a circle and roll your belt and put it in the ring. Belts stay neat in their places.
H
ow about an office with walls paneled in pegboard? Paint it a color you like and you can hook anything you want onto the wall and move it whenever you like.
Children have a bunk bed? Build a box on rollers to go under the bed. You can store toys or clothes or whatever. When you want to find something you can just slide the drawer out.

A little rail above a shelf will help keep things from falling off a shelf. At least in a low magnitude earthquake!

Don’t forget that wasted space under a sink, above the toilet, under a shelf or even in between the support beams for your wall! It is all fair game if you can figure out how to utilize it.

Well, I am going to stop there. Those of you that know me well also know that I am the ultimate in organizer and that you would never know this by my home!

We have our first snowfall in Japan, so I am going to enjoy! It will probably be melted in a couple of hours! Here’s to a snowball fight!

Blessings and prayers,
Marion