Slow Life

We are working on getting Internet access and a car which is our top 2 priorities. The people of our town are on the lookout for a good deal on a car. In the mean time we were told that we could borrow one of the small trucks of the town is we needed to go to the store. It only seats 2, so the kids will have to stay home by themselves.So far we have not taken them up on the offer, but might in the near future.

One more week until Koby's school starts. I asked him if he was scared and he said that he was not scared, just a little nervous. He will be fine, and Yasuko will be going with him on a daily basis until his Japanese language skills become better. He also has the other young boy named Ian, that can translate for him if Yasuko is not around. The school is very relaxed and not so regimented as the American schools.

What I like about this school is they teach real life lessons, like farming and agriculture. Lessons that can be used in life instead of ignorant stuff like outlining sentences and adding a+b=c which you never use outside of school. They also learn the normal subjects, reading writhing and arithmetic.

Great Community

Today was a day that we were able to relax with nothing on the schedule. We have been showered with gifts from the neighbors, and have almost got a fully furnished house already. We were given a sofa, two large carpets, a kitchen table and chairs, coffee table and microwave oven. Also a rice cooker was donated to us to use, until we are able to get our own.

We have received lots of food gifts, which is typical Japanese custom. I have never seen a community, where everyone helps each other out like they do here. It is similar to living in a old hippy commune, where everyone shares everything and helps each other out when needed. When the warmer weather gets here I am told that we will have unlimited free vegetables, with everyone having large gardens. Some of the vegetables that are commonly grown here that I know of are potatoes, corn, hot peppers, cabbage, garlic, onions, asparagus, rice, and buckwheat.

I am sure there is much more that I will learn of in the coming months. Snowman came and visited us today, and took us for a drive up to the mountains, we took some nice pictures and saw a frozen lake and a natural hot springs, with lots of deep snow. The mountains are only a 15 minute drive from our house.

Treasure Chest

We awoke this morning at 6:00am and had coffee toast and eggs. The kids were quick as always to get outside and play. It is so nice to live in a place that you can let your kids leave the house to go play and not have to worry about some nut picking them up, or playing near a busy street.

The kids are not used to it and neither are we, but we are getting accustomed to it. It truly is a nice feeling. We have a major road near our house, but there just isn't much traffic on it. It will pick up when it gets warmer and people start visiting the mountains nearby, but there is a large sidewalk to walk on, beside it.

There is a small river right in front of our house, but is very shallow and is mostly used for irrigation of the crops surrounding us. Today we went into the second largest town in Hokkaido called Asahikawa. There is a catholic girls high school barracks that is being demolished. One of the locals works at the high school as a teacher and was told to come and get anything you want out of the barracks. So we all loaded up in a flatbed truck and 2 vans to go get what we wanted. After about an hour drive we arrived and found a treasure chest full of goodies.

Yasuko got all the dishes that we could ever need, we got bedding so we can return what was loaned to us. I got a computer desk and chair, toaster oven, kids desk, 4 dressers for clothes, and a new clothes washing machine. We also got some curtains and various other stuff. We are so lucky to have received all of these items for free.

Getting to Know Neighbors

We woke up a little later today at 5:30am I can see that we will slowly get in to a normal sleep schedule soon. We got our Kerosene tank filled up today. It cost $250 and should last us until summer, WOW! Electricity is not that cheap in Texas. The Kerosene runs our heater and the heater in the bath tub. Our bath is old style, but it is much cheaper to use kerosene to heat up our bath water than to use electricity for the Tap. It takes about 25 minutes to heat it up before you take a bath, not bad just a small lifestyle change.

We also got our propane tank filled up which runs our cooking stove. Electricity is used only for lights and appliances, while the water is free. Much cheaper utilities than America.

Later on that evening we were invited to Mr Ikeno's house for dinner and to meet his wife. We had home made ramen noodles and Mr Ikeno and myself drank Sochu, which is a watered down vodka. Mr Ikeno and his wife are probably in their late 50's early 60's.

Koby and Evan passed out on the couch after a early rise and hard playing throughout the day. We walked afterwards, a very short distance to our house.

Fresh Snow

We woke up this morning with a fresh coat of snow on everything, the kids were quick to get outside and play in it. The other kids around here ignore the snow, after being so used to it, while Koby and Evan spend every minute making snowballs and snowmen.

Surprisingly we became adjusted to the time difference very easily with almost no jet lag. Yasuko and I woke up about 4:45am and the kids followed about 5:30am.

Mr Ikeno our contact from the school came over today to take us to Bestom which is a store like super Walmart. We bought some things that we needed for the house and some food. They are letting us borrow a refrigerator and brought a stove today, which we will get hooked up tomorrow. Everything here is run off of propane and kerosene, with very little electricity used.

After shopping Mr Ikeno bought us dinner at a local restaurant.

Arriving in Hokkaido

We arrived today in Hokkaido at 1:15 pm after a delay of 1 hour, we have had bad luck with airplane arrival times, but hey, we have been waiting for almost 2 years to make this move so what's a few more hours.

There was a welcome party for us when we arrived, with our contact from the school, one of the bosses of the Shibinai town, a boy who speaks english from Koby's school and his mom, and of course my friend snowman sporting a ice chest full of beer for Yasuko and myself and juice for the kids.

We didn't have much time to visit and was whisked off to the town hall to get registered as citizens of Shibinai village, and to apply for my foreigners card. We met the mayor and all of the important people of Higashi Kawa Town, Yasuko had to do hours of paperwork, while I took the kids outside to let them play in their first snow. I was also lucky to meet the local Assistant Language Teacher, who I have been in contact with through the Internet for almost a year. His name is Benjamin Logsdon and is from New York, he extended for another year here and will be here until August of next year. I am looking forward to getting together with him and learning about our new town. The temperature was a brisk 38-40 but was not bad, until the sun started to go down.

After all of the paperwork was done we were taken to our new house, and was surprised by a welcome party that consisted of the whole town it seemed. There were kids everywhere, even more than our neighborhood in Texas. The heater was on and they had already brought all of our luggage into the house. Shortly after arriving we went to the community center, which is less than a hundred yards from our house and got our beds and blankets, and a few dishes we would need. Everyone helped carry stuff to our new house. Wow they sure know how to make someone feel welcomed here.

After that we were finally alone to relax on our first night in Hokkaido Japan.