Shopping in Tokyo

art work in Roppongi Hills shopping & entertainment area

Tokyo Tower!

I made Kat pose so I could take an incognito pic of the dogs---I thought dogs had legs.

Shopping in Ginza, home of Prada, Gucci, and now, H&M!  The line to get into H&M (which opened 2 weeks ago) was stretched down the street for a few hundred meters.  

Home

kitchen--thats the oven on top of the little fridge and my stove is the little black rectangle on the left hand side

living room and dining room and kitchen--a pretty standard layout for apartments around here

living room looking into tatami room

bedroom with tatami matting--that window goes through to the balcony

The best part of the whole place!  It faces south so we can watch the fireworks over the Tamagawa River

entry room with a small shoe closet

sink and laundry room

shower and tub--in Japanese culture, you shower before you get in the bath so you are clean when you get into the water that the rest of the family will use for bathing.  

You could stay here!  I'll get you a bed and bedding and maybe even take the bike out!

When we searched for our apartments we had a hard time explaining that we wanted to be far, far away from work.  We would point to one place on the map and the school helper and the agent would point to another one, usually closer to school.  But, a little perseverance paid off and we found 2 places within a 10 minute bike ride of each other.  

Naturally I took the most expensive of all the apartments we looked at.  It's a 10 minute bike ride from school and borders Kinuta Koen, a large city park filled with trees, springs, and the occasional Taiko drummers.  It's a great way to start my day with a bike ride through the park on my way to work.

Island Living

the train station at Enoshima

check out all the surfers.  they look like little seals from a distance.

lots of windsurfers in the bay

Last weekend we remembered we live on an island.  Tough to remember when you are hemmed in by buildings, cars, cement and concrete.  Easy to remember when you can take an express train from James's station and arrive at the Pacific Ocean in less than an hour.  The smell of salt and ocean was so sweet after weeks of putting our head down and going about city life.  And, this is no Pacific Ocean water of our Oregon years...this was warm and swimming worthy water.  The black sand beach makes the water look murky, but we had no qualms about jumping in on a hot, muggy day.  

earthquakes, $100 watermelons and heated, singing toilet seats--welcome to Japan!

The all-in-one!  Warm your tush on cold nights, use a little spray or play a little song to mask the sound of your tinkle tinkle!

Cube watermelons--the small one is a steal at $84 and the large one is worth the luxury for a mere $105. 

Grapes for $73

A temple in Setagaya near Yoga Station.

It was an event-less arrival into Narita airport.  We waited around 3 hours for others to show up, then went directly through Tokyo into Setagaya for dinner at an Italian restaurant.  We checked into Tokyu Stay Hotel, which is to be our home until we get settled into apartments.  The first few days have just been checking out apartments.  Mr. Tanimora, our school rep, took us around along with a real estate agent.  Jesse has fallen for the first apartment we saw (and the most expensive, naturally), but James has yet to find a place.  We weren't accepted for our first choice apartments because the former residents from Canada destroyed the apartment...no more foreigners allowed.  

We also were in our first Japanese earthquake.  The building shook strongly enough to think it was from the trains below the earth, but we shook too long for it to be just a train.

Japan is so far everything we expected it to be, and more.  Setagaya, our neighborhood, is full of everything you need, but is still remarkable peaceful.  Every piece of land is packed to its fullest--grocery stores, houses, train stations, temples, gigantic skyscrapers, and not even lacking character and charm.  The food is awesome.  Affordable, fresh and tasty sushi and many more things that we don't know what they are, but taste good.  We are still a little too shy to go into a restaurant because we can't read the menu at all.  Language lessons are high on the to-do list.  Local beer is expensive: $15 for a six pack.  Better develop a taste for sake soon.  

Today I went to Shinjuku, Shibuya and Harajuku, the big shopping areas in Central Tokyo that are like Times Square on steroids.  The train stations are packed with huge food courts that have the most beautiful food--rows of french pastries, cakes, marinated fish, noodles, sushi, and even $100 watermelons.  There was even a square watermelon that must have been grown in some sort of container.  I'll post some pictures soon.

sweet, sweet summer

It's only August and summer is already over for us.  I'm writing this from the airport while I wait to go to Seattle, then on to Tokyo.  It's a 10 hour flight that gets us there tomorrow.  It's our first flight over the Pacific and our first time in Asia.  We'll add more to this blog and change it around, but for now, here are a few pictures of our summer that was oh so short. 

Oregon is probably the best place on earth.

James in Portland

Shawn met the band Rehab on the streets of Bend

Grandma Ginny and I went to the Yamhill County Fair & Rodeo in McMinnville

Cousin Opal goofing around in McMinnville

the automatic strawberry machine we found in the middle of nowhere on our Holland bike trip

reaching the North Sea near Leiden after 2 weeks of biking and camping

eating heavenly ribs on the Jersey Shore with good friends

niece Avery and Mr. Potato Head in Levittown, New York

hiking with the girls along the North Umpqua River

school's out, boxes are packed

Kids left today. I feel a mixture of excitement about a summer of play and a deep sadness for saying goodbye. One of my little girls cried when she left--for a 6 year old to understand the meaning of goodbye is pretty advanced. People have been exceptionally kind here. Leaving today I am loaded down with Bosnian souvenirs, beautiful handmade scarves, flowers and chocolate.

The boxes are sent to Japan, the apartments are clean, and we have just a few things to do at school before we head to The Netherlands and Belgium for 2 weeks of bicycle riding and camping. Oh, please let it be sunny.

We had a ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS tournament between our classes during the last few minutes of the day. The girl won.

Store owner in Bascarcija wrapping up our copper souvenirs.

Edita likes to call this Bosnian Hot. We were on hunt for the best Bosnian Hot outfits. Do you think they coordinated it?

If my Bosnian is as good as I think it is after a few drinks, I believe the sign on the right is promoting another go at hosting the Olympics in Sarajevo.

accidents, tour busses, and mines OH MY!

Last weekend we tried to get out of town. It was our last full weekend in Bosnia and we wanted to spend it with Edita, doing something out of the ordinary. Saturday morning we loaded up Buba to drive out to Mt. Maglich, the tallest mountain in Bosnia. The weather was conspiring against us. About 1 hour out of Sarajevo we were the first car to come upon a 2 car accident. We still have no idea how it happened---the road was only slightly curved and there was excellent visibility. One car was severely damaged. While Edita and I freaked out a bit, James gallantly pulled a man out of the damaged car. He will probably be ok, some broken ribs at worst, we hope. The worst part was the tour bus that pulled up behind us. They unloaded, children in tow, to walk up and check out the scene.

We left as soon as we realized we were of no more help and the ambulance was on its way. Not wanting to give up on an adventure, but our road to Maglich being closed, we turned back toward Bjelascnica mountain. The fog was thick and we had trouble seeing in front of us. Along the road was an expedition of de-miners.

It was so eerie to see big men in protective de-mining clothing coming out of the fog at us, with yellow tape all over the side of the road.

We finally had tea at a nice little mountain house called Bijele Vode (White Water). Nevertheless, we went home feeling slightly defeated.

TASIS Paradise

One more video...
This was made by a current teacher at The American School in Switzerland (where I worked last year). Shows some funny scenes and truths about life in a boarding school. Needless to say, it's a totally different world than here in Sarajevo.

Coolest Bike Storage Ever

This is pretty amazing.

springtime pictures

sarah wasn't enjoying this game as much as the smelly football fans in the hot, hot stadium

spring in sarajevo

looking through a window in a mosque courtyard

Friday night: chips, chocolate, and drinking on ciglane steps