Travel

Harvest Moon and Awaji Island

  Ah… Summers in Japan.. If anything makes you miss being literally anywhere else on Earth, it’s a Japan summer. With temperatures in the high 90’s with 95-100% humidity, no breeze, and precious little shade, it’s more than a bit south of paradise. We’re very lucky to have aircons in the main rooms of the […]

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Osaka Science Museum

(Originally written Aug 20, 2021) It’s been raining for about a week straight here in Osaka. Somewhere between the amount of rain in Florida where it feels like someone dumps a bucket of water over your head, and Seattle’s rain of someone dipping their fingers in a bowl of water and flicking it at your […]

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COVID Medical

COVID-19…a year later

It’s been over a year since our lives were upended by the SARS-CoV-2. Looking back, it’s been a painful one and yet, one full of gratitude. It’s hard to describe the emotions tied to this past year. Back in January of this year, we came across this message in front of the main post office […]

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The Election

I know. You are up to your eyeballs with election ads on TV, radio, social media and mailers. We are growing weary of the polarizing rhetoric. The last thing you want to read about it is a blog post about the upcoming election. I hear you. I also, can’t wait for election season to come […]

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Happy 2nd Anniversary!

September 14th marks the 2 year anniversary of our move to Japan. The week before we left the U.S. in 2018, Typhoon Jebi came through western Japan and damaged the bridge to Kansai Airport in Osaka, which meant our flight was diverted to Chubu Nagoya Centrair Airport. Looking back at photos and the blog post […]

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Back to school

Once the State of Emergency was lifted, the talk of schools reopening began. Up until that point, I had been doing lessons remotely or recording video lessons for students to access whenever they wanted. But now that the government was lifting the SOE, it meant back “normal.” The boys’ school announced that for the first […]

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State of Emergency Lifted

**This entry was written on May 30, 2020** These past months have been..strange to say the least.  Navigating the ups and downs, the uncertainty, the “new normal”, the anxiety hasn’t been easy, especially the first few weeks.  As you know, at the end of February is when we received notice that Zachary’s school would take […]

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Denden Town (Nipponbashi)

Ah, the days before social distancing.. Henceforth referred to as the ‘beforetimes’.  It’s hard to remember back to a time when every thing was normal and I didn’t bat an eye at Jack’s usual behavior of licking door knobs.   Wait, I think that was two weeks ago.  As I said, time is blurry in the […]

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Healthcare in Japan, part 3

I had no idea I had so much to write about with regard to healthcare, but here goes part 3! Over the New Year holiday, I finally received word from a customer care representative via email that she would take it upon herself to see to it that I get the information I need to […]

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Healthcare in Japan, Part 2

While I waited for the green light to get an MRI in Japan, it was recommended that I do “リハビリ” “rehabiri” or physical therapy to get movement back in my knee.  The 3rd floor of the clinic has a PT room, while the 2nd floor is, well, I’m not sure how to describe it.  As […]

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