Ramen Fury

The only game I brought with me in my carry on was a new to us game called Ramen Fury.  Luckily it turned out to be a very fun game because we played it a lot in those first days before our stuff came.  (We have also eaten more ramen already than I'd had in my whole life in America.)

Speaking of food, this is one of my new top favorite foods ever.  Shrimp and Mayo Onigiri.  We can walk to 7-11 from our house and pick up these yummy guys any time we want!  It's rice filled with shrimp and mayo and the wrapper technology keeps the seaweed wrapper separate from the rice so it doesn't get soggy.  G-love also loves onigiri, but her favorite is Kombu (seaweed).

When we went to 7-11 last time we were surprised to be asked to stick our hand in a box and pull out 2 cards.  They turned out to be free drinks which they gave us right then!  We still have no idea why we won them, but cool!

Another place we can walk to from our house is Donkey.  It is technically DonQuixote, but everyone calls it Donkey.  Or, maybe technically it's Mega Uny, but whatever.  It's about 0.8 miles from our house and sells anything we could possibly need.  It is so not even close to an American store that it's senses overload for us.  It's VERY loud and it's a big building but you have to pay for things in different areas, because there are a bunch of stores even though there are no walls between them.

The kids and I walked there on our first day alone in our house and we ate lunch at McDonald's there.  It tasted pretty much the same, but I had a shrimp sandwich.  It's more expensive here too, but there weren't many dining options in Donkey.  The funny thing is that since we had no pots and pans still I had asked Husband to bring home dinner and he brought home McDonald's too not knowing that's what we'd eaten for lunch.

The good news is that Wednesday our stuff came!!!!!!!!  We are so relieved!!!  Our house was filled to the brim with boxes.  This picture was of G's room.  I worked super hard to get things unpacked since so much of it was things we wanted to use right away.  It's hot and humid here and I was a sweaty mess, but I got it done.  And, we had fans in that shipment so now we are more comfortable.

When we packed our things we were super considerate of each item we packed, but of course not all of it are things we need now.  We just had no way of knowing and followed advice of others whose houses weren't the same.  I'm sure we'll find places for everything eventually though.  There is a large amount of storage areas in our house- we just need to figure out the best places for everything.  That's actually something I enjoy.  Organizing is fun to me.  

I'll be glad when the shipping company comes today to pick up our empty boxes.  They are completely covering our entry way and blocking our closet spaces.  Other good things that are happening today- our air cons are being installed in our bedrooms!!!!!  Hooray!!  It does cool off a little at night, but the humidity is pretty high so I feel like I'm moist all of the time.  And our clothes never dry because it's rainy so often, which brings me to the other good thing coming today.   A washer/dryer combo.  We only had a washing machine so far.  I've been told the dryer doesn't work awesome, but it's got to be better than not having one at all. 

This is just a random picture of a pretty house near us.  It's so funny how there are old styles and new styles all mixed in.  (and also rice fields and industrial  things)

Here's one crazy thing that was decided pretty quickly when we got here.  Instead of homeschooling, the kids will go to Japanese school at the beginning of September (which is the start of their fall term).  Nobody was pushy about it, but I felt like they kept asking me about our plans so I asked what they felt like was best and they told me.  They explained that they thought it would help the kids adjust to Japan quicker and make friends and that the elementary school near us actually has a good global program already.  This made sense to me so I agreed.  At first the kids were upset, but it didn't take long for them to think about it and wish they could start right now.  They really miss their friends and are eager to make new ones.  The Japanese kids will go on break from the end of July through August, though, so it doesn't make sense to start yet.  We will get to tour the school Wednesday, though!