Letting go makes room for new opportunities

I was chatting to a colleague the other day on a Zoom call. He noticed the piles of boxes behind me and asked about them, a little concerned that we still hadn't finished unpacking. I assured him that that wasn't the case and that these boxes were destined for the school's secondhand sale that was happening the next week. He knew about our quest to sell our oven, washing machine, and fridge, and commented that there was a significant theme in our lives recently: letting go.

It's true. We've had to let a lot of things go. In the last 18 months we've literally downsized from a three-bedroom house equipped for a five-person household, to an apartment equipped for two people. We've also moved countries twice in the last 16 months. Our move out of Australia included letting go of a number of things, as we also downsized there. When our two younger sons moved out in February we gave them a number of things that would be useful to them, but no longer useful to us. When we packed up in July this year we had to put away things that we enjoy, but can't take to Japan, and now might not see for a decade or more. Most of that stuff hasn't been hard to let go of. I think the hardest was the oven. Much of the rest of it was old and well-used, or had passed its "useful to us" date.

We had to say goodbye to two houses. One of which we'd lived in for 13 years and contained many memories—though we were happy to leave it in many ways as it was hard to heat and cool, and broken in various ways. The other one we only lived in for 12 months, but we were very fond of (we especially loved the deck).

Saying goodbye to stuff, though, has an upside: you get to say yes to other things. Like less stuff to look after. We're now able to live in a small apartment that requires less up-keep and takes a fraction of the time to clean and a fraction of the budget to heat and cool. And we now have a cute car that is easier to manoeuvre in the narrow streets of Japan.

Moving between countries means letting go of relationships too. Not as in ending relationships (at least not the closer friendships), but letting go of the intimacy that you get from attending the same church, living in the same community, or living only a few hours drive away. This has been an ongoing theme of our lives, ever since we first moved to Japan in 2000. This time we also had to let go of hosting our sons in person on Sunday afternoons/evenings.

I'm trying to grow lettuce from seed 
for the first time. I think I might have
sown too many seeds!

Other things we haven't so much "let go", but they've changed nonetheless. We're no longer a parents at school or at any sporting event. I'm no longer cooking or shopping for large appetites. But that's getting to be "old news" now, though my soul is still adjusting to it. Christmas is becoming imminent and we're aware that this will be the first time in 25 years that we've celebrated that day without any of our kids, and only the second time in 50+ years that we've celebrated without any family at all (aside from each other)...but again I mentioned that last time I wrote here.

It has been a season of letting go: it's worth continuing to acknowledge that. But also remember that letting go allows new things to happen, like the adventure we took last week to watch wheelchair rugby. We're embarking on a new adventure on Sundays too: a new church. If I look back at the four months since we arrived back in Japan, I can see evidence of all sorts of small opportunities we've been able to take up that were largely absent during the previous years of busy parenting. Only God knows where this new season post-"letting go" will take us.

It's been a lot of change!

A week and a half ago I came down with a cold that David had already had for a week. We’re both still recovering, though each day our symptoms are receding further. We both have chronic asthma that is well controlled, but at times like these, it's in our face and limiting our capacity; both of us have lingering coughs. I went to the doctor last week to get my regular asthma meds and he thought I had sinusitis too, so fun times and lots of tissues. 

A friend captured the proposal
from a distance (only our son
knew the photographer was there)

Last weekend I had very limited energy, but nonetheless we had an exciting weekend: on the Saturday (24th) our eldest son asked his girlfriend to marry him and she said yes! So we’ve been digesting that news and gradually telling people. I started this blog in 2010 when he was only 10 years old. It’s hard to believe that we’re now already at another new stage of parenting: getting ready to welcome in a daughter-in-law! (And we’re only just starting to get used to having no kids at home in Japan.) Of course, we’re not in the same country as them, so we’re now planning a trip to Australia in January to help them celebrate their wedding. 

Every now and then I'm amazed at how much change has gone on in these last few months:

• our younger two sons moved out and that has precipitated many big and small changes that we're still adjusting to
• we moved countries, again
• we moved to Japan without children for the first time (and yes, this warrants its own bullet point)
• after a year of both of us based at home and not working regular hours, David's working outside the home again, 8–5 Monday to Friday, and I'm at my desk at home for many of those hours too
• we've downsized into a small apartment and small car
• I'm learning to cook again in a smaller kitchen with a smaller space for storing ingredients
• our eldest son has made a lot of changes in his life in the last couple of months, and believe it or not that is taking a bit to adjust to in our thinking
• our middle son, who has been unemployed since leaving school in June 2021, has a job, a licence, and a car, and continues to surprise us as to what he's able to achieve
• we are adjusting to the idea of having a future daughter-in-law whose name we know!
• we're planning an unexpected short trip to Australia for a wedding in January.

There are a few other things, including changes in the two teams I work with in Japan, but I'll leave the list as it is.

That list makes me feel tired! It partly explains why we got sick and it's taken so long to recover. It helps me to remember to be gracious to myself when I'm feeling wobbly or weak, and that transition of this magnitude takes time to recover from.

But aside from that, there is so much to be thankful for in the above list and we're amazed at God's provision, his leading, and his care for us and our children.

It's been a month since we moved in

Moving day, four weeks ago!

It's hard to believe that it's been a month since we moved into this apartment, but the calendar doesn't lie. This is a simple, photo-heavy blog post with some before and after photos from the last couple of weeks.

It took a while to refine our new
household rubbish sorting system.
We have no outside storage, so it's all here.

This is how it looks today. We're pretty pleased. Two little plastic trays for paper and bottles/cans under the microwave. On the floor is a tiny "dirty" rubbish bin and plastic recyclables. We’ve also got

some extra (non-rubbish) storage in that little cupboard near the floor.

This was 10 days ago. We got rid of almost all our boxes: 
to a fellow missionary who’ll be moving in a few months
and in the “paper” recycling last week.

Looking tidy now!

More boxes.

All gone. Only thing left in this picture to deal with

is hiding behind the plant: wall pictures to hang.

I’d hoped to get this area of my office sorted before Christmas, but my
 amazing husband sorted it just after 
I last included this photo in a blog post!

Doesn’t it look great? And if anyone local
wants some metal cricket wickets…

Our new slow cooker arrived last week too.
We sold our large one last year and have bought 
this, which is more appropriate for two people.
I cooked 700g of pork in this last night and it was
so tender!

School started for the students today too, so hopefully we’ll get into more of a daily/weekly routine (and start remembering what day of the week it is again). It’s been over a year since we had the routine of David working at school, so it is a bit of an adjustment, but good. David’s been struggling to get over a cold, which to me shows this transition hasn’t been nothing. It’s taken a toll and we have to take time to recover, but that’s hard to remember some days.

Flashback to some transition craziness in Australia

Looking back at my blog post at the end of June and I’m amazed—there was so much going on. It's probably no wonder we've hit a bit of a wall today with energy, after two very busy months with so many decisions and transition.

One thing I mentioned in the above linked blog post was uncertainty about cars. Here’s how it turned out:

Our car, that we bought second-hand in August last year, cost us quite a bit in repairs over the year. It really didn't turn out to be a great purchase. As we looked towards transferring ownership to our eldest son, we decided to fix a ding that was caused during a hit-and-run incident while David was supervising a learner driver. This took several weeks at the end of June and early July to fix at the insurance company's preferred provider.

Thankfully we'd purchased a second car a few weeks previously, with the intention of our middle son taking ownership of it after he got his licence. We were able to use that car while our main car was getting fixed.

The day we moved all our stuff out of the house (which was a huge day without complications) was the same day our first car was available for collection and it turned into logistics challenge and a race against time as we tried to organise two drivers to be at the panelbeater shop before they shut. That also turned out to be the day we handed our second car over to our middle son.

Our eldest son was moving to Townsville (17 hrs drive north) only a few days after we left Australia and needed our larger car to carry all his stuff, so we planned to transfer ownership of our first car to him. So, a few days after we got it back from the panel beaters—and only four days before we were due to fly out of the country—we borrowed a car from the people we were staying with and put our first car into a different "shop" to get a road worthy certificate (an essential step in such a transfer). We already knew that there was an oil leak, due nearly wrecking the engine during our journey north a few weeks earlier, when our oil completely ran out one morning. We just weren't completely sure where or how expensive it would be to fix. Turned out that it would be an expensive fix and one that we (and our son) didn't have time for, so we retrieved our car.

On our last night in Australia we handed the keys to the car that was still in our name over to our eldest son and left him to deal with the mess, while advising him to sell it on our behalf as soon as he could once he got to Townsville.

His car was an older Corolla sedan that was in pretty good shape and actually passed its roadworthy pretty easily. He transferred ownership to his youngest brother who is due to do his licence test later this year.

Are you confused yet? This was just one of the things going on in the midst of us changing countries, for example, at the time I was still recovering from dental surgery. It's probably no surprise that we're weary today.

David started work a week ago and I've been gradually getting back into things. The heat and humidity is quite draining, even though we have good air conditioning. Our apartment is close to being completely set up and we're so thankful for that (and that we could move in so quickly after arriving). But we've made so many decisions and dealt with so much change these last couple of months. Transition is tiring. I'm glad we're on the other side. It's easy—because we've done this so many times and we've moved back to the same neighbourhood in a country we're familiar with—to race onwards and forget to take rest and be kind to ourselves. So it's good to take a moment to remember the craziness that was happening in those last few weeks in Australia!

Bending and flexing into our Japanese home

We’ve been watching quite a bit of the Olympics between other things. We watched both the men’s and women’s pole vaulting and they were amazing competitions for different reasons. The flexibility and balance of these athletes as they fly through the air is amazing. I feel like fitting oneself into a new living space in Japan also means a lot of flexibility and balance, though certainly not while flying through the air, although sometimes I have to admit that it does feel a little bit like we’ve lost all contact with solid ground.

There’s something odd about changing houses in Japan, it’s different to moving in Australia. I don’t know if Japanese people find this, or if it’s exclusive to foreigners (I suspect it’s somewhat universal, simply because of the multiple things you can buy to help…keep reading and I’ll show you some). You could say it’s related to small houses, but even places that are larger have their “oddities.” It seems you need creativity to make them into efficient spaces to live. Things that we take for granted in many Australian home aren’t always present, like rails to hold towels.

Last year one of our colleagues wrote a little about this aspect of life in Japan on her blog: https://memoirsofamissionarymom.blogspot.com/2023/08/trash-and-treasures.html?m=1

I love floor plans, it helps me (better than a video tour) to get a vision of how an apartment or house is laid out. Below is my English version of our house plan. I traced it from the Japanese one we have and added how we’re using spaces. So I'll put it here for you to refer to as I talk about various spaces (with photos).

We don’t really have a name for the area to the left of the word "dining". It has bookshelves in it, but no chairs, so not a library. Maybe it’s best called a multifunctional living area, as it could be an extension of the lounge or the dining area when we have guests. It’s the area we have recently stored boxes yet to be emptied, large rubbish (a disassembled desk), wall pictures yet to be hung, and empty boxes waiting to go to new homes or be thrown away. We also assembled our new furniture there yesterday.

For perspective, the lounge room, as depicted here, is 2.5 x 3.5 m. The toilet is cosy. I can touch both walls with my elbows while sitting on the pedestal. I can also easily, with my hands, touch the door and the back wall while standing.

The kitchen is very small, mostly just a sink, a stove top, and a narrow bench between the two that is 64 cm deep and 34 wide, with cupboards under it all and very high small cupboards above the sink. So we’ve had to get creative. This bookshelf has been our temporary pantry and place to hold plates and plastics. Yesterday we had three pieces of new furniture arrive, but the bookshelf is still holding plastics and some food, plus the bread maker.

This is our new plate cupboard (left of it is entrance to bathroom, right is the door out to the entrance and my office, furtherest door to right is our bedroom). We’re very pleased with how the cupboard fits here and what we've been able to put in it. It needed to be narrow to fit into this space. We threw our old one out last year, we’d had it 20 years and it definitely wasn’t new when we got it. It would not have fitted into this space. This piece of furniture came flat-packed (from Nitori, a Japanese furniture store) and took us about 90 minutes to build.

Another piece of new furniture that we built yesterday: a stand to hold the microwave/convection oven. It’s also got our tea/coffee corner, and spices and herbs on top, plus rubbish bins at the bottom. 

I’ve mentioned once or twice that the city expects a fair amount of rubbish sorting required of us, which of course means multiple bins. This is still a temporary area that we’ll need to figure out how to organise better, probably buying at least one more receptacle that will fit better into this space. 

Here is the kitchen sink. It’s typically large, extending almost to the right end of the cabinet. We purchased a small shelf that rests on the end of the sink so we could balance the drying rack on it. There is no plug; we wash up the water-saving Australian way (not continuous running water like Japanese people do), so we use a small washing up bowl. The curtain is a work in progress. I want to cut it down the centre so we can more easily open it to get more light into this area, I'll have to find the sewing machine to do that... We have a curtain because the hot summer sun pours in there in the morning (which will be nice in winter, if the angle is right, but isn’t nice in this current heat).

This is the three-burner stove top. What’s notable here is that we’ve added a small plastic-coated wire net in the corner (cost about AU$3) to hang utensils on as well as a more hooks on a rail that’s held up by suction caps. These save space on the bench and in drawers and make frequently used utensils easily accessible.

Here’s the whole kitchen (minus the plate cupboard and bookshelf). It’s a bit narrow, but seems to work. It’s very exciting to have this third piece of new furniture next to the fridge that gives us more bench (counter) and drawer space. It’s too high for me to comfortably use to prepare food, but will be useful for temporarily holding appliances like the bread maker, slow cooker, mixer, etc, as well as for helping keep the bench next to the stove clear so that can be used for preparation space.

The rice cooker can be used insitu here (Japanese furniture bonus!). But the mixer below it and the small food processor squished behind the mixer will need to be lifted out when needed. Two of these drawers are key pantry storage.

There are several areas that are still messy. We have lots of collapsed boxes and other not urgent things that have yet to find a home.

The cupboard in my office is stacked full. Some of this is destined for the school bazaar later in the year, other things need more sorting and potentially tossing. Camping gear is in here too, and probably needs more downsizing. A goal: being able to close these cupboard doors before Christmas.

My office. It’s getting there. I had one Zoom meeting here this week. It still needs more finessing. I have a love-hate relationship with desks and chairs. I find it hard to get comfortable, so I hate getting new combinations and trying to make them work for my body size. A footrest is one thing I need to work on. The chair isn’t quite high enough for the desk, but is as high as it goes…so I’m not sure what to do (I’ve got a couple of thin cushions on the seat at present). Some of the stuff on the desk would be better elsewhere, but it’s there for now.

So yes, a lot of literal and figurative bending and flexing. A lot of problem solving on big and small scale. 

All of this is, of course, tiring. Transition is tiring. So I’m trying to be kind to myself and try to help David to be the same to himself. I’m ever so grateful for so many things, including this beautiful apartment, good sleep enabled by air conditioning, and that we work for an organisation that knows how exhausting international transitions are. I'm still feeling a bit shaky and temporary, though anticipate that that will dissipate as time goes on as it has in the past. 

I'm sure I would not enjoy pole vaulting, as fun as it is to watch. I'm not particularly fond of the bending and flexing needed for moving either, but it doesn't go on forever! We'll solve these small inconveniences one by one or we'll get accustomed to them and get on with living! Life here will soon seem more routine and stable again.

I'm also grateful for this verse that reminds me that no matter how messy and unstable my life seems, I have a solid foundation given to me by God:

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand (Psalm 40: 2 NIV).

Update as we continue to settle

 Another week has past and what's happened? We're feeling more and more settled. Our apartment is feeling more homey and we really like it. On Saturday we opened up most of the boxes with books in them and put them on shelves. That's always a turning point for me in a new place. Things were starting to take shape and we were getting a better idea of what we still needed to find to make this place work smoothly.

The sunny side of the apartment (south side). This side faces the river/stream/waterway that
we regularly walk along. It's a block of four apartments and ours is the top right of this photo. If you look carefully you can see our laundry drying on our small balcony.

This is the north side. Our apartment is the top left here. The window on the left is my office.

Bookshelves populated. So fun to see old favourites there.

David leaving the apartment to go for a walk with me one evening.

Reality checks

On Sunday we went back to our old church and found that they had had to scramble to find a place to worship that morning. The electricity was off in the main sanctuary, so they moved to the room where the Sunday School normally meets. A Japanese worship service was a good reality check. In Australia we're frequently considered the experts on Japan, and especially people assume we're fluent in the language. Yet I come back here and it doesn't take long to show that, though we get by, my language, in particular, isn't superb. I understood very little of the sermon on Sunday (noting that that understanding a long monologue is one of the hardest language skills). Two days earlier, I also understood very little of the official language involved in buying a car or getting us registered at the city office (David managed better than me). But somehow we get by! It's so hard to explain to people who have never lived in a country with a difficult language like Japanese how we can feel at home here, but also not be completely fluent!

Monday

This day we rode again to a nearby shopping hub and went to a homeware store, electronics store, and a 100 yen shop. We bought a number of smaller things to help in the shower and kitchen. Best purchase was a new rice cooker (we threw our 23-year-old 10-cup one out last year). When we rode home at midday, the temperature was well above 35C and we were glad it was just a short ride home and that we could have a quiet afternoon.

Wednesday was a big day

We borrowed a car on Wednesday and did a number of jobs, this took all day and involved several hours of city driving. We drove back to the place that we're buying our new car and finished off some paperwork that we hadn't been able to do last week because we forgot to take our inkan (Japanese seal, which replaces signatures on official documents). We also found out we can't pick up our car until the end of August.

Then we drove another hour to an area we rarely visit in a car: Shinjuku. It's much more inner city than where we live. There we bought a second-hand desk off a guy I think is from Egypt. I found this in the same way I bought a few things in Australia: through Facebook Marketplace. It was a bit dodgy for a little bit, though, because he gave us a location that was over the road from his tiny apartment and said to "ring the bell" when we arrived. Alas the location was another block of apartments, none of which had his name on their mailboxes. Finally he answered my messages (I think he works late hours and was asleep) and came out to meet us.

After that we drove back closer to home to a big second hand store. There we found an IKEA armchair for half the price we would have bought it new, but didn't find the printer we wanted. 

Our second last stop was at Nitori, our favourite Japanese furniture store. It has an open plan, so much better than IKEA. And the furniture is designed for small Japanese homes, so you're much more likely to find stuff that's the right size. There we bought a carpet and curtains for our washitsu (Japanese style room with delicate woven flooring called tatami), this room is our lounge room and it's easier to take care of the flooring if it's covered. We also bought three pieces of furniture for the kitchen. I'm planning to write about that next week after the furniture has been delivered, so I can show you. Japanese kitchens initially appear impossible to Australians, who are used to lots of bench (counter) space, and quite a lot of cupboards, but these problems can often be solved with problem solving and the purchase of a few small and larger items.

Our last stop was to drop the car back to its owners and ride home. It had been a long, hot, exhausting day and my physical condition slipped back a little, but with rest in the cool and some food, I recovered and slept really well and long that night.

Lounge room is taking shape. TV is out of sight on the right and still needs something solid to sit on.

My new desk. We'll add a small bookshelf where those boxes are next week.

Recovery days

Both Tuesday and Thursday I spent mostly at home. Some of that was just resting in the cool, but also writing a prayer letter and doing more home-set up. Yesterday we also pulled the furniture out of the lounge and put the carpet in (more like a door-to-door rug) as well as David's new chair. We also rearranged the office and installed my new desk (which I really like). I keep reminding myself that we've had a big month and that slow days and recovery time is important, especially with the energy sapping heat and humidity this time of the year in Tokyo. Although, having good air conditioning at home has meant that we've been able to achieve more in a shorter space of time than we otherwise would have. 

Snickerdoodles and my microwave-
convection oven (on a temporary table)

Early in the week I also had a go at using the oven part of my microwave convection oven. I've rarely used that because in our previous house I had a really top notch oven. I made a fairly good batch of Snickerdoodles and was satisfied that I could live with this new method of baking. Though it looks a lot smaller, actually I could still bake 24 biscuits at one time (previous oven I could do 30), so it isn't too big a change, although it does take a lot longer to get up to the set temperature. Being able to bake is another of my turning points in adjusting to a new place, so being able to achieve this goal so soon after we arrived felt great.

Complexity

Settling after a big move like this takes time, even though we've moved back to our old neighbourhood. We're thankful that we've had time to make the adjustment. Jumping between countries is weird. It's like jumping between two different parts of our lives. 

Here we have a lot of history, a lot more of our lives have been lived here as adults than in Australia. This morning we rode to the police station to change the address on our drivers licences (wish it was like Australia where you do it online!). The station is across the road from where our youngest son was treated for concussion a couple of years ago. Part of the route we rode is a route I've often ridden on my way to and from my big park adventures. Our visit to Nitori brought up memories of the first time we visited this store when we were in our first month in the country in 2000/1. Our apartment has many more bits and pieces of our last 23 years than our lives in Australia do. 

But it's okay. I'm reading a biography of Naomi Osaka at present. I'm surprised by how parts of her story resonate with me. She's grown up and lives "between" cultures, as do many high level athletes. She's black, and Haitian, and Japanese, and American. I'm clearly a white Australian, but I'm also someone who's lived a long time in Japan and had a lot of interaction with the expat community here, and have been changed forever by these things. I'm gradually learning to embrace all of this complexity. 

We run our monthly news/prayer letter past our adult sons before we send it out, because it includes news about their lives. This week one of them called me out on some of what I'd written. Apparently "home" was a notion that was confusing things. It's a concept that is more complex for some people than others and certainly even more so in the midst of transition.

But to conclude this blog post, I want to reassure you that we are feeling quite at home here: in Japan and in our new abode. Each day is feeling more normal as micro and macro routines weave their way into our days. Work will add another layer to that in this coming week, but we're looking forward to being settled enough at home that we can turn our focus more outward.

Checking in from Tokyo

 Yes, we really are in Tokyo now. I'm still pinching myself. It's been another huge week! Here's a summary:

Friday (19th): this time last week we were at Brisbane domestic airport, hoping we could still travel to Melbourne for a wedding. However, as you'll recall, there was a global IT crisis that affected Jetstar. We didn't get even as far as checking our luggage in and eventually, at 8pm they told us that we could "go home" and we'd be eligible for vouchers we could use on another flight. We were sad that we couldn't go through with our plan to celebrate our friend's marriage, but in the end it turned out to be a better plan to stay home.

Saturday (20th): Saturday became a much needed rest day. I had a headache much of the morning and stomach ache after lunch. These are pretty common "major transition symptoms" for me.

Sunday (21st): This also turned into an unexpected blessing, but it was a long day! Because we'd already said goodbye to (almost) everyone at our home church, we decided to attend our sons' church. Our eldest is moving to Townsville (today) and so it was his last Sunday there after 6 ½ years. It was a moving service, with his farewell as well as a speaker from Open Doors. The last hymn was "Take my life and let it be":

The only reason I didn't cry while singing that is because I was already emotionally exhausted. 

It was very special to be there at our son's farewell to the church. It was a bookend event: I was there at his first service when he was 18. We've seen him grow as a person so much in that time. Our whole family was at the service. Our youngest has been going there regularly since he started uni in February. Our middle son, who is newly licenced and has his own car now, drove himself to meet us there. It was a special morning.

The afternoon was also special. After lunch the guys came over to the place where we'd been based for the week of our move. We hung out, as we usually do on a Sunday. Playing online board games, chatting, and eating. Our hosts joined us for some of the time, and provided us with dinner. 

Saying goodbye to the guys was hard. But we finished well, final hugs were given, and good things were spoken. God has blessed us greatly.

Then I had to pull myself together enough to finalise packing and settle down to try to sleep. The latter I didn't do very well, and ended up with only about four hours shut-eye before we had to get up again.

Monday (22nd): flying day. We left at 5.45 am, with the air temperature 2C. It was a very smooth day all round. Even at the other end, we were out of the plane and through customs and immigration at a record speed. It took longer to find the place to get our Japanese eSIM access and activate that on our phones!

We were at our organisation's guesthome by around 8.30. I showered and then went looking for cold water to drink. The temperature outside at 9.30 was still around 30C. No cold water was in evidence, so I solved it in a Japanese way. I walked a short distance down the road (in shorts and tank top) and bought a bottle of cold water from a vending machine. It was kinda surreal!

Our apartment has a very narrow hallway.
The first thing the removalists did when
they arrived was erect these protective
barriers and floor covering.

Tuesday (23rd): We were up early again and borrowed a van from the guesthome to drive us and our five suitcases 50 km across town. It took about 1 ½ hrs on the "expressway"! City traffic!

We met three colleagues/friends and the removalists/movers at the place our stuff was stored. Then followed a usual kind of moving day. The difference probably was friends who came and stayed to help start the unpacking, to stock our fridge, and host us for dinner. It was a warm welcome in more than one way (daytime maximum around 37C), and helped to soothe the sadness at the goodbyes we'd just said in Australia.

In a weird quirk of timing, we discovered the owners of our former house in this city started demolishing it this very day, the same day we moved into our new apartment 300 m down the road!

Wednesday (24th): It was hard to know where to start this morning in our small apartment full of suitcases and boxes. I felt very shaky, though, so I started slow. We unpacked suitcases and located all our clothes. David got a few remaining boxes that were stored with friends and washed clothes. We opened more boxes, shifted some furniture around and gradually started to get an idea of how we want to use this new space.

It's a small kitchen (but pretty typical for Japan).
The motorhome had more bench/counter
space! It's a challenge to figure out
how to best utilise the space.

That afternoon, while we still had a car, we went on a "vision trip" to a Japanese homeware store, thinking about how to best supplement what we had in the space we have available. Of particular concern is that we have a much smaller kitchen than we previously did, so we've needed to problem solve about what we want/need and what's actually possible. We did grocery shopping and dropped the car off to the lady who was going to drive it back across Tokyo for us.

Thursday (25th): We moved some more furniture around this morning and got things into a something looking more homelike, including putting a tablecloth on our new table. It's amazing what a small thing like that can do for the look of a place. After lunch we rode to a nearby hardware/home store looking at more options for storage and other things like earthquake braces for tall furniture. I cooked our first dinner in the kitchen (a simple spaghetti bolognaise) and went for our first walk along the river.

This cupboard didn't come with shelving,
so we bought some. Japan has amazing
options for storage.

Looking more home-like. We've got a temporary
pantry/storage thing going with the bookcase.
The boxes on the floor behind the table are where
we'll put a kitchen island/cupboard.

Ice coffee break, amidst the boxes.

Friday (26th, today): Today our mission was to register our presence with the city, including our new address. That took longer than expected, but is done. We then went on an adventure to buy a new car. Three trains there (and back) and a bit of a walk, but it was another hot day so the travel was draining. But we have put the processes into place to buy a car, though we can't finalise that for three weeks (mostly due to public holidays and paperwork). On the way home we stopped by a Japanese friend's shop to say hi. She gave me back one of my plants that she's been taking care of for the year. I was shocked at how healthy it looked!

Important paperwork at the city office. I'm so thankful
David can manage this for us both.

Our new secondhand car. The secondhand car
market is much cheaper here than Australia!
We're looking forward to zipping around in
a much smaller vehicle (half the number of 
seatbelts to what we've driven throughout our
19 years in Tokyo).

My first plant made its way home to us! Looking so healthy too.

We have two places for plants that like lots of sun: first is this small
balcony (also for clothes drying).

This is the second place that gets southerly sun,
our lounge room and that windowsill is crying out
for some plants!

It's been a huge week. I'm glad to say that my physical symptoms of transition are settling down a bit. This blog post has run a bit long and I've run out of time to reflect much more on this week, but suffice to say, that it hardly seems like we left. We no longer have culture shock when we come here. This is one of the places we call home and because we've basically moved back to the same location we know where everything is in the community. It's weird, this time, though, with no children. Earlier in the week I went into a shop I've used for nearly 20 years and I kept seeing items that I would have bought in the past for our sons. Their presence in our lives here is all over our memories and activities. It's good and right that we've all moved on as a family, but it will be a process of adjustment for us all.

Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I'll be back soon with more reflective thoughts. It's been a very practical couple of weeks full of huge change and it will take a while for my soul to properly catch up!
 

The last days in Australia have been full

Yesterday we handed the keys back to the house we've been living in. It felt really anti-climactic. In fact this whole week I've felt a bit disembodied: just going through the motions, doing the next thing. And there have been a few "next things"!

A summary of our last nine days:

Tuesday (9th): my dental surgery. Wednesday and Thursday I rested at home.

Friday (12th): I went to my final ladies Bible study at church then had lunch with a close friend. My face was sore by the end of this (I had significant bruising that has made for fun social engagement!) Then we went to the bank to sort out something they couldn't manage for my online or on the phone.

Saturday: We met more close friends for an early lunch. Followed by some errands that I can no longer remember...

Sunday: re-commissioning service at church that my parents drove down for (they live 1½ hrs away). Some other friends also joined us that morning. It was kind of embarrassing to be put up on a pedestal as "our missionaries we're sending out", but also important for the church to be reminded of these things and for us to be encouraged by their support of us. After we'd said goodbye to what felt like every individual there, we finally made it home. All our boys came for a BBQ lunch that my parents brought everything for! They left mid afternoon and our sons stayed to help us with one more left-over clean up for dinner.

Monday evening

Monday: this dawned as the start of the real packing up and a significant contrast to the "spiritual" nature of the previous morning. This was the day we would stop living in the house. We packed all our clothes and other things that we thought we'd take to Japan. The kitchen was packed, the office, the bedding washed. Everything that could be was put into boxes in preparation for the next day. I spent a portion of the afternoon lying on the couch with a nasty headache. Thankfully David had things well in hand (and we'd been quietly sorting things for weeks). At the end of the day we put our suitcases and backpacks in the car and drove to the home of friends where we'd stay the rest of the week. We did a quick weigh-in of our luggage and to our dismay came out with eight kilos too much. Some rapid adjusting of what was in there didn't help as much as we hoped, so we left that problem for another day.

Tuesday: we moved our stuff to our storage container on the property of the friend of a friend. We also returned the furniture we'd borrowed from a friend for the year. I helped the four guys (David, one of our sons, and two guys from church) load the rented van and then after they left I started in on more cleaning in a very empty, echoey house. After all that we picked up our car which had had the back door straightened out after someone dinged the back of it. And then we had dinner with other friends who offered to help us with a meal this week.

Wednesday: full-on cleaning day. We finished by mid-afternoon after the carpet cleaner arrived. We dropped off some donations to a second-hand store and six dining chairs to a young guy from church. Then it was fun to have an evening "off" watching football, even if the result was not what these Queenslanders were hoping for.

Thursday (yesterday): we took our car to the mechanic early for the safety check it needed prior to transferring ownership to our son, then we picked up the final cleaning bits and pieces and closed up the house for one final time. We came back to our temporary lodgings and repacked our luggage and David took a package of the extra kilos to the post office. We got online and did address changes and I spent 45 minutes on the phone with our health insurer. Later in the day we found out that the car needs far more work than we have time (or money) for to make it ready for a transferring ownership this week, so we've had to do a rethink on that one. This car has had more problems in 12 months that either of us have ever experienced in a single car. We're regretting we ever bought it, but hindsight is not super helpful in this case!

Friday: today we've had a quiet morning by comparison! We washed clothes, I've washed my completed cross stitch before I store it (I'll get around to framing it one day in the future), David had an online school meeting, and I've spent time typing this blog post. David's just gone to do one last bit of paperwork that will hopefully help with the selling of the car some time in the future after we're no longer in the country.

This afternoon we're flying to Melbourne for a wedding tomorrow (old housemate of David's). We'll be back on Sunday in time to hang out with our guys for one more afternoon.

Monday morning (22nd) a friend is picking us and our luggage up at 5.45am to head to the airport and we should be in Tokyo by bedtime.

Yes, it's a lot. But we've thought it through and walked through this process many times now, so most of this wasn't a surprise. We also allowed time to do this at a moderate pace, rather than a frantic pace, which is something else we've learned in our years of doing international moves. I haven't slept well every night, so that's diminished my capacity each day. I've also been still using painkillers post-surgery, though that is diminishing significantly now.

I'll be glad when this is all over. I definitely have mixed feelings, as usual, about leaving Australia, but it reminds me a bit of some advice someone gave me once about getting married. When I had a moment of doubt about whether I was marrying the right guy, she said, "I think you've already made that decision." And she was right. This is the same: we decided this was the right thing some time ago, so in some ways I just have to live with the emotions and continue to put one foot in front of the other, trusting God through it all. I know from past "returns to Japan" that once we're there a significant amount of peace about it all generally settles on us.

I am reminded of this significant verse:

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed (Deuteronomy 31: 8).

Update + what awaits in Japan

I'm feeling pretty weary today. Yesterday morning I had a molar removed and abscess cleaned out under general anaesthesia. It took less than an hour and was less traumatic than having three or four wisdom teeth removed (I still have a "good side" to chew on). I'm thankful that the numbness lasted all day yesterday, so pain management wasn't hard yesterday. Today it hurts more. Overnight I slept fitfully, probably only got around four hours. Thankfully my brief is to rest for best recovery; I'm hoping for a nap after lunch. Hopefully this is the end of this strange health journey. The surgeon thinks that there was never an involvement of my salivary gland and that it was this tooth the whole time! I'm thankful that it seems this has come to an end before we left Australia and pray that there will be no complications that need to be dealt with in Japan.

Last week I wrote and sent out our prayer letter and intended to share some of that with you here. The "lead article" was:

What awaits you in Japan?

We plan to move into our new Tokyo apartment on 24 July, just two days after leaving Australia. A removalist (US English is "mover") is booked to shift our stuff from storage and there are OMF and other friends available to help us there.

The living area of our new apartment

We’re excited that our new apartment has better cooling (and heating) than our previous place, especially with another extremely hot and humid summer forecast. It’s smaller than our previous house—around 60 m², the size of a squash court. We’ll be doing a fair bit of problem solving to sort out where things go and if more furniture is required (we got rid of a lot last year). Thankfully we both love problem solving.

One of the first things we’ll do is buy bicycles to help us get around the suburb easily. Later we’ll be looking for a small car to purchase with money we’ve saved up.We will have about two weeks to get settled and then we’ll both begin work in our various roles.

We hope to have more opportunities for hospitality in this new season. Two new OMF families have moved to the CAJ area, so it will be good to spend time with them. We also have a few friends in the area who we’re hoping to invite to an Open House in our new apartment before school begins in late August.

We’re excited to start this new season. Though it will be hard to say goodbye to our sons, it’s been great to have this year to walk alongside them in Australia. We’ve seen God provide in tremendous ways and look forward to see what he’s going to do in the future! 

A couple of hymn verses come to mind as we reflect and move forward:

I am trusting you to guide me;

you alone shall lead,

ev’ry day and hour supplying

all my need. 

(Frances Ridley Havergal)

Great is Thy faithfulness, 

O God my Father,

Morning by morning 

new mercies I see,

All I have needed 

Thy hand hath provided,

Great is Thy faithfulness, 

Lord, unto me. 

(Thomas O. Chisholm)

________________________

And of course, you'll hear about our settling in process in more detail than those who read our prayer letter (I'm excited that both WiFi and air con are already connected in the apartment). But let me know if you don't receive our monthly prayer/news letter and would like to.