Challenge Accepted

It is 2:06 am on my last night in Japan. In the morning I will go to the ward office and deregister, cancel my cell phone, have one last bowl of ramen, say too many goodbyes and board a plane bound for Dallas, Texas. Emily will follow in a week-and-a-half.

I should be sleeping, but I can't. As odd as it sounds, I want to soak up every minute I have left here. I know in my heart I will return to Japan in some capacity, whether it be as a visitor or to live again I do not know, but I firmly believe the "Japan chapter" in my book of life is not fully written yet.

The HS principal at the school here sends out a weekly blog entry on Sunday evenings. Last night she sent what will not only be the last one for the year, but her last one at CA. She too, is about to embark on an exciting, new adventure. In this entry she talked about challenges and there was one line that stood out to me: The truth is, I think challenges are good for us: good for our brains, but also good for our development as people.

To be honest, I am not one who enjoys change. I like the status quo. I know this is hard to believe considering Matt and I have moved five times with his company since graduating college 15 years ago. Japan is the longest place we have lived at just over 4.5 years. Each move was hard. Each move had its challenges. Each move was full of ups and downs. I can look back though and see how each move has developed and shaped not only the two of us, but our children as well. Each and every one of us are who we are today because of challenges we have faced in life, no matter what the challenge may be.

The principal closed out her entry with the following: I’ll leave you with this: never stop challenging yourself.  You’ll never know how much you can achieve until you push yourself to do things you never thought possible.

As Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother would say –– "Challenge Accepted." I am ready to look forward to what lies ahead for our family. I am anxiously excited about the adventures we are about to go on. I am ready to face each challenge head on, and hopefully have fun along the way.

Getting Our Feet Wet

Mornin' y'all!  So that is as far as my Texas lingo will take me, but give me a few months and I am sure I will have expanded my vocabulary.

Our family (minus Emily) has been in Texas a month now. I thought it would have been much easier to jump into daily life, but alot changes when you are out of the country for 4 1/2 years.  New technology. New food. New products. New styles. New trends. New cars. New, well, just about everything. In some ways, it is like being someone who has amnesia and slowly has to remember and learn everything over again.

We closed on our house at the end of March, but have not been able to live there since most of our belongings are on the slow boat from Japan. However, tomorrow that will all end, as 427 boxes containing our junk stuff will be delivered. It will be like Christmas opening each box and trying to decide what to do with everything. (Okay, so 7 1/2 weeks really hasn't been that long, but it sure feels like it.) Chris told me recently "Our life has been like living the Suite Life of Zach and Cody. Finally it is almost over."

While I cannot tell you much about the area thus far, I can tell you where every Target, Lowes and Home Depot is within a 25 mile radius of our house. Chris and Sami have settled into school with only a few minor bumps. The kids here seem very welcoming and friendly, which has made the adjustment much easier. We miss Emily more and more each day, but we also know each day that goes by is one day closer to us to all being together again. If this is how it will feel when Emily goes off to college in a year, then I owe my mom a huge apology for not understanding why she was so upset when I went off to Ohio State. I feel a bit lonely and overwhelmed most days, but I know that is all part of the repatriation process. Hopefully getting in the house and turning it into our home will help.

Life in quiet, small-town, Prosper, Texas will be much different than being in the city for the past 4 1/2 years. I am sure the weeks and months ahead will provide laughter and many tears, but I think we will really enjoy this new adventure. So don't stay away from this blog too long. I have a feeling things are about to get interesting.

'Twas the Night Before Texas

'Twas the night before Texas,

And all through the hotel,

Not a creature was stirring,

Not even a... forget it. Nothing rhymes with hotel.

It has been 4.5 years since we moved to Japan.  I remember nervously putting our "babies" on a plane and heading to Japan, not having any idea what may lie ahead. 

Tomorrow evening Matt and I will put our youngest two children on a plane and embark back to the United States on a new adventure to Dallas, Texas. Our oldest daughter will follow at the end of June.

I have to admit, I am in serious denial about this move. In some ways it is surreal. Maybe it is because I have so many people tell me how difficult repatriating is supposed to be and I don't want to deal with it.  Maybe it is because I am leaving my first-born child behind for three months, when we have never been apart for more than a week. Or maybe it is because I have fallen so much in love with Japan, the culture, and the friendships I have built, that the idea of leaving is hard to think about. But the reality is, in less than 24 hours I will be in the air over the Pacific Ocean, hopefully sleeping with the help of a few bottles glasses of wine. 

Our goal when coming to Japan was to embrace the culture and gain as much as we could from this experience. I think we have not only achieved, but surpassed that goal. We climbed Mt Fuji with our older two kids and 16 other Caterpillar ISEs. We have been skiing, camping, white water rafting and road tripping throughout Japan. We have learned to embrace onsens and eat raw fish. We have experienced some of the world’s most beautiful beaches, ziplined through jungles, ridden on elephants, visited seaweed farms, hiked thorough Vietnam, crawled through the same tunnels as soldiers in the Vietnam War, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef and saw cows walking down the streets of some of the poorest areas of Asia.  My family has been blessed over and over during our time here. 

There are some things I never thought I would experience, like the 2011 earthquake and getting stitches in a rural Vietnam clinic by someone who was probably the village vet.  I went on two disaster relief trips to Tohoku shortly after the earthquake and the experiences I had during my time up North will be ones that stay with me forever. I am already thinking about ways to get involved in missions and service trips in parts of South America. 

I will take away many lessons from my 4.5 years here. The Japanese language is hard. I will never be fluent, or even close.  Japanese beer is way stronger than US beer. Everything here is a process, and if you think it should take an hour you better double that. Forget clothing style, anything goes, especially Little Bo Beep wear. Most people do not speak English, yet they will go out of their way to help you. Taking the train everywhere is way easier than driving, Japanese people can find a reason to smile in the midst of the worst tragedy. And people leaving is a hard reality of expat life and unfortunately it is now our time go. 

Most importantly, I have learned that when you pack up your three children and move to the other side of the world where you know no one, cannot speak the language and drive on the opposite side of the road, the people around you become your family. And boy are we going to miss our amazing family here in Kobe. 

In Japanese, the word for goodbye is sayonara. I do not believe in goodbyes, so as we board the plane tomorrow, heading to what I hope to be another amazing adventure, I will bid this beautiful country and all my friends ja mata, or as we say in English "see you later". Because anything else, I hope, is false. 

A Very Happy Japanniversary To Us!

Two years ago the kids and I left everything we have ever known and boarded an airplane bound for Osaka, Japan.  I remember while feeling scared, tearful, nervous, cautious, and apprehensive, I was also excited about the adventures that lied ahead.

I cannot believe how quickly time has gone. It seems like just yesterday we were getting on that plane. What an amazing two years it has been.

We have enjoyed traveling to locals areas, such as Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Awaji and Himeji, and have ventured to other areas of Japan, such as Wakayama, Hiroshima, Miajima, Gifu, Nasa Forest, Tango Peninsula, and Hachi Kita.  We have seen beaches and mountains and have been skiing, whitewater rafting and camping. I have hiked 56 km in 13 hours and climbed Mt Fuji with my husband and older two children.  Two of our friends have been able to come and visit.

Miajima

Matt & I in Arashiyama

Shirihama Beach

Hiroshima

Jame came to visit!  Our night at the Hobgoblin

Tango Peninsula

Top of Mt Fuji

Skiing with the neighbors in Gifu

We have been very blessed to be able to travel within other areas of Asia as well –– Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand, Langkawi in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bali, and North, Central and Southern Vietnam.

Bangkok, Thailand

Langkawi, Malaysia

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Phuket, Thailand

Ubud Rice Terrace -- Bali, Indonesia

We were told to look at every day as an adventure and I think we have. Not every day is easy. In fact, there are many days when you are so frustrated that you just want to lock yourself in a room and cry. But I do not regret for one moment taking this assignment. The past two years has had a huge impact on each and every one of us, and I know that we will someday return back to the states very different from when we had left.

I never thought I would love living in Japan as much as I do. I have fallen in love with the country, the people, the culture and even the food (well except for the sushi). I wish I was able to share everything I love so much here with all my family and friends (hint: Free room and board!).

We do not know when our time here is up. But one thing I do know is that I am going to embrace each and every day, because just as quickly as the past two years have gone by, before I know it will be time for us to move on to the next adventure. Where ever that may be.

I really need to revise my bucket list

 I have never been whitewater rafting, and frankly I am not sure I ever really want to!  But as history has shown, I seem to get suckered into doing things that I am not exactly excited about while living over here (hiking 56k, running a 5 mile race, hiking Mt. Fuji).

Tomorrow there are 15 people, including Emily, Matt and myself, going whitewater rafting on the Yoshino River -- Japan's No. 1 whitewater rafting destination. It is about a 3 hour drive from Kobe, and since there is no school tomorrow due to teacher training, we are spending it wearing wet suits and funny looking helmets instead of lounging on the couch reading.

I am not a super strong swimmer, especially when I cannot see the bottom of the water, so this should be interesting. The company we are going with is called Happy Raft. I sure hope their company name is foreshadowing as to how I will be feeling after rafting 7 hours down class 4 rapids.

I really need to start figuring out a way to get the pair of Jimmy Choo shoes off my bucket list. This adventure stuff is for the birds.

Kicking Some Mt Fuji Butt

As Dora would say "We did it!  We did it!" Matt, Emily, Chris and I, along with 16 other people, climbed and conquered Mt Fuji. What an amazing experience.

We left on the "Team Caterpillar" bus around 11 am. We stopped several times along the way for food and bathroom breaks before finally arriving at the 5th station around 7:15 pm.

My family at the rest area

It was recommended to be at the 5th station (2,305m) to get your body adjusted to the elevation change for at least an hour before starting. So we all grabbed some noodles, drinks, got all our gear ready to go and took lots of pictures. You could feel the adrenaline pumping through the 20 of us, and the other hundreds of people there.

My family at the starting point.

Our crew of 20!

 Our plan was to hike the Fujinomiya route, but somehow we wound up at the Fujiyoshida route instead. Little did we know that this was the most popular, most crowded, most steep route. We had figured 5 hours to the top. It took us 8 hours.

There were little stations several places along the way. At these stations you can sit and rest and at some of them there are people stamping walking sticks and selling food. Some had sleeping mats. Each of these places were so crowded.

Man stamping walking sticks at one of the stopping stations.

The 7th station. Only 1076m to go!

We climbed through the night. At the bottom it was a very comfortable mid 70s temperature. The higher we went the colder and windier to became. By the time we reached the top it was freezing. I am very glad we hiked at night because we had no idea what was next and what we were in for. It was pitch black besides the light from people's headlamps. Of the 8 hours, probably at least 3 of them were scaling up different rocks and boulders. It was hard. One of the coolest parts of hiking at night was looking ahead  or behind you and seeing nothing but lights and the outline of people. It was like a scene from the kids movie Antz.

Hundreds and hundreds of people hiking the Fujiyoshida trail.

At the 7th station Matt and the kids wound up in a different group than me. This was probably around 11 pm. In one way it was nice because I only had to worry about myself, but on the other hand I was always worried how the kids were doing, especially as you saw people throwing up along the way.

The part I was most worried about was the altitude. You hear horror stories of how sick people get from it. Surprisingly I never had an issue and I never needed to use my asthma inhaler or the oxygen we brought. The group I hiked with was very cautious though and when we started to get a headache or our hearts raced we would stop to adjust.

The whole goal of hiking through the night is to arrive at the top by sunrise. Sadly all the other thousands of people have the same idea. It was like being at a rock concert at the end trying to get through the trail to reach the top.

Almost to the top

Matt took this awesome picture at sunrise.

Sunrise at Mt Fuji

As we got closer to reaching the top, our group really thinned out. By the end I was just hiking with Mary Gail and I felt bad for her as I kept whining how I hiked all that way to not find my family for sunrise. The ironic part was we busted our tails to make it to the top to find Matt and the kids, to only have him stopped just below us. But it was okay, because Mary Gail is pretty cool to share the sunrise with too.

Just after sunrise I found Matt and the kids and boy was Emily and Chris tired. I really am so proud of them. How many 11 and 14 year olds can say they climbed all night long to the top of Mt Fuji?

Chris & I at the top

My family at the crater of Mt Fuji

O-H-I-O

The decent down took just under 3.5 hours. The ground was very sandy and rocky. It was killer on the knees, but the views were breathtaking.

Our decent down

The top is very bare and sandy. Once you hit about station 6, there is more trees and such.

All in all we climbed for 12.5 hours. It was a long, hard climb. People asked me if I thought this was harder than that blasted 56k hike. At first I said no, but the more I think about it, it is just different. They really can't compare as the surroundings for both are just so different.  I am glad I did it. I am glad my kids did it. It was an experience of a lifetime. But I will say this... NEVER AGAIN. 

You can see many more pictures here.