Catch Up Post

 The past few days have been very busy!

Saturday David, Christopher and I went to the other house. 

I managed to wash five lots of windows, scrub the bathroom, cut down some trees and clean out

some of the office.

David and Christopher worked outside cutting trees and burning trash.

I spent 10 minutes looking for my phone, then I remembered that it was broken!

Massive cobweb!

These cobwebs were all over the yard!

Also I found these snacks in a local supermarket. Not really fish and chips taste, more like vinegar taste.

English fish and chips

Sunday Hannah and I went to the city to see about getting her apartment.

I thought we would just have a look at a few places, come back, think about it and then go again to sign the contract. Hannah just wanted to do it all at one time.

She made an appointment with a real estate agent near the station. She said that it's just a 3 minute walk, I asked if that was 3 minutes for 22 year old legs or 62 year old legs!

It wasn't that far and the weather was good, not too hot!

Hannah had selected 3 places near the university but all of those were taken. The agent found 3 others, similar location and price.

There was 10,000 yen (about 50 pounds) difference between the most expensive and the cheapest. We started with the most expensive place, newer apartment, just 2 minutes from the university. Very nice but no stove or light in the main room. The next one was further away, 15 minutes walk. I felt the main room was very small. The last one smelt musty. It was clean but some how didn't feel well taken care of, maybe just an older building.  We went back to the first one and Hannah decided on that one.  Her budget will be tight but I'll help her when I can.

Hannah's room, left is the closet, right goes to the kitchen

We went back to the real estate office and Hannah signed the contract.  There's a lot to pay out but they have this system where the initial cost can be spread over a few months, which helps.

After that we went to the mall and had lunch.  We decided on sushi!

Very nice sushi

We thought there was a mistake on the English menu

Ship Roll????

We thought it should be shrimp roll, until we looked at the picture.

Ship Roll!

In Japanese these are called Battleship rolls1!!

We had a look round, there's a nice furniture store and electric store but I was getting very tired so we headed back to the station.

Of course I had energy for Mister Donuts.

Mister Donuts treat

My Halloween donut

Hannah's!

After that we got the train back. We had to wait for a taxi, which is very unusual!

Unfortunately things went down hill from there for me!

I was so tired when I got home, thinking it was just exhaustion from two very busy days I went to lie down for an hour, thinking that I would feel better after.

That wasn't the case. I came down stairs to make some dinner but didn't feel up to it. Instead I ended up throwing up. Then I got a really bad headache. I wanted to take some pain killer but thought it might upset my stomach more!

Monday was a national holiday so no doctors open. Also Mikey was out and David was sleeping. By 5 pm I felt so bad that I went to the emergency room by taxi. My fever was up to 38.8C, my head and body hurt and I still couldn't keep anything down. I tested for both Covid and flu but they were negative, I got some medicine for pain and to stop throwing up. I still feel rough but want to move about a bit as my body hurts from lying down so much. Just writing this has exhausted me!!

And I have a new phone! I didn't realize how much I use it until I didn't have one!

What A Day

 I think I'm too tired!

I set my alarm for 7am but got up at 8am! Not a good start!

I broke the yolk in an egg I was frying, and made 4 pieces of toast instead of three.

Silly mistakes but it shows how tired I am!  I feel like everything is in slow motion!  

I was putting together things to take to the other house and broke a set of plastic drawers. I picked it up by the top, which came off and the whole thing fell to pieces, scattering the contents everywhere!

On the way to the other house we stopped at a store to pick up some cleaning supplies. I was looking for David, so I called him on my phone. After the call I tried to put my phone away but dropped it. Of course it's broken!!

The next couple of weeks are going to be busier than ever. I wanted to hire my husbands friend to help move the big stuff. He has a small company that does moving, house cleaning and gardening. I asked David to call him, David sometimes works for him, but David said he isn't working because he has hurt his back. So we need to find someone else who can help with moving the big stuff!  I was hoping that my husband's friend could help as he would accept monthly payments!! 

Cats lined up!

At least the cats are happy! It's a bit cooler but still too warm for October, 26C today!

Having A Laugh

 We bought a cake yesterday to celebrate Hannah passing her test!

David chose the cake, a cute cat cake for Halloween.

The first thing was  Hannah saying that it was too cute to cut and eat! We had to take the face off before we cut it!!

Cute, it even had toe-beans!

I wanted some photos of Hannah and the cake.  Something to remember this time.

Hannah, looking very happy!

Hannah and me, I'm really happy but was so tired!!

Of course when the phone cameras start we end up with lots of crazy photos!

Hannah has an app which has filters on it, so Hannah and I ended up looking like strange cats!

Cats?

I took one of the toe-beans. These were so realistic, whoever made them is very artistic!

Cute!

But the funniest photo was one Hannah took of David. This not photo-shopped. I think it had something to do with the angel. Hannah was sitting on the floor, David standing by the window.

Weird?

Cropped version

He's not that tall and even though he is skinny, not that skinny. It's the head that got me! It looks like it's been pasted on!

It was so nice just to enjoy ourselves, have a laugh and be together. 

With this move we are coming to an end of an era.

Hannah is moving out next month. Mikey next year. It's good and I'm happy that they are moving on with their lives but change isn't easy. 

My emotions are all over the place, happy and sad at the same time!

Congratulations Hannah!!!

 Hannah passed her test for graduate school!

I'm so happy! 

She was really worried because there were only 10 places but 11 students took the test. She thought she had messed up on the interview part!  

But she got in!

So now things are getting very real! Tomorrow she needs to sort out a student loan and look for an apartment.  We have a weeks holiday next week so we can go one to see some apartments!

It's really happening!

Today David decided to change his address and register his car, the number plates were from a different prefecture. Changing address didn't take long but registering the car took ages. So many forms to fill out. Then take the form to one counter, get it checked, go another counter, get them checked, go to a different building for the forms to be checked again, I think that was the police department, back to the original building, take the plates off the car, pay 2000 yen, get new plates and put them on. Talk about tiring. But it's done! We planned to go to the other house but no time!!

maybe a cafe, interesting name

so cloudy

massive statue

I enjoyed going to places that I haven't seen in many years.

The last photo is near a massive park, when Hannah was born Hisao used to take the boys there while I visited Hannah in hospital! 

Nice day, tomorrow is back to packing!!!

It's Becoming Real

 Until today I've felt that the move is very far away. That maybe it won't really happen!

Over the weekend David move his bed to the other house.  Seeing that in the room that he will use made it very real. The bed is far too big and we will buy something better late, but for now it is set up there!

He had to put in the middle of the room as it's to big to fit along a wall!

I spent this morning finishing the tatami room and engawa.

Excuse the mess in the corridor!

I'm happy with how that looks now, nice and clean!

Very different to a few months ago.

Before

The big jobs there are the bathroom, toilets and the cupboards in the kitchen.

After that just vacuum all the floors and mop them. Then move all the stuff from here to there!

I'm realizing that we really do have too much stuff. Here we have 4 bedroom, 2 tatami rooms that we use for teaching and a large open plan living, dining, kitchen area.  The other house is a bout half the size!  We've thrown out a lot of stuff but looks like purging more! I've dumped a lot in the storage room. I know it isn't the answer but for now it will do.  I'm so tired and overwhelmed, I just can't think straight at the moment. Once we are settled then I can sort and throw out stuff!

I'm so tired that I've been coming out with very strange English. The other day we had obento for lunch. It was in the microwave, warming up. I asked Hannah to get them, instead of asking for her to get the obento I said "Get the earthquake out of the oven"  Never mind!!

Rice

 Towards the end of August there was a shortage of rice. I remember going into stores and seeing empty shelves. I heard a couple of reasons for this, one was a bad harvest last year, the second was panic buying because of an earthquake advisory put out after a large earthquake near the Nanki Trough.  Now there is rice again but it's so expensive. Last year 5kgs of rice was between 1900 yen and 2100 yen, about 9 to 10 pounds. Now the cheapest is over 3000 yen, about 15 pounds, big difference.

So I'm trying to find other carbohydrates to use, pasta, noodles, bread and potatoes!  Problem is Japanese cuisine is based on rice. Having a pot of rice cooked is so convenient, just add some soup, which is quick to make, fish and salad and there is a meal in about 20 minutes. If I prepare some of the dishes in the morning then just warming up again when we get back from the other house is so easy.  For example the other day I made a pot of miso soup, and a salad in the morning, when I came back I just cooked up some fish.  Having a pot of rice ready really helped. Also there was enough rice, soup and salad for dinner.

I love potatoes and would eat them everyday but they take time to prepare, noodles and pasta are okay but finding what to do with them is hard.  I spend ages looking for recipes that I can use but most recipes aren't doable because the ingredients aren't available here. I've done spaghetti bolognaise a few times this past couple of weeks. I would love to make a meatloaf and mash potatoes but the minced beef here is so fatty that it just doesn't work. But Costco is opening near here, they have minced beef that is 80% beef, very good for meatloaf, I'll just have to wait on that.  It's still warm enough for salads, so a big bowl of pasta chicken salad would work, but Christopher doesn't really like pasta.  Plus I always make too much, so we are eating it for two or three days!!

We've had sandwiches and pizza a lot as well. I could eat sandwiches everyday but nobody else is keen on them. Fillings are a problem, basically just ham, cheese or eggs. I would love corned beef but it's only available in these very tiny tins, that are very expensive.  I wonder if Costco does that?  Also Japanese bread is not so good, tasty but not filling!

I guess I'll have to think about what to make, we have rice but I would like to last for more than a , couple of weeks.  We might end up eating a lot of take out food for the next few weeks. We are planning to go to the other house almost everyday, there will no one here to cook, so picking up something is the easiest thing to do.  But I'm not that keen on having obento that often!  

I'm also wondering how the cats will handle the move!  I'm expecting a lot of marking and fights, should be interesting!

The weather is a bit cooler, the cats are starting curl up together!

couple of days ago!!

Another Problem

 Went to the other house again today and found more problems!

The floor in the smaller bedroom is very spongy, it had basically rotted in places. There's a stain, looks like something was spilt but never wiped up. This will be David's room, the place that is rotten is where he wanted to put his bed, need to rethink things in there.  I think we can just replace the rotten floor boards for now but in the future we will need to replace the whole floor.

I knew my mother in law wasn't really cleaning the place, even before she got sick. The doors to the small bedroom are sliding doors and I've left them open. Today I closed them to clean them and found white streaks on the frosted glass and the door frame. It's milk. I know it's milk because when we were living there before, my mother in law threw it at me, the whole carton, I moved, so it caught my side but smashed against the door. I cleaned the floor and thought she would clean the rest. But she never did, she had about 10 years to clean it up before she fell and ended up in hospital, then a care home.

The other problem is food storage! Here there is a nice big pantry and one set of cupboards that I use. In the other house the only cupboards are under the sink and stove. The cupboards above are too high, even David can't reach them without a step.  My mother in law had a few tall cabinets along the walls but they made the room feel a lot smaller, darker and claustrophobic. There is a space in the area just outside the kitchen, where the toilets and bathroom door is that I could put some kind of cabinet but I don't know if that would be practical or not. Need to think on that. I need something cheap and practical.

Outside the house

I took that photo while I was waiting for Mikey to take me home. Standing there, looking at the house, I was trying to imagine living there, but it's still difficult to believe. I really love this town we are in now, it is so convenient, almost everything is within walking distance. I also really like this house, even though it does need a lot of work done on it. It's not just the damage done by the cats either but just living here. The kitchen needs replacing, the water systems need to be checked, the sink keeps getting blocked, the plumber thinks there might be some damage near to the main sewage pipe. The garden is a disaster, even though David keeps cutting down the trees, bushes and weeds they grow back very quickly. Even with all the problems I would have been happy to stay here. If I could get a mortgage I would have bought this house!

But in another month we will be in the other house and even though I'm resigned to it I'm not happy. There is protentional but we will need to put a lot of money into the property. And we don't really have any! I wanted to stop work, travel a bit, have some fun time while I'm still healthy enough to enjoy things. Instead I'm moving and having to start over again!  Not my idea of fun!!