Day 1 - Reunited in Japan

I plan to write a bit about each day we're together in Japan this summer, mostly as a way to organize my thoughts and have a journal to look back at. I'll include some pics and Angela and the girls may add things here and there as well. Feel free to read if you like -- Blogger will only give me the set-up page in Japanese, so I will do my best to figure it out... not sure what it will look like to others.

My big hopes for this summer experience:
1. Show my family around this place I love (and teach them some Japanese).
2. Experience together a small taste of what it means to live abroad. Our first 4 weeks are deliberately free of hectic travel so we can settle in and just be here together.
3. Rely on each other in a way that's difficult in the busyness of the normal life routine.

We got the Waterford Japan trippers to Narita Airport and watched them pass through the security checkpoint and then Amy and I went downstairs to meet Angela and the other girls. It was a remarkable school trip this time. Although most students were young, I've never led a group that was more game to participate fully in experiences and cuisine. No complaining at all, although we walked their legs off. Tyler W was a great co-leader and, as a math guy, taught us about sangaku - geometric puzzles/problems left as offerings in shrines around Japan mostly in the 1800s (at least those are the ones that are still around).

Angela and the younger girls exited at a different customs gate than the board said they would, but we eventually found them and took the exhausted group across town to Koganei, a suburb on the western edge of Tokyo. Here we are lucky enough to have a place to stay for the next 24 days or so (see hope #2). Thanks to Tim and LaNae Stout for connecting us with the Serizawa family who has been extremely generous in providing a place for us to stay (and stocking the fridge). More on them tomorrow.

Everyone crashed pretty hard last night, but Lila, Isa, and Meg were wide awake by 4:00.  This morning we went for a little walk to begin learning the neighborhood and now we're just hanging out indoors while it drizzles outside. It should be the rainy season here, but the school trip only had one rainy day so it will be interesting to see what the weather does next. I like the rain because it cools everything off and makes it smell good ("petrichor" - I learned from Tyler), but it does make getting around a bit of a challenge when you are without a car.

Lila decided she likes the banana-flavored milk we bought this morning... it may be a challenge to find foods that she'll eat.

また明日に書きます。