{"id":720,"date":"2004-04-15T23:00:57","date_gmt":"2004-04-15T14:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2004-04-15\/720"},"modified":"2004-04-15T23:00:57","modified_gmt":"2004-04-15T14:00:57","slug":"getting-settled-in-japan-moving-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2004-04-15\/720","title":{"rendered":"Getting Settled in Japan: Moving Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<style>\np.editorialf  { width:700px }\n.editorial    { color:#AFA  }\n.editorial a  { color:#CFC  }\n<\/style>\n\n\n<div style='padding:5px 40px; background-color:#444; border: solid 1px #666; margin:10px 30px 50px 10px'>\n\n<p>The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of\nan online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten\nabout it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog\nthen, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I\nactually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my &#8220;first\nposts&#8221; in my <a nocross='1' href='\/blog\/toc\/'\nclass='quiet'>list of posts<\/a>, even though I didn't actually start a blog\nuntil a year later with my first post about <a nocross='1' class='quiet'\nhref='\/blog\/2005-04-01\/1'>buying a car in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p>There's nothing here of interest to anyone but me; I insert it here so\nthat it's together with my other posts (which are also of little interest\nto anyone but me :-)) <span class='editorial'>Any comments I add while posting this to my blog in February 2008 appear like this.<\/span>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<p>This was originally written just after we moved from California to\nJapan, so our days were dominated by jet lag, and trying to set up our\nlife and newly-acquired apartment. Anthony was 18 months old.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\n\nAnthony got up again at 5:15. While he played, <span class='nobr'>I had a<\/span> chance to look at my\nnew cell phone (a <a\nhref=\"http:\/\/www.casio.co.jp\/release\/2003\/images\/a5403ca\/02_L.jpg\">Casio\nA5403CA<\/a> &mdash; links:\n\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mobilemag.com\/content\/100\/340\/C2120\/\">1<\/a> -\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.casio.co.jp\/release\/2003\/a5403ca.html\">2<\/a>)\n\n<span class='nobr'>a bit.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>It's so far<\/span> advanced to anything I've seen in The\nStates that it's hard to believe the US can be so archaic in its\ntechnology. <span class='nobr'>It's got a<\/span> 2.2&quot;  diagonal display with an incredible 180 dpi\npitch. <span class='nobr'>It has another<\/span>, smaller (1.1&quot;  diagonal) display on the outside. <span class='nobr'>It can take<\/span> pictures at up to 1600x1200. I'll write more about it later.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nToday was going to be our moving day; tonight we'd stay at the apartment\nfor the first time. <span class='nobr'>We gathered<\/span> up most of our stuff into the car, adding <span class='nobr'>a\nfew<\/span> futons we'll borrow from Kuzuha until we have time to get our own. <span class='nobr'>The car was<\/span> so packed that there was no room for anyone but the driver, so it\nwas decided that I'd drive the car (an hour or so trip), while Fumie, Mom,\nand Anthony would take the train (combined with walking to\/from the\nstations, an hour or so trip).\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nI arrived and unloaded everything. They'd stopped for lunch, and arrived <span class='nobr'>a\nbit<\/span> later. <span class='nobr'>We spent<\/span> most of the afternoon arranging things. <span class='nobr'>At one point<\/span>,\nFumie and Anthony and <span class='nobr'>I made<\/span> the rounds to the nearby neighbors (above,\nbelow, to the side) to introduce ourself. Fumie had brought little boxes of\nGodiva chocolate from The States, which we presented. <span class='nobr'>It never<\/span> hurts to be\nnice. <span class='nobr'>The lady next<\/span> to us (we have only one side neighbor, as we have the\nedge apartment) was particularly nice &mdash; <span class='nobr'>I hope<\/span> we'll get to be good\nfriends.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nWe still have no fridge, so how to deal with Anthony's milk during the\nnight was an issue. (Fumie received her first call on her cell phone,\ninforming us that the fridge, washer\/dryer, and microwave would be\ndelivered tomorrow between 2 and 4pm.) We'd borrowed <span class='nobr'>a cooler<\/span> from Kuzuha,\nand so Fumie and <span class='nobr'>I went<\/span> to <span class='nobr'>a convenience<\/span> store (there are two within <span class='nobr'>a\nfive<\/span>-minutes' walk) to get <span class='nobr'>a block<\/span> of ice, and dinner\/breakfast stuff. <span class='nobr'>At the time<\/span>, Anthony was sleeping in the stroller, having just gotten back\nfrom <span class='nobr'>a stroll<\/span> with Mom.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nMom went home, and since Anthony was still sleeping, Fumie and <span class='nobr'>I had<\/span> dinner\n(<span class='nobr'>I had<\/span> noodles from the convenience store; she had <span class='nobr'>a fish<\/span> bento) and <span class='nobr'>a\nbath.<\/span> Dealing with the bath was somewhat of an issue, as the whole bath,\nincluding the adding of water, is controlled by <span class='nobr'>a computer<\/span> with two remotes\n(one on the wall near the bath, and one in the kitchen). <span class='nobr'>You can have<\/span> the\nbath fill and be kept warm at the touch of <span class='nobr'>a button,<\/span> and things like water\nlevel and temperature can be adjusted the same way. <span class='nobr'>The manual<\/span> is\nsubstantial, full of <span class='nobr'>a surprising<\/span> amount of Japanese that <span class='nobr'>I could<\/span> not\nunderstand. <span class='nobr'>I understood<\/span> enough to get it going, but Fumie will have to\nread it for all the details.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nAnthony was still sleeping in the stroller, so <span class='nobr'>I brought<\/span> him to the futon\nwe'd set up for him. In what's supposed to be the master bedroom (it has <span class='nobr'>a\ntiny<\/span> walk-in closet) we'd layed out three futons all next to each other.\nAnthony was up against the wall, then me, then Fumie. He didn't wake up, so\ncontinued sleeping. <span class='nobr'>He'd started<\/span> to sleep from 5:30, so jet lag is still an\nissue. (It turns out that he woke up at 1am, going back to sleep at 3am for\nanother two and <span class='nobr'>a half<\/span> hours before getting up for good at 5:30am.)\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nIt was getting late for us (8:15pm) so we were ready to wind down. While\nstill in Kuzuha, <span class='nobr'>I'd downloaded<\/span> <span class='nobr'>a copy<\/span> of the latest <i>Survivor<\/i> and\n<i>The Apprentice<\/i> episodes that <span class='nobr'>a friend<\/span> had kindly prepared for us.\nEach, at almost <span class='nobr'>a gigabyte,<\/span> took and hour and <span class='nobr'>a half<\/span> to download. <span class='nobr'>But it was<\/span> nice to be able to sit in our empty apartment with the computer on <span class='nobr'>a\nstool,<\/span> getting our <i>Survivor<\/i> fix. <span class='nobr'>It was sad<\/span> to see Lex go, but he\ndeserved it for actually trusting Rob. What <span class='nobr'>a dummy.<\/span> <span class='nobr'>And the look<\/span> on his\nface when he wasn't gifted the immunity... it was so miserable as to be\nfunny &mdash; Fumie and <span class='nobr'>I couldn't<\/span> stop laughing, and felt horrible (not really)\nfor it.\n\n<\/p><p>\n\nWe left <i>The Apprentice<\/i> for another time, and headed off to sleep in\nour new place for the first time.<\/p>\n\n<p><i><a href='\/blog\/2004-04-16\/721'>Continued here...<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of an online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten about it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog then, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I actually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my \"first posts\" in my list of posts, even though I didn't actually start a blog until a year later with my first post about buying a car in Japan.<\/p> <p>There's nothing here [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}