What I’m learning: No.2

What I’m learning: No.2

Our first winter In Japan We're making our way through the first of (hopefully) many winters here in Japan. With an average temperature floating between 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit, we've had some beautiful days despite being the coldest time of the year. Though it has been a really difficult month in some ways, we're still doing quite well! Every day we seem to understand a little more of the language, and our day-to-day routines here in Japan are becoming more familiar. New student Takoyaki party Dinner with friends! Japanese gesture game I wasn't very good at this at all... Lunch with Friends! Lots of Japanese homework, everyday! Having just started this series on "what I'm learning," I went into the month really excited about writing this post. I began taking notes of everything I was learning. It's amazing how much more you notice when you're looking for something! In just a few days I realized I had way too much to fit in a month's blog,...
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2019 Update & What I’m learning No.1

2019 Update & What I’m learning No.1

(Belated) Merry Christmas! (I asked a group of Japanese middle school students, in Japanese, to take this for us. The girls in the group started making heart signs at us, "awwww"ing when I put my arm around Danielle... <3 ) We hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas this year! We miss you dearly, and send our love from Japan. It's 12:07 A.M. ... ...and I'm behind my keyboard, fingers clicking away. My inspiration to write is fairly akin to nature's calling, with hopefully at least a marginal difference in end result. I've been learning a lot lately and thought to myself this evening, "I should document this!" with the hope it doesn't just go in one ear and out the other. So, starting this month I'm going to make an effort to report my process and what I'm learning on a monthly basis. Hopefully I won't have to eat those words come next month! But, given it being...
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Our first month in Japan

Our first month in Japan

Well, that went by quick! I've almost been in Japan for an entire month. I'm happy to say that so far, things are going really well. Danielle arrived 10 days ago, and we've been having fun exploring our new home everyday since. I'm home! My first meal, ramen! Mission complete. Good news! We found a place to live! Danielle, Ruke (our cat who joined us in Japan), and I move in to our new home in one week! We came into this situation knowing we would need a miracle, and we got one. The deck was stacked against us: foreign students with a cat. We were told before-hand that being a foreigner alone cuts down possible rentals to a mere 5%. A pet friendly place, especially for cats, are extremely difficult to find on top of that. But not only did we find a place, we had a bonus "wish-list" of items and got everything on that list and more! Even funny, but specific...
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