“This is the first stage in acceptance. Sometimes called the emergence stage when you start to come out of the ‘fog’ and finally begin to feel like yourself again. You start to accept the differences and feel like you can begin to live with them. You feel more confident and better able to cope with…
Category: Expat Life
Tomodachi (友達) In Japan
Round two of my visitor blogs will commence now. To be honest what a whirl wind that past month has been for me. I’ll start by saying that hosting and touring around Japan is more exhausting then I had anticipated. Honestly, it’s the truth. This life can appear charmed and most of the time it…
#BP Does Japan: A Visit from Family Part 1
I have been thinking a lot lately about how I wanted to document the moments and exciting places that I get to go to with each one of my visitors, but I didn’t want to bore everyone with a million blog posts on the same things. However, I thought to myself that each trip will…
Tips on Visiting Us in Japan
Pretty soon John and I will have a few months worth of friends and family visiting us here in Japan. Starting the beginning of October and going into the New Year. We are so excited to have such wonderful family and friends that are willing to make the journey to literally the other side of…
The Yukata: Traditional Japanese Summer Kimono
When I got to Japan it didn’t take long to figure out that summer time meant yukata time. For those that are not sure what a yukata is, it’s a summer kimono typically made of cotton and is often worn to Maturi’s (summer festivals) or other special events. It’s common to see men and women…
Hot Town, Summer in the City
It’s hot. I used to think the south was hot and humid but nothing compares to the heat and humidity that is Japan in the summer time. I’m talking like three showers a day heat and humidity. The summer season is a interesting one here in Japan. First of all it’s almost the end of July and…
Home Sweet Home in Japan
This blog post will be short and sweet, but I wanted to share a little about our home here in Japan. Our apartment is the fourth place John and I have lived together since we moved in with each other FIVE years ago! Man, where did that time go? However, it seems that for the…
Nature and Other Adventures in Gifu, Prefecture
For those of you that know me and know me well, I have a very hard time sitting still. So when the weekends here in Japan roll around it takes all I have to not hit the ground running with John dragging behind me, because he’s exhausted from a long work week. As I talked…
Finding Balance in This New (Expat) Life
Yesterday, I got home sick. Not even really sure what brought it on, nothing significant happened yesterday. So far life in Japan has been pretty fantastic, but yesterday I missed home. I’m fairly certain that it was because I FaceTimed with my dad over the weekend, while he was checking in on our house. I’ve…
Tales of a Japanese (Expat) Housewife
One of my biggest concerns about moving to Japan was what to do with my days during the week, as I wouldn’t be working full time any longer. Prior to our big move I worked full time, as a social worker, and was really happy with my job (shout out to my U of M…
Culture Shock: The Unavoidable Evil of Expat Life
Two weeks. It’s been two weeks since we’ve moved to Japan and honestly it feels like an eternity since we made our journey over here. I mean that in a good way, I haven’t been unhappy here by any means, but adjustment is a word that I would use to describe my current day to…
Language Barrier: The Struggle is Real
Alright, obviously I’m not going to be able to speak fluent Japanese or have the expectation that I’m able to get around Japan without at least some knowledge of the language. I knew this before moving to Japan, which is why I started taking Japanese lessons back in January prior to our move. Lets face…
Operation Wanderlust 