First Days in Japan

Our first days in Japan! We landed in Osaka, which has been a gentle and friendly entry into this new country. With last minute decision procrastination, we had a loose itinerary to follow, arriving in Osaka and slowly moving our herd around the island, east to west and back again, mostly via train. It was a bit of a puzzle to figure out their subway ticket system again, but after the first couple of times, now even the kids can do it, dropping in their coins to clink clink clink their way into little slips of tickets, with only the occasional fare adjustment needed, ho ho ho.

Jet lag was both more powerful and more easily defeated than I anticipated. My first stationery purchase was a surprise to all: this cute little A7 vinyl Rhodia pad cover. So cute! Jet lag has been both more powerful and more easily defeated than I anticipated. Snacks have been crunchy and savoury and spicy and chewy and plentiful. Everyone has been sweaty. We’re learning to walk on the left.

The kids have been figuring out the fancy toilets and trying to keep their ogling to a minimum and reading their books on trains and slurping up noodles and constantly badgering for ice cream and cold drinks. They have, admittedly, been dragged along on this grand adventure while the adults visit stationery shops and try to have stationery conversations with new adults, but I suppose this is something they’re used to already. They are troopers! And also raccoons. So they are surviving and making the most of the snacks and buns and onigiri available to them while bickering among themselves.

They have been surprisingly amenable to doing their math homework, and after the first time, it dawned on me to be suspicious. Are they mocking me because they know this is totally unsustainable and after one or two of these math sessions I’m going to give up on the effort of forcing them to locate their math books? How did these crafty kids become so crafty?

Somehow they are consuming vast quantities of matcha ice cream while comparing the size of their Japanese mosquito bites between each other and collecting train station stamps in their journals. What an adventure.