the new place

I keep getting requests to see pictures of the new apartment, but as I'm fairly forgetful and predominantly lazy, I haven't gotten to it yet. I assume the following are generic pictures of the apartment complex in general, and probably not my particular apartment at all, but they are what I have to go on until we arrive in Japan next month.

The アパート is 20 square meters, which is approximately 215 square feet. It's not a lot of space for one person, let alone two, but the price is only slightly higher than right. After the rental agency accepted our deposit, The Boy and I went promptly to Ikea. We wandered around for a while until we found the smallest example apartment they had—220 square feet. I mentally lobbed off the bathroom, and closed one eye to imagine my new home. It was smaller than my current living room.

However, I look at our new, confined space as an opportunity. For six years the husband and I have lived in our current apartment, slowly bringing things home and socking them away. With my new found ambivalence toward personal items, a tiny apartment seems oddly fulfilling. I needn't concern myself with where to put the myriad possessions I manage yet rarely see or touch, as the two suitcases and two boxes we are taking will be more than enough.

I am also reminded of the time my father-in-law took us to Hawai'i for a week. We all shared a tiny hotel room (which, to be fair, was probably larger than my new apartment will be), which quickly became strewn with clothes and sand, scented with saltwater air and fresh pineapple. I had never been to Hawai'i before, and I haven't been since. It was a beautiful and amazing place, nothing like the rest of the United States, and so much more than I had imagined. It was the same way I felt on my first trip to Japan, and I knew immediately that the hotel room didn't matter, because if I played my cards right, I would hardly be there at all.

So, yeah, my new apartment is going to be the size of some people's back yard sheds. That's all right. Once again, if I have my way, my days will be spent in school, and my evenings spent with my sweetheart, wandering Japan hand-in-hand, taking in everything Tokyo and its surrounding communities have to offer. I will spend my money on a comfortable bed, and I will sleep in my spartan palace, but I will be living somewhere else entirely.

(Also, I think it's adorable.)

five days

The apartment is beginning to empty out, but it is slow and tedious progress. We had a going away party this weekend, followed by an apartment sale. The former only unburdened us of a couple presents for friends we will dearly miss, but the latter had a you-touch-it-you-take-it policy in effect, so I think about half of our crap is gone.

The support of our family and our friends in this time of desperate begging for assistance and shilling of our wares is both awesome and sadly touching. It seems so terrible that our last memories (for the next couple years) of so many people will be loading their cars with our stuff. Still, I am humbled by all the people who have offered to fill boxes or buy things or give me a hug to keep me from climbing the walls.


My back has gotten significantly better, and I have been going on daily walks. I am back to packing boxes (while kneeling on the floor or bending properly!) and loading the car for daily trips to Goodwill. The only problem, and it's sort of a big one, is that I can not sit in one place for more than 20 minutes without stabbing back and hip pain. I avoid the agony by moving as much as possible, but the prospect of a 12+ hour drive to California, followed by a 12+ hour flight to Japan, leaves me worried.

I have a reference for a local chiropractor, and hopefully I can weasel in an appointment before leaving town. Bend me, snap me, slap me, tweak me...whatever it takes to make me right again. If at all possible, I hope to figure out exactly what it is I am doing to myself which has caused the time between attacking spasms to grow ever shorter. I am completely convinced that one of my legs is shorter than the other, but am also fully willing to accept that my atrocious posture is to blame. Whatever the case, I am at my wit's end, and I am desperate for answers.

The next few days are actually fairly low key. Jarrett has school and work all day on both days, so I plan to systematically fill boxes with donate-able items, and drop them off at the Goodwill. There was a point some months ago—and even a few weeks ago—when I had grand ideas about what I wanted to put into storage for the next few years. With only five whole days left in town, I find I have a complete lack of sentimentality. Also, making money off apartment sales is nice, but simply giving things away or strategically abandoning them at intersections is sounding more and more desirable.

As an indicator of both Jarrett's and my obsession with depleting our stock, the most exciting thing that has happened to us in weeks was when we drove past a liquor store and found a six-foot wall of reinforced booze boxes outside for the taking. We gleefully loaded the car, drove home our precious find, and promptly filled them with everything left in our cupboards.

We have no more plates or silverware or cups, and we eat exclusively from bags or boxes.

I feel as if I should be more stressed out than I am. However, after weeks of sickness and pain and worry, I am disturbingly calm. I just keep hearing my dad's words in the back of my head: if it's meant to be, it will all work out. I'm no fatalist and, to be honest, that was one of the platitudes which drove me nuts as a child. As an adult, I find them strangely soothing. Essentially, I can do every single thing which can be done between now and Monday. I will either finish the job or I won't, but either way, I am loading the car with what fits, and I am driving away from Portland no matter what.

I don't need to pull out my hair or cleanse the apartment with fire. I just need to take a deep breath and remember that all my dreams are coming true. I am at the exact point I have been planning for three years. I am (mostly) healthy. I have the best husband in the world, and a truly awesome family. I have great friends, and I am not completely broke. I am moving to Japan. I can honestly say that there is nowhere else I would rather be, nothing else I would rather do, than spend my days helping everything work out.

On a far more positive note than he ever intended, I keep smiling and thinking of the immortal words of George Eastman, "My work is done. Why wait?"

we are official!

After waiting the requisite seven days, Jarrett and I returned to the Japanese Consulate last week to pick up our passports, complete with new student visas. Hooray!

We now have everything in order for the trip to Japan, and we leave the country in three short weeks. We've been packing and craigslisting like crazy, so there isn't much more than that to report. Pack, clean, pack, clean, Goodwill, sleep...

Let it be known, however, that I am not complaining. This is week number three of a mostly screwed-up back, and last week I was sick as a dog, so the fact that I am ambulatory enough to wing crap into boxes, or quietly abandon small household wares in the lobby of the apartment, is good enough for me. I wish I believed in chiropractors, or that any of the medicines I have been prescribed would do anything other than make me sleepy. In the mean time, I pack, then I rest, then I pack, then I take a short walk for exercise.

Onward!

we are eligible!

Yesterday, the husband and I received our certificates of eligibility to enter Japan. Well, first we had to chase down and intercept a UPS van, and then we received said certificates. We were halfway to the Japanese consular offices before I read the fine print, and realized there were still a few more things left to cover.

After picking up a Visa Application to Enter Japan, which is different from the visa application itself, we took yet another set of passport photos, filled out the proper forms, put together all the documentation, and will return to the office later this afternoon. After everything is filed, I am told we should expect a call in 5 to 7 days, asking us to return to the consulate to retrieve our actual visas.

I'm going to be honest with you: I am exhausted. Just when I felt as if I was on a roll, I came down with a stomach bug, and spent the better part of a week either barfing or trying desperately not to heave ho. I began eating solid foods again just a couple days ago, then threw out my back for the fourth time this year. My sleeping schedule is erratic at best these days, and all the tasks I had lined up to finish are literally piled up in my living room awaiting the first day I can lift or bend or move without maximum effort.

I'm holding it together, and I feel myself getting very slowly better. I have decided to make small efforts for the rest of this week. I plan to get at least one thing done each day, in order to keep my motivation high, and possibly two whole things if I can manage it. The husband has been extremely helpful, picking up things from the floor, doing dishes, fetching me juice and apple sauce, and keeping a cool head in spite of all my worry between fits of vomiting.

This weekend, I will be as leisurely as possible. I will try not to worry or force myself to do too much beyond relaxing and getting better. I am fully convinced the only reason I got sick to begin with was because I wore myself down over the past couple weeks. I will be a good Scout, and I will take a break, and I will have a lovely weekend, so I can get back on task bright and early Monday...afternoon.

v i s a s

Yep, it is true...both of our visas have been approved.

It's so very exciting and terrifying at the same time.

major updates

There have been some major shake-ups and advances since I last updated this blog. Seeing as I am nothing if not a first-rate procrastinator, I haven't said very much about most of this to very many people. Well, at the very least, I haven't said much about it on the web.

To begin with, we received our housing assignment a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the already high price for student housing was nearly doubled by adding a second person. The husband and I would have more space than a single room, but it would be at a price: 650,000¥. That equals almost $7200 for a semester, and it doesn't cover food.

I was extremely appreciative of the fine people who worked to secure us a home, and even managed to wrangle a deal into it (they negotiated a $1000 savings!), but there was no way we could afford that. Literally, it would be a deal breaker. I quickly contacted a few people at the school, all of whom responded quickly and helpfully, and they managed to put me on track to filing a housing waiver and applying for an apartment.

I have yet to hear the final decision on the housing waiver, but we were referred to an awesome rental agency in Tokyo, who managed to put us into an apartment and fax a lease to my school in a matter of days. Don't get me wrong, there were many sleepless nights and fretful emails. However, the leasing agent's multi-lingual staff answered my myriad questions, sent me cute pictures, offered commuting times to campus, set up wire transfers, and handled the business end with my university. It was magical, and I expect someone will be getting the Japanese equivalent of a fruit basket when we arrive!

On the student visa front, our shiny new marriage certificate was received at a rate commensurate with the cost of expressing it there, and promptly sent to Japanese immigration. I have received no official notice that our visas were approved, but I did receive an email yesterday which said that Certificates of Eligibility were beginning to arrive.

We don't actually receive our visas from the school, but are shipped Certificates of Eligibility (COE) after our first semester's payment is processed. When the university gets its money, they will send Jarrett and I the COE, and we will take them to the nearest Japanese embassy. While briefly on foreign soil, we will be issued permission to enter Japan. Just writing that made me excited!

In the mean time, despite nothing official on the visa front, I just received an invoice in my email. I assume this means my visa has processed, though I will verify that tomorrow. I have the unique misfortune of usually receiving emails from TUJ just as they shut down for the day. Also, though no one has said my housing waiver cleared the proper channels, I was told it looked fine before it was submitted, and I was not invoiced for it on my bill. I keep my fingers perpetually crossed.

Now, the fun part: time to come up with the money which isn't covered by financial aid. I was hoping to have received my scholarship by now, but it hasn't come. Sigh. I would be pretty close to the amount I need, but had to decimate our savings for the wire transfer required to secure our apartment. You see how much fun this is? It's a roundy-roundy time.

In the mean time, I'm packing like the dickens. Well, I'm throwing crap away like the dickens, but the important part is how our apartment is very slowly emptying. Anything worth more than $20 is being sold on craigslist, and nearly everyone I meet is solicited with a polite, "Hey, how are you? Lovely to see you! Plasma TV? Bookshelves? Fairly reliable car?" I get the distinct feeling people are going to be glad to see me leave.

Hopefully, I'll have some more news soon. Wish us luck!

Criterion Discs

*If you've sent me money, I've sent your discs (unless you've received an e-mail saying they'll go out soon)*

Asterisk next to re-added movies.

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I've cleaned up this post some. Here's what's important:

1: Postage is $5 for one disc; $10 for more than one disc. Shipping is expensive.

2: After reserving discs, please contact us within 24 hours or your discs become available again.

3: Please double-check to make sure the disc/s you want is/are available before sending money!

4: Pleas provide information in your comments or e-mails: what discs you want, your name, address if we're shipping, phone # if you're local, etc.

5: I've removed the reserved and sold discs. Some reserved ones may reappear if we don't hear from the person who first asked for them within 24 hours.

6: Leave a comment here or e-mail me at: shmoovio@gmail.com with any further requests for discs. Please be patient!

7: Everything is $10 unless otherwise stated.

8: All discs are in like-new or new-new condition.

Spine #/Title(/Price, if applicable)

2: Seven Samurai
3: The Lady Vanishes
10: Walkabout
22: Summertime
41: Henry V (Olivier)
50: And the Ship Sails On
56: The 39 Steps
75: Chasing Amy
* 82: Hamlet
376: 49th Parallel - $15