Today we're talking about internationally moving to Japan
so get your coffee and let's go!
("Life in Japan" Theme Music)
(Nate sings theme)
Something like that... OK...
So in the Spring of 2014, we got our family, then of 5 people,
and we packed up and we moved to Japan.
That was huge, wasn't it? Ruth: Big!
Ah! Is this going to be our new living room?
Becca: Yea Nate: Once we get a TV and a couch,
Becca: Yea Nate: And a little dining room?
Becca: Yea Nate: Oh, how fun! OK.
Becca: Anna's helping me. Bye!
Paul: See that second drawer there? Can you put that in the second drawer?
The second drawer. Yea, OK.
Yea, put it in there, yea.
You're gonna show me how your new toilet works, OK?
What happens to the toilet when you go in?
Anna: Um, it opens all by itself!
Nate: What were some of your first impressions of Japan, when we got here?
Ruth: First of all, I was very jet-lagged
and Sarah was only, what, 9 months old?
Nate: I think so, she was a little baby.
Ruth: She was young. And the girls were 4.
Everything was so clean, the streets were always swept so nice, and...
One thing that was a little overwhelming was understanding the garbage.
(Nate laughs) Yes.
'Cause every day there's a different type of garbage
and you have to package it a different way
and clean it a different way and that was just [gasps]
a little bit panicky, that I'm going to forget to take out my garbage
and I'm going to do it the wrong way.
Jate: And we did it the wrong way, many times. Ruth: Oh, we did.
Thankfully we have very nice neighbors who helped us quite a bit.
Nate: When we came here and I remember it being so compact
and everything so tiny!
Yea, like the stores, the houses, the cars...
The, everything is like miniature!
Ruth: It was hard to drive.
'Cause I kept thinking "Oh, that cars going to hit me! Oh, I'm going to hit the pole!"
We're on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road.
Do you have any helpful advice for moving internationally to Japan?
I think, don't bring much, only what you have to live with
because the houses here are half the size from the houses in Brazil and America.
This is our dinning room table, so is this.
Those are some of our dishes and throw pillows.
These are all of our dinning room chairs.
This is one of our chairs for our living room.
In this room we have the bunk bed
and the mattresses for the bunk bed
and the dresser
and then in this room
a sofa
the bed and the mattress
and I don't know what that is. Or that. Probably part of the bed.
And that is it.
Bring very little stuff.
And very comfortable walking shoes.
(Nate laughs) That's true.
Ruth: I'd never walked so much in my entire life as I did when I first moved to Japan.
Because, one thing, I loved Daiso.
Daiso is like "Ah!" the wonderful store of all.
But the closest Daiso to my house was like a 30 minute walk.
And we didn't have a car and I had three little kids who were not used to walking.
They'd be tired and didn't want to shop
but I was having so much fun shopping!
And then having to lug everything back... was complicated.
And try to learn a little bit of Japanese before you move
because getting my girls into youchien right after we moved was very complicated.
Plus we moved in the middle of the school year.
We moved in April — at the end of April — so school had already started.
It had just started.
And moved right before a holiday!
Right before Golden Week.
So we came, we had to order a refrigerator and all the furniture
But they couldn't deliver until after Golden Week because of all the holidays.
So we sat around in our house without furniture
and without a refrigerator for a long time.
And we were glad to get that, weren't we?
Yes we were. Very happy.
I think what helped was getting involved in language class right away.
Because then we were already starting to get immersed in the culture,
(In Japanese) I am a student.
(In Japanese) Nice to meet you.
Nate: First day of class is done.
What do you think?
It was a wonderful class, but I have a splitting headache!
Ah! So much to learn!
Sarah was home with me.
For a little bit we had somebody helping us
watch her in the day so you could go to language class too, didn't we?
We did, someone watched her for 3 months in the morning so I could study.
So I have 3 months of Japanese study.
He has 2 years!
Two years! I should be better than I am, but...
We had a lot of really helpful people at the kids' schools,
or at church or other places where we really were able to get help with...
You know, you get a letter, what does this mean?
It's hard to know.
I still don't know what all the letters mean.
Japanese is hard!
OK Ruth, what's going on here?
Honestly we do not know.
We just know we can't go into our train station
so we're waiting for Paul who's going to translate what's going on on the monitors.
There's a lot of people.
Nate: So Ruth?
Ruth: So.
Pri: So this is life in Japan
We get very close and personal.
Andy: Ah, you've gotta love the train rides in the morning.
Nate: You can barely breathe?
Yea, I can finally breathe now.
I don't have any sweaty bodies against me at the moment, so...
It's a bonus.
Paul, what'cha have in your hand there?
Uh, a thing that shows that I'm late.
Big time. Due to accident. One hour.
That's just obvious. Look at the time.
(In Japanese) Right, please.
(In Japanese) Please stop here.
If you live here in Japan, what things do you like about it?
Where can we go with our family of six for not too expensive?
Oh yea, if there's anywhere we should check out, please let us know in the comments.
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And until next time, we'll see you on "Life in Japan." Bye bye!