Maybe I need to lay off the noodles.

We have been just the worst at updating everyone on our lives. Sorry. This week has consisted of...

• Binge-watching Kimmy Schmitt on Netflix (in other news, we got Netflix to work in Japan)
• Trying lots of Japanese candy and snacks - good news being that we have found some favorite junk foods in Japan. Bad news being that we have found some favorite junk foods in Japan. Oops.
• Testing out the ramen shop next door (verdict: delicious)
• Job interviews (Joe has a 2nd round interview with Interac next week)
• My first week of school, which was wonderful - my job is awesome

Other news: we are giving our old couch away on Sunday and will finally be able to walk through our apartment with ease. We are also going to play basketball (hahahaha, but actually, seriously, we are) tomorrow with a group of stangers who invited us because they knew we were new to the area. We are looking forward to meeting some new people but not so much to the basketball playing itself. Who knows, maybe we're secret prodigies?

Here is the photo dump I promised a while ago (they are in a really bizarre order...sorry). I realize many of these were already posted on Facebook. We haven't really taken a whole lot of pictures since we've been in Fukuyama but we promise to take some this weekend.

Fukuyama Castle

Fukuyama Castle

View from Fukuyama Castle

My new bike! Isn't it pretty? They picked out a green one for me because I had mentioned that it was my favorite color - so sweet!

Obviously I had to put a Pusheen sticker on it.

My luggage.

Osaka

Osaka

These places are everywhere and they are FILLED with claw machines.

Osaka

Osaka

Osaka

Joe with his takoyaki (octopus dumplings)

Takoyaki

Mirai Nikki

Zaru soba and tempura (fried stuff: veggies, shrimp, etc.)

AHHHHH! <3333 This is my favorite show. Read: not favorite ANIME, favorite SHOW (drama, at least... Seinfeld and Friends still own my comedy heart).

Fukuyama Castle

Fukuyama Castle grounds

Fukuyama Castle grounds

Apartment

Apartment (with the old couch)

Apartment

Apartment

Magic toilet

Apartment

See, it's really pretty roomy when there is only one couch..... right now this space is filled with a couch. But only until Sunday!

Yakisoba stand at the festival

THE BEST YAKISOBA EVER

Festival

Udon (I eat a lot of noodles in Japan... there's not even a picture of all of the times I've eaten them) and more tempura (this was a fried veggie ball that tasted like a blooming onion and it was sooo delicious)

A tale of two couches (alternatively titled: our first two weeks in Japan)

Hello everyone! We are (Joe, commenting on my typo "we am": We am sorry, we forget English so no blog. Goodbye.) sorry that the blog fell by the wayside for the past two weeks, but I think that was to be expected. Hopefully our small Facebook updates have been sufficient to let you know what we have been doing. Our computer is finally set up, which makes blogging easier! This is a jointly written blog. Hopefully you will be able to decipher who is speaking.

We have decided to do this as a post of highs and lows, including some stories and snippets from our past two weeks - pictures, too, of course!

When we first arrived in Japan at the airport in Osaka, we were feeling pretty good. We had navigated customs and immigration with little difficulty and had even mailed our luggage ahead of us (which was incredibly cheap to do, by the way!). However, after we were dropped off at the bus stop nearest to our hotel, we had to drag a massive amount of luggage (including pillowcases stuffed with things, a rolling carry-on each and a large, heavy bag each). It was raining, our stuff was heavy, we were exhausted and we couldn't find our hotel. After about ten minutes of walking and dragging our stuff, however, we finally did locate our hotel and we were greeted by a very sweet Japanese woman who bestowed many gifts upon us (you get presents when you check into hotels here!). Our hotel in Osaka was very nice and very comfy, and I (Brittany) was only remotely unnerved by the magic toilet. This clip from New Girl is pretty much perfect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdrVTTgxJKg

We had a great time overall in Osaka. We ate many delicious things, explored many cool stores and areas and walked a lot. But, after two days, we were ready to be done with tourist-ing and find out where our home would be - but not before we practically burnt our tastebuds off with surprisingly spicy Japanese curry (which was delicious, btw).

Japanese curry rice with tonkatsu (fried, breaded pork cutlet) - so delicious!

Our time in Fukuyama has been a lot of shopping, exploring, eating and learning. I am so thrilled about my job. It is such a joyful, fun, supportive environment to work in and I am already loving it. The kids call me Boo-ri-ta-knee sensei and it is just the cutest thing. They are such sweet, goofy, adorable kids and I already love them. It is fun to work with a variety of ages. I teach 0-5 classroom lessons and private lessons for kids up to 6th grade. I have had two "official" days of work so far, and although I am tired, I loved them and already know that this move was absolutely the right one for me. I knew from the minute I walked up to Midori (one of the schools I work at) that I was going to love working here. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing opportunity with this really fantastic job. Here are pictures from Midori. No pictures from Hikari yet, but it is also cute and wonderful.

Other than that, we will sum up our time in Fukuyama so far with highs and lows.

Let's start with lows....

• Our first four nights in Fukuyama, we stayed in a hotel that had THE WORST BED WE HAVE EVER SLEPT ON. We both felt like cripples walking around because our backs hurt so badly. I had to use my Tempurpedic pillow to lay my back on, which only helped a teeny bit. It was so bad. It made the first few days difficult because we weren't sleeping well and we were in pain.
• Lows for Brittany: Not being able to communicate or understand things that are going on. It is frustrating and upsetting to sit and listen to a twenty minute conversation and not have even the slightest clue was is happening. That happened at the city office and it made me feel very homesick and out of my element. I have also just been homesick in waves, for the comfort of knowing where to go, what to say, who to ask, etc. It is a big adjustment being somewhere that is so completely unfamiliar, especially when I can't communicate with those around me. Overall, I have felt good about my level of culture shock, but there have definitely been some pretty low moments.
• Low for Joe was probably in several parts, which were all various stages of homesickness and self-doubt. It mostly came to a front yesterday morning, when I was having some very mixed emotions about the decision to come to Japan, whether it was all just a huge mistake, and whether I was really supposed to be here. My Japanese is way better than it was three years ago but I still struggle to communicate effectively even when I understand what is being said. Couple that with the fact that many of the job opportunities I've been presented with so far have sounded very undesirable, but I feel pressured to take them since I can't exactly be picky in a foreign country where my skill set is very limited.
• Low for both: We hated our couch in the apartment so we thought, okay, we'll just buy a new one from one of the many thrift stores (a.k.a. recycle shops, which are AWESOME in Japan by the way) within walking distance. We found one we liked and attempted to purchase it, asking if they offered delivery and oh by the way, will you take our old couch? No to both, plus some confusing details. Sigh. Perhaps there was a miscommunication and we did not understand the details? Joe went back the next day to find out. Nope. We understood perfectly. Sigh again. We weren't sure what to do at this point, but the couch was still terribly uncomfortable so we knew we wanted to do something. We stumbled across another thrift shop and found an even better new couch with FREE DELIVERY! YES! We asked if they would take our old couch when they delivered the new one and they said they would have to look at it, but probably. They also said if the new couch doesn't fit through our door for some reason, then there is no refund. Okay, sure. It will fit. ...I think you know where this is going. It did not fit, or at least not through the balcony door which is what they tried first... why, I will never know. Also, they would not take our old couch. Good news, though, the new couch did fit through the front door, THANK GOODNESS. Bad news and continuation of the low that is the disaster of trying to buy a new couch in Japan: we now have not one, but TWO couches in a quite small living room area. It is the worst. We have to climb over furniture to get around. Don't worry, though, we think we found someone in Fukuyama (another foreigner) who wants it and will move it for us. Whew. We'll keep you updated on the tale of two couches. Also, it is frustrating and annoying and just the worst, but also hilarious. We just have to laugh.

• Ultimate low for both: Two days ago we attempted to go grocery shopping with an actual list. We had been once before, but had only bought a few things and mostly just looked around to see what was available (we bought some fruit, yogurt, chicken breasts, etc.). This grocery shopping trip was terrible. Joe was having to look up everything for us because neither of us knew what anything was (example: we almost bought a giant bag of some kind of Japanese leek [maybe?] that we thought was peeled garlic... nope.). Also, fruit here is ridiculously expensive. Like, we're talking $10 for a small watermelon kind of expensive. So that is stressful because we feel like we are spending way more than we should on groceries since we are used to shopping at Aldi. About 20 minutes into this trip, I just wanted to leave our basket cart thing, go back to our apartment and cry. I was so frustrated at my inability to do something as simple as buy food - I couldn't understand anything, I could find half of the ingredients that I needed, some of the stuff I needed was just absurdly expensive (i.e. butter). It was the worst culture shock yet, for me, anyway. :( Joe was not quite as upset by experience, but he was definitely frustrated and culture shocked as well. The good news is, we did get at least some food... we still can't find some things. BUT we did find a decent import store, which brings me to...

Highs:

• Our apartment. Absolutely our apartment. We love it. Our NEW couch is very comfy and so is our bed. And our toilet, which many people were so fascinated with in the picture, is legit amazing. It is lighted, as many of you noticed, but it also sprays you clean (Joe: in all the right places) AND DRIES YOU TOO. Amazing.
• Fukuyama is a really nice city. The mountains around it are just beautiful. Still haven't gotten over seeing them every day.
• My (Brittany) new bike!
• My (Joe) free bike and being able to ride further across town to the big mall with the nice import store.
• (Also Joe) Getting three requests for job interviews within the week! Yaaay! Two of them sound really interesting. (Brittany commentary: yesterday he only had an interview offer from a job that did not sound good at all, hence his low. Today is got two more from jobs he is actually genuinely interested in, that would have similar hours to mine - pray for those!)
• (Joe again) I've been pretty surprised at how much natural, spoken Japanese I am understanding. All that immersion study I have done over the last three years has been like magic, and not a single real interaction in Japanese in the interim! I just want to hug khatzumoto every time it happens, lol.
• My computer made it 無事で.
• My lovely wife made it too!
• Brittany said that was stupid.
• We are tired of writing for now. Good night!
• -_- Joe is tired of writing. I still have highs!
• I have adjusted relatively easily, with only small bouts of culture shock instead of living in a constant state of it, which was my fear.
• I am speak double the amount of Japanese that I could two weeks ago! すごい！...which was basically nothing, but hey. Now at least I know enough basic phrases to buy things and communicate okay with my fellow teachers who don't speak enough English to use only English.
• Joe and I have been finding new places that we love and are starting to make a home here in Japan. It's still a bit of a struggle and it's definitely different, but delicious desserts ABOUND. おいしい！！！
• I haven't puked from eating any food yet, although I almost did when I ate what is lovingly called a "fish cake." :/ But good news: the Japanese cuties will eat the things I don't like. They were horrified when they found out I didn't like tomatoes because they are apparently so delicious. Also the schools are super nice and accommodating and Hikari, upon finding out that I did not like tomatoes, did not put them on my lunch plate. Those small little gestures like that have made me feel very welcome.
• The teachers I work with are wonderful. They are very laid back and fun and they are making me feel so welcome. I am very lucky to work with such awesome teachers.
• I get to hold lots of cute babies.

Pictures are not working now unfortunately (Joe: but our job was to make a picture in your mind, Brittany: *eye roll*). Tomorrow I will do a picture dump style blog post. Okay? Okay.

Bye for now!

I wasn't planning to blog again so soon...

but I did, after all, promise posts sharing transparent feelings.

Today as I sat in my closet, deciding what to do about the last few things left in it (Keep? Throw out? Attempt to pack for Japan?), it all hit me at once. I guess it was triggered by the fact that my new organization technique is based on deciding whether or not something brings you joy in order to help you evaluate whether or not it should remain in your life. If it no longer brings you joy, you should get rid of it. I was having a lot of trouble with these last few things because they do still bring me joy, and yet, I can't fit them in my suitcase for Japan. I started crying as I realized that I'm leaving behind so many things that bring me comfort: my friends and family, my things that remind me of special times in my life, my kitty (who is the sweetest kitty there ever was). I've been working so hard to focus on just my excitement and not let myself focus too much on what I'm leaving behind. But in light of our final goodbyes to so many people yesterday, and packing up and selling the last things in our apartment (it is almost bare after today), I finally hit my breaking point.

Fortunately, my sweet husband found me in a puddle of tears and knew to just hold me and let me cry it out. The artist of these pictures, who goes by Puuung, has stolen my heart. Her drawings capture love and life so well, and so many of them I look at and think she must be drawing my life with Joe. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

©Puuung (http://www.grafolio.com/creator/detail.grfl?creatorId=puuung1)

©Puuung (http://www.grafolio.com/creator/detail.grfl?creatorId=puuung1)

It is very difficult to let go of the comforts of home and to allow myself to move on from a very happy, content, cozy season of living with my new husband and our sweet kitty in our very first home, which happened to be close to most of our friends and family.

©Puuung (http://www.grafolio.com/creator/detail.grfl?creatorId=puuung1)

©Puuung (http://www.grafolio.com/creator/detail.grfl?creatorId=puuung1)

I reiterate that I know it will be worth it, and I truly am excited about all of the new memories we will make together. I know that our apartment in Japan will become a cozy home for us and we will find new friends and new places to hang out. Unfortunately, our kitty will just have to wait back home for us. :(

It was healthy to get out those emotions and I know it is completely normal for me to be feeling that way. Crying it out truly did help me feel better and I am back to keeping my eyes on the future instead of focusing on what is being left behind.

I trust that God has a big, exciting, amazing, fun plan for us in Japan. I know that leaving behind so many things will help me grow as a person and will teach me new things about myself and those around me. Others seem to sum up my emotions better than me, whether through pictures or writing. So I end by saying that I am not quite ready to move to Japan, but to borrow someone else's words, I want to trust in God's plan by living a life and having an adventure that is "too big to be ready for."*

*(Snippet taken from this blog post, which I should say I do not agree with everything said in it - but I liked the way she phrased that: http://www.abigailmarygreen.com/blog/2015/4/3/the-day-i-decided-to-stop-listening-to-what-everybodys-saying-im-supposed-to-do-why-im-not-ready-to-get-married-in-44-days)