Casey here, I just changed the "comments" settings so that anyone can leave a message, not just registered Blogger users.

Let me tell you, the toilets here have some sweet features.

It is 5:30 am and my husband is sleeping soundly (with his glasses on) and I am watching the fraction of Tokyo visible from our 29th floor window. The skyline goes on infinitely, and this perspective definately dwarfes Manhatten in comparison. I am loving the crazy little english catch phrases on the advertising that is irrelevant to the product being marketed. I see a sign that says "Young Summer." Another that reads "Glorious Strawberry."
Once we got to the airport we had to pile our luggage on luggage carts and ride them up the escalator. I cannot tell you how many girls I saw loose control of the cart and freak out while the valiant JET staff attempted to prevent the ensuing domino effect. We had to navigate our carts through all these check points to show various paperwork. Every several feet there was either a JET staff member holding an arrow telling us where to go or one just standing there holding a bottle of water and jumping up and down "Good job guys!" "Welcome to Japan!" "I am from South Africa!" "Keep going!" "If you're due for a tinkle you've better get it done now because you've got a few kilometers of airport to go through!" It felt just like Mario Kart, and my cart was right-side-happy which meant I would careen off to the side while the JET staff would chase me down for deviating off the path a few feet. We got to our hotel late last night after being awake for nearly 28 hours to find that they swapped my suitcases. My lovely professional summer clothes are sitting on a bus heading 6 hours north and I was left with a suitcase filled with books, boots and wool sweaters for the long winter ahead. I cried. I threw a mini fit. Casey tried to explain my part in the mishap and then I cried more until he came around. Then I took a long hot shower and decided that I could make this work. Even if I show up in a wierd ensemble and my boss thinks I think August occurs in the winter, I am still in Tokyo.

It is amazing what hot water can do for the human psyche.

I walked into a Starbucks out of curiousity last night and found a team in green aprons engaged in a frantic but professional debate on the arrangement of the pastry case. Everything was immacululate, the staff was intense and some of the drinks had a Japanese twist. Ooh, Casey is stirring and I might convince him to get up.

In three hours we'll be at the airport, swimming in a long queue with the other JETs, bathed in a sea of overweight luggage.

I'm not really sure how I feel right now. I just said goodbye to my parents and I've got a foamy mixed tide of anxiety and excitement bubbling up into my throat.

The next post will be from Tokyo!

It's 2 a.m. and we've just finished packing. Micah, Danya, Keegan, Saya, and Amy all dropped by throughout the evening to say goodbye, help us pack, and send us off with well-wishes. I'm incredibly tired. I wish I could skip tomorrow morning altogether and somehow end up on the plane already, reclining slightly, watching a movie perhaps, sipping lightly the ginger ale I've just been handed by the polite and non-intrusive stewardess.

Today we had a farewell reception at the private residence of the Japanese Consul General. A delicious ginger bread house of a home, it was near-Bavarian in style and had a candycane gate and sugary gumdrop garden. Us JETs posed for group photos on the lawn, stuck location-corresponding pins into a giant map of Japan, and finally feasted on a generous spread of delicious mostly-fishy foods after ceremonially half-listening to the half-dozen kampai-style speeches made by the various present dignitaries. There was much mingling, and I got to speak with the three JET interviewers who grilled me those long few months ago. I, of course, congratulated them on their fine choices.

Tomorrow is indeed a big day for the Broadwater duo. The lovely wife's already nestled in bed and my body's exhaustion is telling me it's time to join her in slumberland.

The madness has begun.

We should have started preparing last year!

The day of departure draws nigh and I've yet to get that quaking-in-my-boots, oh-no-what-have-I-done feeling. A good omen, for sure. This week has been a blur, a smear really, of last minute preparations, appointments, and promises. It's a precarious juggling act, trying to pack, making time for friends, and convincing our selves that no, we haven't forgotten anything. And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something. To top it off (think mayo instead of whipped cream, dolloped on a warm raspberry pie), in the past two days we've driven twice to the god-forsaken billboard wasteland of Renton for the joy of hasty dentistry.

It is strange, really, that I'm not nervous at all about moving to Japan, but I do have all this pent up anxiety for our preparations. I feel like the would-be homecoming queen dashing from hair salon to nail boutique in a desperate rush for pre-dance beauty.

I should really start coming up with some better similes.

Seriously though, I'm like this about everything. I have no doubts the final outcome will be brilliant (humbly spoken), but the process absolutely kills me. I am working to change the habit; I've got a serious promise with myself regarding my creative output while in Japan. I'd tell you what I'm going to do about my procrastination, but I better save that for later. Best to leave some topics for future blog posts, after all.

It just occured to me that I've made no mention of the wonderful time we spent in Maryland last week. Due to the triple digit heat, I passed the time largely indoors, watching movies with the folks, playing music with my brother, and shucking corn with Clinton. Really taxing stuff. I did get dragged outside, however, for a great day skiing and tubing at my aunt and uncle's cabin on Deep Creek Lake. A watery god I was, rising from the foamy wake on my twin blades of composite plastics. Julianna too enjoyed the aqueous sports, perfecting her defensive "turtle-tuck" tubing manuever, much to the amusement of my onlooking relations. It was great to see the family one more time before our long leave of absence, though I'm sure they'll visit Sendai soon enough.

I've found my new favorite palindrome: "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni." It translates as "we go in circles at night and are consumed by the fire," in reference, of course, to moths. Pretty clever stuff, that.

I thought I would post a few pictures that one of the teachers I'll be working with, Noto-Sensei, recently sent me. The top one is our apartment. We'll be living on the second floor, hopefully on the side of the building that doesn't overlook the cemetary. Actually, such a view wouldn't bother me at all, as I'm not too easily spooked. And perhaps, just perhaps, this cemetary is the reason our large, family-sized apartment has such inordinately cheap rent. I've been told it's quite nice on the inside, after all. We'll have two six-tatami-mat rooms (Japanese style), one similarly sized western room with hardwood floors, and a decent kitchen. Plenty of room for visitors.

The middle picture is Sendai Daini, my school, and the bottom is Julianna's school, Ichijoku.

As the countdown to our departure approaches the two week mark, we've been blessed with plenty of well-wishes from friends and a whole slew of "I'll come visit you in Sendai" type promises. Under normal circumstances I'd take these travel-oaths with casual indifference, as they usually mean "I'd love to come visit, but I probably won't." Thankfully, our circumstance is far from normal and our friends border on the bizarre and unusual. Meaning, of course, they are sincere, thoughtful, and similarly linked to the land of Nippon.

Take our comrade Jose, for example. He organized a farewell party for us last night that far surpassed the fealty of mere friendship. As he's also moving to Japan this summer, I have no doubt he'll be swinging down from chilly Hokkaido to visit now and then. And I doubt he'll be the only one; we've got three other American friends with Japan trips in the pipeline, not to mention the IBP-32, 33, and 34 students who are interspersed throughout the country.

The party itself was wonderful. Jose managed to gather all our favorite people in one place, feed them (with help from numerous others...props to Keegs on the grill), and offer up a hearty toast to our future success. Everyone was incredibly supportive and generous. It's great to have such an enormous support network set up before we leave.

The next time I post we'll be in Maryland, visiting my miscellany of folks and friends.