I'm such a slacker

I know, I haven't been posting anything new and exciting, although we've done some fun things since our last post (will give you a report at a later time). I've been busy because we are in the process of moving into our new home!

Dan and I have lived in apartments during the course of our marriage--some big, some very small. Some with a concrete yard (a balcony) some without. I am so pleased to announce that we've actually found a suitable house--yes, they do have houses here in Tokyo--with a real yard (the grass kind, all be it small). Our new landlord has also agreed to let us have a pet too. If we can find one that we can adopt, we are going to surprise the kids with a puppy for Christmas.

The best network has to be the LDS kind. We've received tremendous help in finding the right neighborhoods and finding our home from tips and information given by members from our church that live here in Tokyo. One woman in particular, Melanie, has been a great resource and instrumental in helping us get settled in. Currently, we are without a car, and she took me out today to a nearby department store called "D2." It's kinda like a smaller scale Walmart/Target hybrid. She introduced me to a friend of hers who is leaving the country in a couple of weeks and her friend gave us her fridge and nearly new washer and dryer. Yay!

Earlier in the housing search, Melanie introduced us to her former property agent, the wonderful, Furakawa-san. She's the sweetest grandmotherly woman. Incredibly kind and small (she must be 4'9"), and always wearing a warm smile. She picked our family up at the train station twice, and packed us all in her wagon to show us properties in the Maihama area, in Chiba prefecture. She also was kind to give us a driving tour of our prospective neighborhood, pointing out the parks, schools and shopping areas. The third time she picked us up at the train station was today, to take us to our new home and give us our keys as well as some new resident information that she had kindly picked up for us at the city hall earlier in the week. We were really surprised (and grateful) when she handed us (with a giggle) a housewarming gift--a family sized pack of TP! Later that day, Furakawa-san also made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up a few essentials for us too. What a sweetheart!

So far Tokyo has been treating us kindly--we've been very blessed. I'm hoping I can return the favor to all the wonderful people that have helped us. Or, maybe in the near future I can help the new kid on the block.

We are officially moving in tomorrow, and won't be posting anything new until we get internet access, which I hear can take a while to set-up with the companies. Fooie. Bye for now.