Hachioji

We made it! We've been at the ka-na-ru's (cannell's) house for the last week. The boys are so big! The girls are having so much fun playing with them. We caught them on a three day weekend, so we've been pretty lucky. Hachioji is on the very edge of Tokyo, right next to the mountains. It's beautiful here.

We were able to go to our new apartment and check things out there. It's pretty small (no surprise there). Our neighborhood is one of the poshest ones in town, but our apartment is the ugly duckling of the neighborhood. It feels good to stick close to our roots that way.

We went to the kindergarten Miriam will attend. She spent the whole time glued to my leg with her face in my shirt. When we left, she said "that's the school I'm going to, right! I want to go to that school. I really like it! That's my school!!!" I'm guessing she was just overwhelmed by the 50 4, 5, and 6 year olds yelling "KONNICHIWA!"

The kids were so friendly, especially the girls. They were so excited to have a new gaijing (foreigner) coming to their school. It's a public school, so all the kids that go there live in our neighborhood. The school also allows the parents to bring younger siblings for 2 hours twice a week for a playgroup, so I'm sure Gwyn and I will be making an appearance shortly.

Our neighborhood is very centrally located. There is no way we could have afforded to live here if it weren't super subsidized. We are a 7 minute walk from one subway line line and 15 minutes from another. I've decided to truly enjoy living in the city for this year. We are about 20 minutes away from various museums, zoos, and other attractions.

We're going to go watch sumo on Friday. I'm super excited.