Diary post Jan-Jul

This post is to review January - July.
We have had a great 6 months but it has been greatly overshadowed by our intentions to leave. Our visa problems hammered home that we couldn't settle here. It is a country that we love, filled with people that we love but we couldn't imagine setting up a home and having a family here. We imagined having to suddenly pack up our possessions and head to Korea with kids in tow... Or maybe the government deciding to limit the renewal of visas (it has happened before) making the annual process a lottery. That kind of uncertainty, expense and stress was tough enough with savings, few possessions and few responsibilities. With a family it would be terrifying. We want to settle somewhere and we think that it will have to be an EU country to avoid these kind of problems.
We have started to see work as a bit of a chore despite having great students. This has left us feeling a bit blue from time to time. Luckily Sarah has done a great job of maximising our time off and reaffirming the purpose of our life in Japan (to have a great time). This has lead to trips to Sapporo, Hakone and a fantastic golden week. We still have a trip to Nikko/Tokyo to look forward to, plus the usual eccentricities of life in Japan which never fail to add a few smiles to even the toughest days.
- Cucumber Pepsi
A green coloured beverage with a cucumber aroma
- Hotel Villa Kuretake
A previously grey and innocuous hotel, magically transformed into a tropical vision, resplendent with shipped-in palm trees, surrounded by jungle flora and backed by a new brown/yellow/red/green paint job...
- A toddler with a helmet
A wonderfully excitable kid who screams "eeeeoooo" which translates from todlish to "see you". This is followed by him running headlong into closed doors. His helmet turns a potentially upset child into an invincible door denter. Hilarious is an understatement and it is a regular occurrence.