Hello Tokyo!

As I sit in our serviced apartment  in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo with my three kids asleep and my husband at formal welcome dinner (hosted by his Japanese colleagues entertaining him at a karaoke evening - just the sort of entertainment Ath loves) it's hard to believe that this all started with a 'what if' conversation between Atholl and I. 

What if we were to uproot our family and go live somewhere completely different for a period of time, taking us out of our comfort zone of the easy-going eastern suburbs in Sydney. Assessing our relocation to Australia 5 years ago, we could never have imagined such a smooth ride. Life is good, we love the beach life style, jobs are solid..it's too easy.  It was time to move on and experience something new before we get to that stage when people will start saying 'wont you screw up your kids?'

Wrapping up a full life in Sydney was a massive task. Every bone of our bodies ached after the physical labour of packing up our house in Bondi. Saying a temporary goodbye to many wonderful friends took it's toll emotionally and arriving in Tokyo, I felt like a wash-out. Although there was not much time to recover, when you got 3 kids to feed, I slept more in the first 24 hours after arriving in Tokyo than I did the whole week before leaving Australia. 

We took some training prior to arriving in Tokyo, to help soften the blow of 'culture shock' which proved helpful to develop a sense of cultural intelligence and insights into this very interesting culture. The words I've read everywhere in expat guide books and websites is 'don't jump in too quickly'. I've taken that advice quite seriously. Typically Ath & I are the sort of travellers who tend to arrive in a new place and head out immediately to seek adventure before unpacking our clothes.  

But this is different. Tokyo is a sprawling metropolis,  strong foreign culture underpins a very fast paced, high-tech and high energy city. We're here for a year, at least, and we need to take this slow. So early days were spent  taking it all in with a few short works and basic admin things, like getting our residence cards, mobile phones and bank accounts. Atholl took care of this, I took the the kids. He was amazed at the bureaucracy and ridiculous amount of manual paper work involved.  Fortunately Meiko (our relocation consultant) was there to take him around and translate along the way. 

Key insight 10 days in:  its unbelievable how alienated you feel not understanding anything. 

Simple tasks like taking a cab, grocery shopping or reading the instructions of my rice cooker in the serviced apartment are challenges. For now my job is home keeper, taking care of my family and feeding the kids, these things I've take for granted forever wont be easy over here. 

So I've overcooked my rice and bought a $20 packet of salmon thinking it was fresh when it fact it came smoked and salted (inedible actually) and I know there's alot more of that to come. But I am feeling content. it's all in the spirit of 'what if' and adventure. There is so much to learn, and so much of this amazing city to explore. Ath is learning Japanese every day for 3 hours, the girls learn it too at school, Jonah babbles like he gets it all. So perhaps that will be my next calling - take some Japanese classes to help me around a grocery store and buy the right kind of fish next time.