Moving Day (and we bought a car!)

Ahh, the day has finally come to load up our bags and move into our house! So excited! Hotel living seems like a great thing, until you're actually doing it with a 1 year old (who's snuggled into the side of me in bed this morning as I write this). The housekeeping staff all go ga ga over our cub, so yesterday morning we made them Christmas tree footprints as our thank you and goodbye gifts. I quickly realized green fingerpaint in a hotel room is not advisable... fortunately it washed out of the grout and walls, but our fingers and cubs foot were dyed green for most of the day. When our usual housekeeper came, I had the cub deliver her the picture.  At first she didn't realize it was for her, but I put her name on it. Then she was all smiles and gave him a great big hug. I wrote his name at the bottom and she practiced saying it in English.  When I showed her the tree was his footprint her eyes lit up and she clapped and beamed. I loved it.  She and the cub then played for the next twenty minutes while I awkwardly stood by. Everyday our cub helps her with our room, he carries each trashcan to the hallway and brings them back in after she empties them, he drags the towels out, attempts to tear fresh sheets and towels off her cart, points at the vacuum, carries around her duster, all while she speaks to him in Japanese. I wish I knew what she was saying!
In the afternoon the rest of the crew were around so we delivered a few more pictures to them.  Sadly I didn't get enough done so each person could have one, there's about 8 housekeepers, but really 6 that go bonkers for him. He was overdue for his afternoon nap and wouldn't let any of them hold him, instead he clung to me and pointed and handed the pictures back and forth until we had to get going. I think it made their day.  Hoping he'll be in a better mood today before we check out so they can give him a hug good-bye and hopefully I'll be able to take a group photo!

His foot prints got a bit smooshed, so not overly apparent they were his feet. 

One of our housekeeper friends, but not 'our' housekeeper. 

Monday Bonj got off work early, so we took the train to a nearby town and hoofed it to the car dealership we were told was the best to work with (they had someone who spoke English and knew all the in's and out's of what we needed to do). We found a Suzuki WagonR that we ended up buying! It wasn't exactly what we were wanting, but it'll do.  It was cheap, looks like a silly Japanese car (one of our requirements), and is a yellow plate (lower road tax, lower toll fees, excellent gas mileage). Score! So we put a deposit on it, figured out all of the paperwork yesterday (insurance, emissions, etc) and it's being delivered to us today! We'll practice driving around post before we venture into 'real' traffic.  This right-hand drive will take a little while to adjust to!

The tire size makes me chuckle. I don't think the top of the tire even reaches the bottom of my knee.

I'll have to try and upload the video of Bonj revving the engine and honking the horn later.



Yesterday we had the walk through of our house. Holy Hannah, they had the thermostats set to 30 degrees Celcius! It was like a sauna inside! We made sure to set them at 19 before we left. Yow! The doorbell rang as we were going over the paperwork, so I answered it.  One of our neighbors saw the stroller out front and came over to say hello.  How nice! Her name was Jennifer and she was a really sweet gal! She introduced me to our neighbor directly next to us and a gentleman across the street. She came back later with cookies and a two page print out of each house and who's in it and what they do.  How funny! She even had us in there (just as 'you' for now)! I was overjoyed to have such welcoming neighbors! We haven't had that experience before! We're going to borrow one of Bonj's co-workers cars to haul all of our stuff to the house today, then he's going to drive us to Costco so we can stock up on some essentials since we don't have any normal 'living' things yet (towels, sheets, food, etc). Then Friday he's taking us to IKEA, be still my heart! I better make a list or else I'll get into trouble!

"She's a beaut Clark!" We're just excited to have a front and back yard!

Off to pack up our room and get this move going!  Hope everyone is having a great day!

P.S. how is Christmas in 5 days?! I need to do some shopping still, eek!