In fairly epic exciting life news, this ranks right up there. A few days ago, we packed all our belongings and moved across the world to Japan for my better half’s work.

It’s impossible to say how excited we are for this move. After eight years in Virginia, we were ready for a change, and you can’t change much more than moving halfway around the globe. Right?

The move went smoother than we could have believed possible. A few days in a hotel in Virginia, a trip to California to see family for Thanksgiving (and help adjust to the massive time change that faced us), and then our big fear – the flight from Seattle to Japan. More than 11 hours on a plane with a toddler.

It went about as well as we could have hoped. We’d downloaded a season of Daniel Tiger on a laptop, the in-flight movies and novelty of unplugging and re-plugging his very own headphones, and only a couple of massive tantrums later, we landed in Japan. Safe and mostly mentally sound.

We were met by one of my husband’s co-workers and whisked away to our new home, about an hour from the airport. Wide-eyed and jet-lagged we kept glancing out the window, taking first impressions. I’d had no idea it was so mountainous. Or overcast. Or that the ethereal watercolor mountains made famous in Japanese art aren’t artistic interpretation – the mountains look exactly that blue, hazy way.
By late afternoon, we were checked into our hotel and welcomed again to an early “dinner” with new friends at 3 PM, which was as late as we could last without falling asleep where we stood.

In a few days, our house was ready and we moved in thanks to some temporary furniture until our own stuff arrives. We couldn’t be more excited to explore this new country and to immerse ourselves in the culture. Over the next couple years, we hope to enroll our son in a Japanese pre-school and be at least conversant in the language. I’m also hoping to explore the country – and Asia – as much as possible and cannot wait for the adventures the coming years will bring.