Playing Catch Up

I just looked at the calendar and noticed that we have now been home for 9 weeks. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. Sometimes Japan just seems like a dream...

We lived in the basement of Brad's mom and step-dad's house for the first few weeks before moving into our own apartment a week and half ago. Our 440 square foot little beauty is small, but comfortable and most importantly our own. It has been so nice digging out all of our clothes, shoes, and barely used wedding presents. I like having everything that I need to make pretty much whatever I want (i.e. I have an oven now and pans to make a cake, or muffins if I want to). I also have a dishwasher to put our amazing dishes in after 2 years of not having one! We are also sleeping on our own BED, not on a futon! Really, it's just the simple things in life... :)

One thing that Brad and I joked about though is at least this time around our landlord wasn't trying to use Yahoo translator to explain certain aspects of our lease agreement to us.... haha!

My former employer asked me to come back so I have been working since April 12. It has been nice, but has kept me extremely busy! Brad is still looking for a job but has a couple of interviews this week so hopefully he'll be starting soon.

As far as the long run goes--I am taking the GRE at the end of the summer and taking an Anatomy and Physiology class at CU Denver in the fall. I will also be shadowing physical therapists this summer and applying to PT school in hopes of starting school next summer.

Brad has decided that he would like to be a high school English teacher after his experience teaching in an elementary school here as well as his experience in Japan. In order to achieve this he is going to take prerequisite classes to get a Masters in English this next year at Metro before beginning an education program next summer. After getting his license to teach he is hoping to work towards getting his masters in English part time while teaching.

We are also starting to train for the Denver Rock and Roll Marathon on October 9th. In doing so we are celebrating our 2nd anniversary by running the Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day.

And that in a nut shell is "The Anderson's Return to Colorado". Not so exciting at the moment, but we have enjoyed catching up with everyone and are looking forward to seeing what's in store for us.

And...We're Back!

I'm sorry I've taken so long to post something on here. I started writing one during our last night in Japan but never finished it. A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks so let me fill you in. We decided late on March 17 to come home, booked a flight, and started packing up our lives Friday in order to check out on Sunday. Let me tell you it was a very busy/stressful time. Thursday night there was a black out so we started to pack things up with the light of our computer and a couple of tea candles. Friday I worked a half day, and Brad a full day but somehow we got it all done by Saturday night. I was surprised how hard it was to get rid of all of our appliances. I would have loved to have donated it to people displaced by the tsunami but the only charity drive that we knew of was only accepting brand new items.  We had originally sold all of the stuff but people weren't going to pick them up until the next weekend. But our plans changed and so did theirs. Luckily there was a couple with a truck that came and picked up most of our appliances along with some of our trash to haul to the dump for us and saved us a world of money, stress, and time. We also got lots of stares from people on the street because of the massive trash pile in front of our place. Usually they are very strict about trash and you can only put certain things out on certain days, but we didn't have the time so it piled up. (And it's amazing even knowing that you're only going to be in a place for a year what you can collect!) We only mailed 3 boxes home (and one of them still hasn't arrived yet--hmm...) and we were able to fit everything in 4 suitcases and 2 carry ons. I seriously don't know how we did it, and I know it would have been hilarious trying to see us make it through all the busy train stations with our bags.

Everything we brought back with us. We had to leave a lot there, but guess what that means? SHOPPING!

We made it home to Denver after a long 12 hour flight to Washinton D.C. along with a lot of military families that were evacuating Japan as well. You guessed it, that means a lot of moms with young, tired, crying kiddos. Not fun. 

But we were welcomed by our entire immediate family at the airport and it was so meaningful to have everyone there (minus Cindy who was in Belize on a mission trip but we were very excited to be able to talk to her on the phone at the airport). I think the most amazing thing was seeing how much our 17 month old niece, Ziah had grown. She is such a cutie! My parents also brought us wonderful Chipotle burritos and had my favorite chocolate satin pie and blueberry buckle waiting at home. 

Then we got sick. Boo!

Then we went to Hawaii with Brad's family. Yay! (more on that later)

Then we bought a new car. Yay! 

'09 Nissan Versa that FIL Don helped us find that we'll hopefully get on Friday.

Then our computer died. Boo!

And I'll start my old job up again as an administrative assistant at a pediatrician's office on Tuesday while Brad works on selling his old car and following his job leads. 

We will also be going to South Dakota to visit Brad's family as well as Arizona to visit part of my family while my other Grandparents come to visit us in Colorado. 

Whew! It's amazing how busy we've kept ourselves in the past couple of weeks! 

I do want to say how much I appreciated all of the well wishes and thoughts from everyone during our last couple of weeks in Japan. Japan will always have a special place in our hearts and it was sad to leave a country that we have come to love as well as some great friends in an environment that is struggling. It was heartbreaking not being able to say goodbye to some people but I hope they know how much they meant to us and that we will be back again someday. As far as the issues that Japan is dealing with now, I know it will be a struggle each and everyday for some people, but one thing that I learned during our year there is that Japanese people are very strong. I have no doubt that Japan will return even better than what it once was, but in the meantime I know they appreciate all the help they are getting from the U.S. and other countries. 

Quick Update

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Brad and I decided yesterday that we are ready to come home so we have a flight for Monday and will be back in Colorado Monday night. We are so excited to get home! Right now we're just trying to use the last of our energy/motivation to get everything packed and taken care of so we can get out of here. While nothing significant happened today, it still seems to be a little unstable so I feel like once we are on the plane I will be able to relax a little bit.

I'll give you a full update a soon as I can! Thanks again for thinking of us through this difficult situation! I'm really sad that we have to leave Japan like this, but all we have is good memories despite this past week.

the big IF

I haven't been sleeping well. It seems like I wake up to some tremor or another every morning. This morning I actually slept through one but Brad didn't. And I woke up soon after and then we just didn't go back to sleep. So I'm tired, and it's getting more wearing than I thought it would be. This whole day it seems there is good news and bad news. We kept with our media timeout today and it definitely helped. I wasn't as anxious today as I was yesterday. It probably helped that we had regular classes today to keep me busy too. Although my teacher was doing some sort of demonstration today where he kind of knelt down in front of his desk like he was getting under it and my stomach flipped and I almost dove under the first desk I saw. That would have been a little embarrassing. :)

We are getting all of our information from the US Embassy in Tokyo. Because the media is completely sensationalizing everything and none of it is really relevant to us. Again, all we need to know is if we're safe right now, and if something bad happens, what do we need to do? Unfortunately those answers are hard to come by and it seems like they are keeping up to date on everything that we might need to know at the embassy website. (We are also registered with the US Embassy here to receive alerts and so they know we are here/where we are in case anything happens.)

Brad has continued to bike to work (25km each way) until he was finally able to take the train home last night, although it wasn't very convenient since not every line is working, and there aren't very many trains working. He tried to use the trains this morning but we had a scheduled power outage so he ended up taking a bus, and fortunately got a ride home from a coworker tonight. His commute is still a guessing game but luckily he only has 3 more days of school left. We have also been lucky in that it hasn't rained, although it has gotten colder.

I talked to some of my teachers today who are worried about the gas situation. Brad also passed a lot of cars waiting in lines at the gas station today. People wait for hours, and are lined up for miles just to get a little bit of gasoline. My teacher said the price is 150 yen per liter ($2 a liter). Now does $4 a gallon seem so much?

They have been giving schedules for mandatory power outages since this problem began but this morning was the first time they actually shut the power off. It was out from about 6:45 am to 9:45 am. I'm hoping they don't shut off the power like they have planned tomorrow from 4pm to 10pm because otherwise we're having a cold and dark dinner!  But we went to the grocery store tonight and things actually seem to be looking up there. They still don't have everything yet, and people are definitely still panic buying but we were able to get some bread and eggs! It still seems like they're running low on the bread, eggs, water, rice, and cup of noodles. Unfortunately because people are panicking around here it seems that it's making it harder on the people up north who really need the food.

Some people looking at the limited train schedule for the night, while a station employee waits to give directions. 

The usually full cup o' noodle aisle at the grocery store. 

OUR "PLAN":

This is our big "if" situation now. If this hadn't have happened, we would be moving out of our apartment on April 2nd with Brad's family. If the situation stays the same as it is now, we will be ready to leave sometime next week. We have already sold most of our furniture, but we still haven't started packing most of our stuff. People are picking up our things this weekend. If the situation gets better, meaning they get the nuclear reactor under control, there isn't any radiation leakage and the public transportation gets better then it would be nice to continue with our trip. If the situation gets worse, and with no regrets whatsoever, we will drop everything and leave.

I really hope that doesn't happen.

For many reasons...but this is a really sad way to see Japan and have it be one of your last memories of an all around great year.

I really want to thank all of you for your emails, calls and messages. It is really comforting to get all of the messages and helps make this whole mess a little easier. I hope you don't feel like I'm neglecting you by not returning an email to you. I'm trying! But I'm also kind of busy/preoccupied. At the very latest we will be back on Colorado soil in less than 2 and a half weeks, and we are so excited to see all of you!

Media Timeout

I'm constantly checking my phone all day and the TV at work is always on. I feel like I'm on information overload. Obviously I want to stay on top of the news because the situation could get really bad, really fast but I feel so on the edge that a false alarm about the radiation almost made me lose it at work today. It's really frustrating because I can't understand what's going on in the news and the English news that I look up on my phone is not as fast to update or isn't very relevant for people living in Japan. (i.e. when the power outages will occur, which train lines are running, which prefectures are being affected by the radiation...)

People are definitely on edge now. We had our graduation ceremony today (which I will have to write about in another post) and teachers had little yellow "disaster" flags for people to follow to safe areas in case an earthquake hit. For decorations they had covered 4 out of the 6 doors leading out of the gym with these sheets. You could still duck under them if you needed to but it definitely would have been bad in case they needed to be used. They still made sure to mark where the doors were and pointed them out to everybody along with where to go in case we had another earthquake though. They were supposed to turn off the power in the middle of the ceremony the luckily they held off the power outages for another day.

It didn't rain today but it's still on the forecast for the next couple days. It's also supposed to get cooler which is really bad for the people up north who still don't have power. I didn't go to the grocery store today but  I saw that McDonald's was only serving a limited menu and more restaurants were closed than normal. It said on facebook that the government had assured people that the food supply wasn't running out in the Tokyo area so hopefully that stops people from panic buying. We're trying to finish all the food we have piled up anyways because we're leaving soon but it's really hard to do that when you know you don't have enough to last 2 weeks.

So anyway, things still seem kind of dicey with the reactor but I figure if something really bad happens I'll know about it. But I get more worked up about things if I'm constantly monitoring things so I'm putting myself on a news media timeout. And now I just need to stay busy...and hopefully get a good nights sleep.

Acid Rain Tomorrow?

Hi there. Nothing too much has changed in the past couple of days. The trains weren't running today so Brad had to ride his bike 25km to and from work. There was also a small earthquake this morning. Brad felt it more than me. We had the TV on at work all day today and they would sound an earthquake warning every once in a while. It's kind of unnerving, and to be honest with you, we've felt so many little earthquakes in the past few days that sometimes I'm not sure if it's real, or if I'm just dizzy and imagining it.

Tomorrow is our "graduation" ceremony. I put that in parentheses because they're really just going on to high school but they make a bigger deal about middle school graduation because it's the end of your compulsory education. All the students have been practicing for the ceremony for the past couple of weeks. (I'll bring my camera tomorrow but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get any pictures. They're kind of weird about it.) We were in the gym for about 2 hours practicing this morning and the teachers were going around the gym checking for cracks in the walls. I think there are cracks on every column but our school is 30 years old and kind of shabby anyway so I'm hoping they were already there. But still, I was bored so all I could think of was "Was that another after shock? Are the lights swinging? Where will I go if I feel a big one coming?" People were definitely more on edge today. Anyway, I hope that we're able to have the ceremony tomorrow as planned.

I guess there was another explosion at the power plant and the evacuation area seems to be getting bigger. I checked on google maps and it looks like we're 150 miles from the plant--except that apparently the aircraft carrier, Ronald Reagan detected radiation at 100 miles out to sea. I hope nothing more happens with that. It is supposed to rain tomorrow and there is a chance of rain the rest of the week. I think the thing that I'm most worried about now is the possibility of acid rain because the only way for me to get to school is by bike and I usually get a little wet whenever it's rainy. And if the trains are down I definitely don't want Brad riding 25km in the rain. So we'll see what happens...

I went to the store again today because I saw someone that I work with had posted on facebook that the only thing he could find at the grocery store was potato chips...I don't know where he was looking. I went to the store by us and they are still out of eggs, bread, and almost out of instant noodles but that's about it. I didn't look for water because they say it's still safe to drink out of the tap. We did get some non perishable food though because they are planning on doing mandatory power outages. We were supposed to have one today but so far they haven't cut the power. We put a couple of 2L of water in the freezer to stick in the fridge during the day in case they do cut the power.

So that is all the updates I have. I continue to be amazed and saddened by the pictures that are on TV and hope that we don't have any more earthquakes or aftershocks so people can pick up their lives a little bit.

UPDATE: I guess the radiation that was detected 100 miles out in the ocean was from a smoke cloud that drifted out there, it wasn't emanating from the plant. Also Brad just checked and I guess acid rain is more of a long term thing so we probably won't get that tomorrow. We are still unsure as to whether or not radiation can be carried in rain though... But still, let's hope it doesn't rain tomorrow!

Update on the Earthquake

It is now just past noon on Sunday, almost 48 hours since the earthquake. Later on Friday night, we walked to the convenience store down the street and to check out the train station nearby. They had completely closed the station, which was really weird to see. On the way back to our place we noticed an awning over a mom and pop fruit stand was twisted and falling and there was a crack in the side of the building but that is the extent of the damage that we've seen around us. 

We talked to friends that live and work in Tokyo and they were part of the many people who were stranded away from home when the trains shut down. One friend had to walk home 25K (about 15 miles), another waited for a bus for 3 hours and after it never came decided to walk about 15K home (about 9 miles). He said that people and businesses were handing out free snacks, hot tea etc and that it was incredible to see all the people walking, trying to find their way home. 

We went to bed at about midnight on Friday night just feeling exhausted after everything that had happened that day. We were still feeling aftershocks every 15-20 minutes. I woke up a few times during the night because our futon was "swaying" back and forth. At around 4am I woke up the earthquake alarm and someone coming on the PA system to warn us about it. I thought it was just a strong aftershock, but it was actually a separate earthquake that happened around Niigata (where we went skiing last February). Needless to say, I couldn't fall back asleep for a while so it was kind of a rough night. 

Yesterday we were still feeling aftershocks but since we are leaving in 3 weeks to come home, we had plans to say some last good-byes to some people. So we walked around and found out the trains were working again (although there were a lot less of them running). So we went on an adventure into western Tokyo...I have to say that little earthquakes are an interesting thing. You can definitely feel them when you're sitting or lying still, but for some reason you can't feel them standing up (if they're small). So it was kind of nice not feeling some of the aftershocks yesterday since we were standing up most of the day. The only damage we noticed the whole day was some roof tiles falling off of a roof. 

We had dinner in Akishima and noticed that there was a looong line of people waiting to get into the gas station. And when we went into the grocery store there were some bare shelves, but there was still plenty of food and drinks and it wasn't terribly crowded either. After that we headed to Nishi-Ogikubo where we stopped into a convenience store which again, had less food than normal but still had plenty of food. Every convenience store that we went into (about 3 or 4) were like that. But most restaurants and retail places were open already yesterday.

I have been reading on various news sources that there is damage to buildings in Tokyo, and that people are stocking up on food, water, and gas but I think the pictures that you see on the news are much worse than anything that is around Tokyo. I have not seen any major damage to the outside of buildings, even though I'm sure offices and homes were quite messy after the earthquake. I'm guessing most of the injuries that happened in Tokyo were caused by things falling off of shelves.  And because of the nuclear plants having trouble I have heard that they might turn off power to some places at certain times but so far we haven't experienced that. I guess I just want to reiterate that Japan is a bigger country than a lot of people expect, and they were amazingly well prepared for it. Nobody could have guessed an earthquake this big would hit but considering that the whole east coast isn't a pile of rubble says something to the way Tokyo has been built and the people's knowledge of how to react when an earthquake does occur. Unfortunately tsunamis are another story and that's where most of this devastation has come from. 

Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts during this time and I will try and keep you updated on things happening around here. Hopefully we don't have any more big aftershocks and they get the nuclear plants under control. Here's a link from CNN for ways you can help, if you want to.

UPDATE: Here's a map that shows where we live in relation to everything that is going on in Japan.
Click here.