April 15 – May 15, 2021
Places we Traveled:
Chugoku Region (+): Hyogo, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Shimane, Tottori, Kyoto, Shiga
Peaks:
- We bought a house in the US!! The constant refrain from our friends and family back home was, “the market is SO CRAZY right now.” Luckily, we spotted this place as “coming soon” on Zillow and our realtor was able to get us a showing the first day it was on the market. After a 2am FaceTime tour of the house, we decided to make an offer. We did encounter some hiccups along the way with the online mortgage lender we found that could do a remote closing with us in Japan, but ultimately – WE BOUGHT A HOUSE. Totally bonkers.
- I accepted a job offer in the US!! Yeah, this was a busy and stressful month for us. In between calls about the house buying process and road tripping through the Chugoku region of Japan, I found time to do a series of virtual interviews at wildly inconvenient hours in Japan (sorry, Andrew).
- Oh yeah, we added 7 new prefectures to our running tally by road tripping through the Chugoku region during Golden Week! We saw Japan’s largest cave, visited an old samurai town, fed rabbits on Okunoshima, ate tacos in Hiroshima, saw the sand dunes of Tottori, bought pizza from a vending machine, and took an amazing sea kayak tour. All while buying a house and doing job interviews. It wasn’t what I would call a “relaxing trip,” but it was a great last hurrah!!
- Peak wisteria at Ashikaga Flower Park. Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi is very well-known in Japan for their wisteria. Last year during peak bloom, the Park closed to visitors as a Covid precaution. This year, we were lucky to visit Ashikaga super early on a rainy day to experience peak bloom without crowds.
- Back to kintsugi class! Classes were canceled after the New Year’s Holiday as a result of state of emergency orders in various parts of Japan. This month, we returned to the classroom. This restart was vital for me, as several of my pieces were nearly complete and I wanted time to finish them properly before we leave Japan.
Valleys:
- Wouldn’t want to deviate from tradition on the blog at this point, of course Covid was a huge concern for us during this month. Vaccinations are still rolling out slowly in Japan, the upcoming Olympics are a major talking point every day. With the majority of the population unvaccinated and medical workers already under strain it is hard to imagine a scenario where the Olympics occur safely in Japan. But there’s a lot of economic concerns when it comes to canceling the events. I don’t envy decision makers anywhere in the world this year.
- After buying a house and accepting a job offer, it is impossible to deny that our time in Japan is coming to an end. Quickly. Circumstances this year mean that we are leaving without accomplishing a lot of our Japan Dreams. It is really hard to start saying goodbye to our lives here and start making preparations to leave.
