Cherry Blossom Adventures

Introducing goma-chan.

Surprise!

I am 11 weeks 5 days pregnant according to the scan I had today- although I think that is about a week fast (me and my big gaijin baby!) Shun & I are very excited- we have known for almost 7 weeks now and it has been hard keeping it to ourselves (In fact we didn`t do a very good job of that- a lot of people know- my mum and dad and also Shun`s parents could not contain their excitement either and have told a multitude of people)

I have had quite bad morning sickness on occasion but it seems to be settling down finally- those might be my famous last words though! Although I hope not. No other real exciting symptoms apart from that.

I have found a clinic here in Japan that I really like and I am due around mid-Decemeber. So yes, a winter and Christmas baby! My first trip to the clinic was today but I didn`t have insurance yet (have to wait til Shun returns to work on Monday) and I didn`t have my baby book or Boshi Techo so they just did a scan and asked us to fill in a lot of forms but I will have more tests in a couple of weeks.

Goma-chan (named this as it was the size of a seasame seed when we found out we were pregnant and goma means seasame in Japanese) was very active today, swimming around and the doctor said I would probably be able to start feeling him in  a couple of weeks since he was moving around so much!

Oh and for the record, i think it is a boy but Shun thinks it is a girl. You can place your guesses!

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Well this is the last post for awhile from Australian soil. Our flight leaves in 7 and a half hours and apart from our computers we are done with the packing. Both our suitcases are over the 20kg limit not to mention I have my suitcase, two hula hoops, and a bag filled with toiletries cos I just couldn`t fit it into the suitcase. My suitcase alone weight 28kg and I can just imagine us having to pay the excess at the airport which will suck. I am contemplating taking out about 4kg or 5kg and asking mum to send it via post? We already sent over 100kg to Japan last week via a shipping company…Can you tell we have too much stuff? (30% or so might be tupperware…. Another 30% is definitely books- LOL)

We have to fly to Sydney first from Brisbane and then change to a flight heading to Japan- it is going to be a long night. I can not sleep on airplanes- Shun can sleep anywhere and will probably be asleep before the plane from Sydney even takes off- unless there is one of those tv`s where you can watch unlimted movies and play games because then he won`t sleep at all as that will keep him busy the whole time.

I have to remember to request aisle seats when we get to Brisbane airport- all of our tickets and transfers will be issues then. I bet I will forget. (Just told Shun to remind me, chances are he will forget too)

I got the professional wedding photos on CD yesterday- I promise to go through them and upload some to flickr (and facebook) sometime in the next week…They turned out awesome- We were really happy. We have not seen them all yet but she did show us a mock-up of the album also and it looked great. I am so excited to sit down and look at them all properly. The album won`t be done for a couple of weeks so mum will need to send it to us.

I shoudln`t be offline for more than 48 hours or so since we will be staying at Shun`s parents place and my wireless works there if I plug in the router….so hopefully I will be updating sooner rather than later. We have a bit of a crowd coming out the airport this afternoon (not really!)- Mum, Dad, my brother Paul and his gf Gemma are all seeing us off from the domestic airport. Because we have to go to Sydney they can come all the way to the gate with us- I think there will be tears (maybe me, definitely mum and Gemma)

Well so long Australia, I am sure I will be back some time soon!

ps: Will try to get back into Macro Monday once I get back to Japan

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Quick update in dot point form! Gotta love dot points…

• We got back from our honeymoon on Monday afternoon- it was a lovely 4 nights away and below is the view from our hotel room. Nice huh? I will eventually do a proper update on the honeymoon (I hope!) but I will say we had perfect weather, we snorkelled on the great barrier reef, relaxed on Whitehaven Beach and ate a lot of yummy food! Oh, and I read three books, it was great!
• We leave for Japan Monday night, quick stop in Sydney before transferring to a plane bound for Narita Airport. We arrive in Japan early Tuesday morning (26 May- Shun`s birthday!)- we spent today packing up the rest of our stuff except for some limited clothes to pack into our suitcases on the weekend. The shipping company picks up our boxes tomorrow. I have lots to look forward to when we return to Japan- Sarah and Nay come that first Sunday to visit Shun & I in Chiba and on the Monday Shun will return to work while us girls with two other friends will head off on a picnic at Ueno! I will see Cat, James and co over the weekend before that and hopefully fit in some karaoke! I will also do the good gaijin thing and apply for my alien registration card! After Nay & Sarah head back to their places I will get stuck into looking for a job and an apartment/house (although due to money constraints I doubt we will be able to move from Shun`s parents place until August- yes, you heard right, we will live with the in-laws)
• I am lacking veggies in my diet and am going to make a ham and veggie soup tomorrow- never had much success with soup so wish me luck (due to lack of success I am going to Mum`s so she can help me )
• Oh yeah, I changed my name, I am now officially L.Marushima ! My passport says it and all! I can pick up my spouse visa on Friday (yeah, we are cutting it a bit fine!) – it wasn`t until I was filling in my passport application that I realized “oh crap, gotta come up with a new signature” – apparently I should of been practicing it sooner!
• News flash- getting a hair cut tomorrow! It will all go!
• These last couple of days in Brisbane will be spent avoiding the floods (yes, South East Queensland got 300mm of rain, just today and rain is expected to last til the weekend), saying out last good byes and having dinner with my family on Saturday night (what my brother refers to as “the last supper”) and lounging around doing not much at all. Oh and picking up spouse visa, having lunch with my dad, having a haircut and making veggie soup!
• Oh yeah and Shun is doing great!

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Well, I am married and we are off to our honeymoon tomorrow! It has been an exhausting week and the last of our international guests left yesterday but it was amazing. We had the best day, and everything went perfectly.

Here are a couple of photos to tide you over until I get back to Japan (now in less than 2 weeks) and have a faster internet connection and some time to go through them all.

These are a couple photos my brother took on the day…

The boys waiting for us girls to arrive.

Bridesmaids walking down the garden path…

Dad & I as we got ready to walk down the aisle (My dad almost didn`t make it to the wedding due to health issues- I am so glad though he could be there on the day)

We are married in this pic below!

Family shots! Shun & I with his family…

With my family

I am sorry there are not more- I promise to get onto sorting them out before I leave and upload them once I return to Japan. I am really looking forward to getting the professional photos as well.

It was the most perfect day- Shun & I were grinning ear to ear!

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January 4 2009, Bromeliads plant, Olympus E520

I would love to have Bromeliads in a garden in Japan- I do not think they are found much there. Interesting fact- Bromeliads are part of the pineapple family and they are native mainly to tropical parts of America.

I took this in my mum`s garden- she has some semi-tropical plants in her little back garden mixed in with her herbs and the like.

Plus some good news- the weather for Saturday is said to be mainly fine but a little cloudy! YAY!

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Check out my guest post today at The Secret Society of List Addicts where I wrote about my dream jobs…

What is your dream job or do you already have it?

If you are a fan of list making then The Secret Society of List Addicts is a blog for you!

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This time next week I will be getting dressed and ready to go to our wedding…

I can not believe it is only one week away. These past couple of weeks since I finished work have gone by so fast. I think we have almost everything under control now though.

This next week is going to be insane- Nay and Mandy have already arrived in Australia but they are staying with their families so that is all fine. The others all start arriving from Tuesday onwards….On Tuesday I will be out at the airport once, Wednesday we will be out there again, Thursday I will be out there twice (once in the morning and again in the afternoon), Friday I will be out there twice (again in the morning and afternoon) and then Saturday Shun will be out there picking up the last of the guests (I put my foot down on going to the airport on my wedding day)….Sunday the majority of people leave early, then a couple more on Monday after, then the last of them leave on the Tuesday. Shun and I leave for our honeymoon on the Thursday so as you can see there will be at LOT of trips to the airport and back.

We will expect some delays too for those coming on international flights since the Swine Flu hysteria has hit Australia a bit now. We have actually had one friend cancel his trip as his company is refusing to let him travel (they reimbursed him for his tickets- we found out yesterday)- actually they warned him not to travel and he said he would anwyay and then they said, fine he could go but he would need to take a months unpaid leave when he returned to Japan to make sure he did not bring possible Swine Flu to work. Two of our groomsmen are in similar situations- one flies out tonight and if there is no confirmed cases in Japan or Australia before 7pm he is in the clear…Toshi, the other, is having some issues but said at this stage he is fine to come however he does not fly out til Thursday night so complications could arrise.

Hard to believe on Monday I was worried about rain…I was totally not thinking that there would be a world crisis over the flu.

One week to go, one week to go!

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