My friend Nicole was staying with us for a couple of days before she headed back to Australia (after 2 years in London). We have been friends since high school but she actually lived in Japan for a year in 2004 so it was her second time.
Noah of course loved the extra attention.
Nic said good bye to her fiance in England and they are trying to work out some visa stuff before he joins her in Australia (he is Colombian) so leaving England was bitter sweet for her. While she is excited to be heading back to Australia I think she is nervous all the same. Anyway, I wish her the best of luck and am looking forward to catching up again in November and December.
Yesterday we went to look at 5 properties in our house/land hunt. Two were blocks of land, one was a block of land with an old house on it (that will be torn down) and two were new houses built in the last couple of months. It definitely made us realize what size things were. I originally was thinking land of about 35 Tsubo but my MIL kept telling me she thought that would be too small and to only look at places 40 tsubo or bigger. I am glad she did- we looked at one block that was 37 tsubo and it just seemed so tiny and I couldn`t imagine a house even fitting on there but that said there are plenty of properties bought on land even SMALLER than that here. My MIL has been great- she went to the bank for us to get some estimates on loans, and sussed out some places for us to look on Sunday. My FIL watched Noah for the 2 hours it took us to look around. It was just our first weekend of looking (and now the next two weekends are busy with camping and then with Benay and her family staying and Sakura`s birthday party) but one was a possibility (the one with the old house on it currently) although we are not in any hurry and will look again in a couple of weeks. Nice to know what is out there though, what the prices range from and also what some new houses looked like on the inside.
Some other recent snaps:
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I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
Hmm, I think Noah has grown some hair since the last time you posted a picture of him! He’s starting to look like a little man!
Love the one of you and Noah giggling… adorable!
Noah is growing so big! Not a little baby at all any more! Cutie pie….
40 tsubo sounds so tiny. The smallest plots in our town are about 60 tsubo – any smaller and it’s considered too small to build on in this part of Hokkaido. (Not so for Sapporo or other big cities of course!) Our plot is 140 tsubo but that is a double plot in an older area where the standard chunk was 70 tsubo per plot.
Ohhhh interested in hearing about the land with the old house still on it – guess I will have to pick your brain on it next time we meet up!
I love that picture of the 6 of us. It is my fave
Glad you had a good time with Nicole – Noah seems quite happy with the attention like you said!
Girl, your husband is soooo cute. Haha. And Noah is going to be such a looker when he’s grown-up. You’ll have to beat girls off him.
LOL – sorry, just read Adam’s comment. Agreed. Hub is very cute. With you around Adam, she might be betting the boys off Noah too.
Love the photo of the 6 of you. That’s great. And the mummy giggles.
I wanted a single level house when we built but got shot down by hub, Granny K, the builder, the milk man and the tea lady from the next town over. And now I agree, building up is so much cheaper. Loads of brownie points for parents in law being so nice about helping and looking after Noah.
Oh love house hunting (as much as it is exhausting) it is fun to see what is out there. Agree with GW, upwards is waaay cheaper than outwards. What are the prices in Tokyo anyways?
Noah looks adorable as always, and he`s growing up so fast!
Beautiful piccies, I agree Noah is looking so grown up, and Shun is cute, i still think of Kimutaku every time I see him! hehe
So nice of your PIL to help you out, will make things so much less stressful if you have support and (helpful!) advice. Good luck!
hehe I love all those group shots!