Leaving Tokyo

At the end of July, right after Steve came back from his trip up Fuji-san and the girls survived a guide camp and Rachel did a school camp, we packed up our little house and got ready for the next part of our trip. It was pretty crazy to be saying goodbye to the place we had come to love. It was also crazy to see how much stuff we had accumulated in four months. 

It had always been my plan to send stuff back to Australia at the point we left Tokyo, because we wouldn't need any of the big winter gear we had brought with us, or Steve's BJJ gi, or hiking stuff anymore. But there was also school things from the girls, and books I had collected for teaching materials. Not to mention the kimono.... Even after boxing up 60kgs of stuff to send off on a ship (sea mail is much cheeper than air mail!), our suitcases were still heavy. 

There wasn't much we could do about it though, so we just strapped everything in as best we could and were thankful for the wheels on the suitcases. 

It was exhaustingly hot almost every time we stepped out of the house at this point of the summer, so I switched up and did some night walks around the neighbourhood instead. So thankful for the beautiful place we had managed to find ourselves in and all the great memories we had made. 

There was again a three week run down of all our food supplies, trying to use up everything we could. Big flash backs to leaving Brisbane in March, though on a much smaller scale. Amazing to look back at those photos of us getting here. Only four months, but Steve might need a haircut now, and both girls are taller than ever. The photo above was the last time Sophie wore those overalls. She's managed to grow out of every pair of shorts she brought with her.

We rolled all the luggage to the station, things a bit more complicated by Steve's still broken hand, but not forgetting anything in the end. I was thankful we didn't pre-book our shinkansen tickets so we didn't have to stress about making the train. They come every fifteen minutes anyway, so easy to catch! 

And suddenly we are off to a new part of Japan and a new adventure. Steve is taking this next two and a bit weeks off so we can have a proper holiday before we settle in a new place for the last stint. Time continues to play tricks on us; fast one moment, slow the next. Will try to get the updates out faster so I can catch up to real time, but no promises! 

Soccer Station

You've probably never heard of Captain Tsubasa, despite its world-wide acclaim in the manga/anime spheres. We hadn't either, until we chose to live in Yotsugi. The author of this manga, which ran for 43 years, grew up in this area, set his manga in a fictional yet referenced and similar world. Captain Tsubasa has also been made into anime series, movies and over twenty video games. 

Suffice to say, it's a thing. 

So much of a thing that the train station in Yotsugi is decorated in honour of Captain Tsubasa. 

I can't believe we accidentally chose such a cool place to live. The whole station has scenes of the anime on the walls, the characters painted onto the ceilings and stairs, and the floor is a soccer field. When the train is coming, the music played is the theme song from the anime and the announcements are made in the voices of the characters. 

We actually find it so fun to dance along to the music just before the train announcements start. 

Fun right?! There is also a section of the station that has soccer team shirts and art work signed by various famous people. We see a lot of tourists get off here to take photos with them. 

Outside the station, the Main Street has light posts with soccer balls on them. 

There are statues of the characters from Captain Tsubasa all around Yotsugi and maps for you to find them all. We weren't particularly bothered by this, but Rachel challenged me to find and photograph each of them, so I ended up doing it.

Which character is this? I dunno! Maybe Captain Tsubasa himself!

Another fun thin you can get is seaweed precut into a strip of hexagonal shapes so that you can make rice balls (onigiri) that look like soccer balls. We aren't really a soccer family, but it was too much fun to pass up. 

Hilarious right! Just a bit wonky, but the girls thought they were great. 

The author of Captain Tsubasa, Yoichi Takahashi, was commissioned to design the new school logo when they decided to combine two primary schools into one. You can read about the logo here, along with the three verses of the new school song that they had a local singer/song writer compose. 

We see Captain Tsubasa and his soccer team on many a thing around Yotsugi but thus far, the girls have rejected having photos with any of them. Don't know what their deal is. 

Neighbourhood Walks

Typical suburban street in outer Tokyo

Walking around the neighbourhood streets where we live was surprisingly easy to get used to. I don't know if it's that we needed the maps so much in the first week (or all the Pokemon Go I've been playing) but four weeks in and it's hard to get lost in our little part of Tokyo. 

Main "Sakura Street" in Yotsugi with one of the few footpaths.
Unfortunately, so bumpy thanks to the sakura tree roots, it's hard to walk on. 

I wanted to be getting out and walking more when we arrived here, mostly because I knew I would have the time and thought it would be a good way to get back into the habit. I'm pretty lucky that the area we live in is flat and super easy to walk around. There aren't many actual footpaths here. Usually just a less than half a meter section on the side of the actual road that you use, but it's sometimes got a painted line to help the cars know not to run into you. The local streets tend not to have too much traffic anyway, though loads of bikes. 

All the spring flowers are out too, which makes every walk beautiful. People don't have any kind of yard or grass for the most part (unless you have a really big house, and even then, the garden is most likely stepping stones, rocks and a tree or two), but there are loads of small potted plants out the front of most houses. 

I love seeing the flowers that I recognise from Brisbane, but also the ones we never get in our climate, like the tulips, poppies and daffodils. 

I have been walking down to the river a lot recently, and feeling so unbelievably lucky that we got to live here for four months. I think I can kind of see why people drive into South Bank and walk along the river there now, though I still don't think I'd drive somewhere to walk. The rivers that boarder our corner suburb probably help with our ability to navigate too, though they won't help if we have too much rain later in the year and the whole area floods, since the ground here is so flat.

 

Steve thinks it helps that we have Skytree almost always in our skyline, helping us know which way is west. He and I walked over there from our place one weekend, and it took just under an hour. It's only 10mins on the train. As the days progress into summer, I can see me moving the walking to the evening and I'm looking forward to seeing how different things are with all the lights on. 

Since Steve finishes work at four, we've been able to go for a few evening strolls with the girls too. This Yellow Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that takes you over some water to another path down by the river. Steve has been using the stairs here as his Fuji Training, since Yotsugi is so flat he's got not other incline options. It's no Pegg's Lookout or Toohey Forest, but it will do. 

And here is Rachel eating Skytree. Just like Godzilla.