Koller Clan Update!

So We are finally in our apartment in Shinjo which we moved into on Monday.It seems like it would be huge for Japan. It is 2 level with 3 bedrooms and actually very spacious. We are pretty much settled in except we don't have any furniture except futons and some tables a friend gave us. We finally got our tiny washer and dryer working, thank God for clean clothes:) We've been storing our food outside on the porch because it has been so cold here and we don't have the fridge yet. We get our Fridge Sunday and our car on Thursday. So excited for that because we will finally be able to get out of the house and do some exploring! I am very excited to have a nice family size car (a nissan presage), none of this tiny asian car business! Aaron has been taking the train back and forth between Shinjo and Higashine the past week to get to work. He is still mainly observing and will start teaching full time by April 1st. Though he has taught some classes and even went to a very nice home for a private lesson for 2 siblings learning english. He is so glad to be getting paid to have fun with kids. What a great job! We really like the people he works with. There are only 3 other teachers and only 2 of them are full time. Only his boss Ryan is a Christian, but he is forming a relationship with the other teachers and hopes that will lead to deeper conversations in the future. I have been trying to adjust to domestic life here in Japan which is alittle different than the states. People pretty much go to the grocery store every day here to buy the food for that day for lack of space, and for us...lack of refrigerator! But we are a 4 minute walk from the store and only a 20 minute walk from the train station. The ground is covered in snow here and it practically was a blizzard last night! Here we are walking in windy, thick snow all bundled up with our 3 month old to go the grocery store. In the states that would be looked down on, but here it seems pretty normal. Rain nor snow doesn't really stop people from living their life here. I was planning to go to work with Aaron today to observe his teaching, but it is so cold we figured it best not to get gabe out in it. So until we get the car I'm stuck here at the house in Limbo! We appreciate your prayers, email us anytime, we would love to hear from you! it's nice to talk to people from back home!

Candace

Jusco is amazing!

Take a Macy's, Target, Walmart, and Sears and roll them all in one and what do you have? Jusco! Love it! Also highly suggest Japanese ramen shops...muy delicioso! We went to Sendai to look at car a coupe days ago. A Nissan Presage, it is a mix between a mini-van and a station wagon, very nice! So very sad about the circumstances we would be getting the car under. Our friends who have lived here in Sendai for the past couple years who have been waiting for us to move here are being forced back to the states! We were so excited about moving here and having them as friends only to find out that because of visa issues they would be leaving only weeks after we arrived! Ugggh! That's life I guess:( But Aaron started observing English classes at the school he would be teaching at. It is a school called "My Eigo", which in english is "My English School". We watched a kid's class yesterday that had 4 girls in it and it was really fun to watch the teacher Sam. He is this really nice guy from London I think. The school is very quaint and it has only 2 rooms, but it does very well and Ryan and Makki who own it are really wonderful people. They have been gracious enough to let us stay with them until we can get into our apartment. Strangers are so much nicer here than in the states. If you ask a Japanese person to do something, they do it with vigor and if you ask them a question they don't immediately know the answer to, they will immediately find out for you!Life feels very much the same here as any american town except just different enough to keep things exciting. I think I will like it here! I'll be in the apartment in Shinjo on Monday. So looking forward to it, ready to be someplace I can call home!

Our Journey To Japan

We arrived at the airport in Spokane, WA at 10 am on Friday and were in Seattle ready to catch our flight to narita airport by 1:30 pm. With us we brought 7 pieces of checked luggage, 3 carry-ons, 1 stroller system, and 2 more bags. We had alot of stuff. This is the biggest plane I have ever been on in my life. The Boeing 777 has 2 seats on each side and 5 seats in the middle. The lofty 10 hour flight did not feel as long as I thought it would with the 2 hot meals, drinks every hour, our own personal TV with movies to choose from and a very active baby to take care of! Gabe did very well for the first few hours until he realized his sore body was not waking up in his bed. This had been his 5th flight in 2 weeks. He was doing the best he could for a 2 month old! When we finally arrived at Narita Airport, everything felt normal. It felt like a regular airport until we reached immigration and I layed my eyes on the many black heads and suddenly realized I was the minority. We gathered our bags, 2 carts each of us, and made our way to get them delivered and make our train to Tokyo station. We ended up missing our first train by about 10 seconds which in the end almost made us miss our last possible train to Yamagata. The lights of Chiba are just amazing! You don't know condensed until you've been through Tokyo! By the time we got to Tokyo station we were so exhausted and hungry, but there was no time for anything. I had to take it all in as we quickly rushed through the maze of Japanese food stands and people rushing every direction. The Shinkansen is half a mile long and runs at nearly 80 miles and hour. By the time we finally found our car and hauled our luggage inside, we felt the sweltering heat of a car that is over 100 degrees on the inside while it is in the low 40's outside. A Japanese man who was helping me asked me jokingly in his broken english if I enjoyed their Japanese air conditioning, and I had to say I was less than impressed. We were of course concerned about our infant over-heating but Gabe did very well and the car eventually cooled down. After a long and exhausting 3 hour ride we finally made it to Yamagata City! After that was a 40 minute drive through winding streets to Higashine where we would stay with Ryan and Maki until we get settled into our apartment. The End.....or rather the beginning!