Making plans

We will be living in the apartment in the earlier post. We can move in on Friday when we arrive, as long as we pay the bond in yen/cash that day.

We have tenants and they move into our Adelaide house on Wednesday.

We are flying out on Thursday, but don’t yet have our visas so will be entering as tourists – with a letter in Japanese explaining why we are entering Japan and why we have no return flights…

We are able to have fibre optic internet connected to our apartment as it is only 2 years old and has fibre to the door. Plus, the ISP has English tech support.

All that’s left is to pack our bags. That’s a job for Wednesday. And to have a final house inspection. And to exchange money. And to get international drivers licences. And to tidy up our storage boxes. And to… only 2 more sleeps.

Farewell Party

Some photos from our farewell party.

Jeff, Matt and Megan enjoying the sun and the sea views.

Emily working hard in the kitchen to make sure everyone was well fed!

Lara with Shane and Kas in awesome costume!

Lauren chillin’ in the kitchen with Jill. Love the gumby and pokey shirt.

Benno with Liesl and Ricky

Lorinda and Julie.

Matt the Rat and Jeff

Nichola, Lara and Megan pulling a face with some food - Ginger Oat Slice,
Sweet Peanut Crunch, Chocolate Weetbix Slice, Pecan Slice, and Sushi along with some cakes, v sausage rolls, spring rolls and other goodies.
Penny playing with Bethany

Lara and Jeff

Farewell hoser

The car has been sold. It’s a little sad that the cute hoser has gone, but a relief that it’s now off our hands and we’re a little richer so we’ll be able to set our our new apartment in Kisarazu with some furniture.. whee!

The car that took us down to Victor Harbor and back twice on a 1/4 of a 30L tank now has a new owner.. Farewell to the hoser.

Rentals

It’s been a week, we’ve had two open inspections (neither of which the agent has advertised in the newspaper), we have our house up on realestate.com.au (with a spelling error and a grammatical error), 4 groups have gone through and we might have a tenant by Tuesday.

Our house on realestate.com.au

Our large furniture will all be out of the house by next Sunday, so as long as we manage to sell our car we’ll be on track for packing up and leaving the country! Whee!!

Only 4 days left of work/teaching and then a week and a bit before we fly out. 19 days to go.

Gyosei International School

Satellite image of Lara’s new school, Gyosei International School, in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture, Japan. Can you see the tennis courts and the baseball field?

To find this on maps.google.com type in “矢那1083 Kisarazu”.

Waiting for visas

Now Benno’s visa documents have arrived in Japan so the school can apply for his dependent visa at the same time as Lara’s working visa.

We’re starting the count-down – 37 more days left in Australia – but there’s so much to do before then.

To acquaint ourselves with the the culture of the town we will be living in we have been watching a tv series that was based and filmed in Kisarazu – Kisarazu Cat’s Eye. It is one of the silliest, over-acted, non-sensical sitcoms we have ever watched, and yet it is strangely addictive. Go watch it here.

Did you know that there is a 5 story shopping mall in the middle of Tokyo Bay, 5km out to sea from Kisarazu city on the Aqua-Line (bridge and tunnel from Kisarazu to Kawasaki)? See Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line

Did you also know that you can see Mt Fuji across the bay from Kisarazu?