And.....were back online!
For a country that is generally thought of as technologically advanced, it takes quite a long time to arrange having internet hooked up to a residence' here in Japan...well, at least that is the reality out in the countryside. And that, along with pretty much everything that happens here with the passing of every single day since our last blog update, gives important insight into the reality that surrounds us:  we don't just live in Japan, we live in the Inaka (countryside)!
So after much delay, let's dive into all kinds of pictures and updates!
Seeings how there is a 4 day long weekend coming up referred to as "Golden Week", better just tackle this with a barrage of photos and short(?) comments.  (Yoshimi's response to my "why is it called Golden Week?":  "Shiran! (I dunno!)...maybe 'cause having a string of holidays is, well, just golden!")

Wish I could have tapered this all out over several postings....but hope that it quenches the thirst of those of you who have (and we are humbled by!) an interest in our goings on here :-)
So here we go! Having uploaded a whole load of pictures from our various devices, full disclosure: we are going to shoot for quantity more than quality! It is a bit much, but take it in doses - there is something here for everyone!

 One of the pleasures of spending time in a home where Yoshimi grew up, is I get to discover little treasures of my wife's childhood!  Here are a couple of work of art! (eat your heart out, Henry!)
The one above is titled "Presenting Dinosaur Yoshimi"

 This drink of Yoshimi's tastes EXACTLY like the image on the can suggests.

 Going to fetch the car the morning after a reunion dinner with the Osawas. Their daughter likes to feed the birds - it was quite an experience.  Plenty of sea-gulls, but more impressive were the Tombi's (sea hawks) who would swoop in and snatch-up the fish with their talons!

 Last blog post it was Canadian beef in a local restaurant...this time it was Alberta honey at the local grocery store!!!

 Wanted to do a special post on little things I love about Japan.  Here is one of them: dim lighting in the evening.  Most lights have a very low setting on them that cast a very sleepy light that looks particularly beautiful in traditional Japanese homes.

 Visited a local clinic and had to take this picture to "show my retired-nurse-mom back in Canada what uniforms Japanese nurses wear - at least at this clinic.

 In Yoshimi's hometown there is a small fish museum (?), which had many interesting samples preserved and on display, such as this several meters long deep sea fish which washed up on a local shore.

 Yoshimi sized shells.

 One of the many meals we enjoyed at Yoshimi's parents' place!

 Nigori Zaki is an unfiltered style of Sake.  Big bottle, big taste, (small glass)!

 Another entry in the little things you just gotta love about Japan.
Here is a pudding...which I have eaten many of over the years in Japan...but it took me this long to finally figure out how to eat it "correctly".

 Tastes great no matter how you eat it.  But pretty neat nevertheless!

 Shrine by Yoshimi's family home.  Cool dragon carving in the wood.

 Even a visit to the gas station is an experience!

 Full, and I mean FULL service! Notice the cloth he is using to wipe the windows.

 Regular gas is 157 yen here.  Thats about $1.68.

 I didnt get a picture, but it is common that the attendant will walk out into traffic, and wave you back onto the road, with a full hats-off bow goodbye!

 Backing into parking stalls is very common here.

 Here is a feast we had at Yoshimi's Aunt and Uncle's home when we first arrived.

 Beautiful and delicious!

 Miso soup.

 Things got a little musical.

 A box of various sakes was brought out. (wait, was this before or after things got musical!?)

 Dessert!

 Later that night, back at the Tanaka's (JUST KIDDING!...but another great meal!)

 As I mentioned in a previous mail (which I posted below) we were so lucky to get in a visit with Eddah!

 For those of you who are feeling a little squirmish at all the sashimi photos - there is something delicious for everyone here in Japan!  Here is some Japanese curry!

 First skype with Erik, Torie and Henry! and in style!

 Soba! (buckwheat noodles)

 I mentioned to Yoshimi's mom that I liked dark beer.  Next thing I know, she's bought me a case of the stuff!  Nothing better to fill our new fridge with! :-)

 Piecing together our new place!

 Its nice to be able to reach into the fridge without even getting up from the table!

 Welcome back party at the Marugame homestead!  A bbq out in the garage!  Great to be here, Marugames!  Thanks for the great afternoon!!

 The Sakura season was a blur as it was our first week starting work. We managed to get this picture.

 Our reunion dinner with the Osawas at their newest restaurant (on of three establishments on their property!)

 Ayumi-chan has now started junior high school!  I knew her as a rambunctious little girl, and she has turned out to be an incredibly mature and thoughtful young lady!  We really enjoyed our evening with her and all of the Osawa family!  Mr. Osawa told some great stories - some of which moved Yoshimi to tears! A great night!

 We bought a car!  We bought a car ....with cash (apparently a normal thing to do!?)

 Without getting too much into details: yellow plate/light cars have smaller engines and are more affordable than regular sized cars (which have white licence plates).  However, recently yellow plate cars have become very popular and in high demand, so we found that even slightly used cars were not much less than the good deal my main man for all things car related, Fukuma-san, could get us on a brand new one.
Hmm...tuff call.
So, introducing our Daihatsu "Conte"!  This is mainly Yoshimi's car as she has a substantial daily commute - whereas I hoof it on foot.

Its got an "idle stopping" function which takes some getting used to ...and it also has a t.v. in it (which if fairly common here) ....which is extra strange as we don't have a t.v. in our apartment.

There is a naming battle going on.  Votes are being tallied for "Smurf" and "Blue Steele"

 Yoshimi's friend Rieko who she worked with at Izumo airport years ago!

 Had a great evening with Matthew, Eri, Emily and their friend! Again, things got musical!

 Saw my taiko team perform when we first arrived.  I have been joining practices and doing my best to get ready for a concert coming up at the end of May!

 Back when we checking out options to furnish our new place.  There were tatami-bed hybrids! East meets West!

 Another tribute to the dim lighting. A simple pleasure.  Better to be experienced...my photography just doesn't do it justice.

 Yoshimi on "traffic patrol" watching students on their way to school.

 Random adventure.  I was looking for a place on a day off to go eat my lunch.

 Found an enticing rocky outcrop.

 Some yummy rice rolls and my water. A quick grab from a convenience store.

 Off to my right, you can spot some surfers out in the water.

 I dont want to seem as though I am viewing Japan through rose coloured glasses.  Here is a shot of the unfortunate garbage that washes-up on the beautiful shores here.  Sure, some of it is from Korea, but plenty of it is local.

 Here is a shot looking back at where I went to eat my lunch.

 Looking back again as I walked away.  You can see how I was enticed to go check it out!

 This was the car that we were given to use while Fukuma-san searched for our new car.

 A shot of the coast line between where we live (Ohda) and where Yoshimi teaches (Gotsu)

Through I'd try to make Fajitas a while back...might not be a sustainable meal plan.  Avocados and lime (for guacamole) are quite expensive - and tortillas are hard to find so made these from scratch. No worries! Plenty of other great foods to eat! (and I have since found tortilla shells at an embarrassingly close grocery store :-)

 I used to brag that I could run to a convenience store from my old apartment and be back with whatever was needed (a beer) in less than 5 minutes.  Well, amazingly we can now see a convenience store from our window (especially amazing since our new apartment is right around the corner from where I used to live)

 Picture of how homes (both new and old) often have solar panels on the roof.

 Here is a shot of some of the "off the beaten path" type roads that we have here.  (I went searching for an onsen (hot spring bath) that out in the middle of nowhere...yet not that far from where we live!)

 A "solar panel field".

 One of the ways to keep landslides or rocky cliffs from threatening the road below: this is a massive chain-link fence covering the hillside. Sometimes they are just sprayed in concrete with massive reinforcement bolts/brackets drilled into the hillside.

 Crumbling old house in the middle of nowhere.

 Massive Temple (Buddhist Temple) out in the countryside (not all that uncommon a sight)

I felt totally redeemed for having insisted I trouble everyone with hauling my "I traded a cat for this massage chair" massage chair into our new place - Yoshimi had to admit, it is a great chair!

 Found this massive bag of dried fish at the local grocery store and thought Hanabi and Hitomi might purr at the screen if they saw this picture :-)

 Sure we have a nice new car and a new fridge, but we are also happy to have some of our old stuff we left here stored in Japan:  like Yoshimi's toaster oven which grills Winnie the Pooh (or "Pooh-sa" as he is referred to here) and Piglet's face into our toast.

 Went and climbed Mt.Sanbe (our local mountain here in Ohda, a series of mountains around an old volcano...as are most mountains in Japan)

 It was the "opening day" of the mountain - so when I found a bunch of litter in the bushes at the top, a little J.Johnson spirit hit me and I decided to take action.

 Two bags of trash.  (oh, but that is the peace sign I am flashing there)

 Saw this snake on my way down.

For those who missed it, here is an email we sent out during our "hiatus from the internet" minus our address (which i am told is unwise to post on a blog - feel free to get in touch with us if you wish to update your address book). Might make a bit more sense with all the pictures posted above.

Hey y'all!
> Sorry for the lack of mails.  We have been busy driving back-and-forth between Hamada & Ohda countless times - good thing it's a beautiful drive! (plus I've got a great co-pilot!)

> Moving in Japan generally means moving into basically a fully gutted apartment : no refrigerator, no stove, etc. Luckily our place had the air conditioning/heating unit already there... so that's one less thing to shop for!  Yoshimi noted that often when people move into a new apartment there are not even light bulbs! Although we had a few items stored at Yoshimi's parents' place left over from our previous life in Japan, setting up a new place can become quite expensive.
>
> We had to do a lot of running around, checking out different stores for the basics. Secondhand stores or "recycle centers" are slowly catching on here but the items they have are of such good quality that the price becomes a tough choice compared to just buying new. So lots of decision-making: buy basic but new/buy upgraded but old, a big refrigerator/a small refrigerator, go with a normal color or pink.

> We've had lots of help from Yoshimi's parents. Every night of our stay with them we'd go to sleep with a full tummy, that's for sure!

> It's been a time full of all the fairly monotonous things involved with moving and setting up a "shin seikatsu" (new life)...doesn't seem like much to write home about (let alone blog about!) but at the same time every day is filled with endlessly stimulating events.
> For example, we were extremely happy to take a little break from all the running around to enjoy hosting and visiting Eddah last weekend! Just like all of you reading this mail now, we feel so lucky to meet up with good friends after such a long time and with huge smiles be able to pick up right where we left off! We sure are looking forward to, albeit the lengthy process, of getting set up again and into a "regular lifestyle" which will hopefully include meeting up likewise with many of you someday!

But as we look around our new place filled with boxes and chaos, there's a lot of emphasis on "someday" :-)
> Yesterday, after a long day we were able to take a moment to drop-in and listen to the students and alumni brass band concert at the concert hall the other night - impressive as ever! Met our friend Yuko there who was sitting beside her daughter home from college, Seika... no wait, Seika was onstage with the performance as an alumni....must be Seika's friend... no wait ....that's Anika!?!? She starts junior high school this spring(!!)
> So if that's how much trouble I have recognizing Anika, you can imagine what it's like seeing other former students! 4 years away is a light year's worth of change for children/teens. Saw a young man in Juntendo (it's cool that I can mention "Juntendo" and many of you know what it means!) the other day who I was sure I recognized ; like an elementary student head on the adult body - very strange!
> To make things easier we have decided to sleep on futons for now while we decide whether to go "old school" in the Japanese tatami room of our apartment or look for a bed to put in the western style room! (Actually, I shouldn't say "old-school" as the majority of Japanese people sleep on futons rather than Western-style beds) Regardless, that last bit makes it sound like a big apartment:-).
> Tomorrow we will complete our move and officially begin our stay in our new apartment. It doesn't quite feel like home yet of course ...more like staying in a hotel room and having brought WAY too many things along with you :-)

> Busy times will continue as we both start work this week and Internet access will decline for a few weeks - so fair warning/ apologies in advance!!

>
>

> Genki de ne! Be well!
> S&Y