Worst Bloggers Ever

We are sorry for the gigantic gap between posts. The last two weeks have flown by…

On a Friday night we headed up to the church to participate in a scavenger hunt. It was an hour of racing around Mito taking pictures, solving riddles and feeding the homeless. The boy’s team won but we only have pictures from the (better) girl’s team…

Staci took some pictures of her school…

This is her English corner with all of her supplies. She cycles around to all of the classrooms to teach her lessons. Of course she does have a desk in the teacher’s room…

This is one of said classrooms. The students learn, eat and sometimes have recess inside these rooms. One of my favorite details is the curtain on the chalkboard…

Last Monday we both left work early to get our gaijin cards. I came home to find a fridge full of food and Staci and the Kajiyamas setting up our Internet. We drove to City Hall and picked up our cards and set up bank accounts. After that we went to K’s (an electronics store) and got our cell phones…

Saturday we spent the morning making calls on Skype to our families. Then around 9 AM our new bed was delivered! It sits a luxurious 6 inches off the floor and is completely AMAZING! We also cleaned the church and had dinner with some great friends. Here’s the bed…

And KFC for dinner...

Sunday, after church, we went shopping at a mall in Hitachi with some friends. We found our new favorite store! And we bought some “cool max” items for summer. Bring on the rainy season…

Golden Week!

As promised, here is a link to a video tour of our apartment. Enjoy…

Apartment Tour

These last three days have been very fun as we celebrated Golden Week (with 3 days off work).

Monday, we rode our bicycles with some fellow AETs out to Lake Senba. There we enjoyed a picnic, various sports and had fun with some total strangers.

Later that day we indulged in the Japanese art of Karaoke. We laughed and effectively desecrated a number of great songs. Here we are showcasing our charisma…

Tuesday, we went to Starbucks on the way to the bus station. Our bus ran late and thereby changed our plans of spending the day with friends. We made it to the church and decided to call our families instead. We ate lunch from a bakery in Mito Station and took this opportunity to explore downtown Mito. Personally, I was fascinated by the fascination with “vintage” clothes (the late 80’s – early 90’s). I could sell my old boy scout uniform for at least 5000 yen.

That night we were picked up by Joel and Sasha and given a grocery store tutorial. Sasha then made a delicious dinner and we spent the night swapping stories and getting to know each other better.

Wednesday, the Kajiyamas picked us up around 9 and we were off…to somewhere. We did not ask and just let it be a wonderful surprise. About an hour later we arrived somewhere around Hitachi for the Boys Festival. Families, that have boys, display carp flags of various colors and sizes (red = mom, black = dad, etc.) We crossed a bridge and took the opportunity to snap a photo over the Valley of the Dragon god…

We stopped for lunch at a place that had amazing tempura and polished it off with an ice cream cone. We then drove by the coast and went to a huge shopping mall called “Fashion Cruise”. Our Japanese mama bought Staci some shoes, but we could not find any in my size. They just laugh when you ask if they have 30 cm shoes.

Great Golden Week!

No Internet for Gaijins

Our last week in the States was highlighted by an event we entitled “Monday Night for the Maloneys.” Our friends and family gathered to give us one big “goodbye”. It was wonderful and we would like to thank everyone who attended. Here are some of those people…

That Tuesday we both had to give up our iPhones, which I do not really want to talk about. Moving on…

We spent Wednesday night in Dallas because our flight left at 6 the next morning. Thanks to the advice of an employee of the airport we arrived three hours before our flight left. Here we are at 3 in the morning ready to go…

The counter opened and we soon found out that all three of our checked bags were over the weight limit. Since a few pounds were the difference between $25 and $150 we quickly redistributed our belongings.

Our first flight was from Dallas to Chicago. Not super exciting. But Chicago to Tokyo, a 14-hour flight, was…interesting. First, the flight attendants had 4 outfits that they changed to and from during the course of the flight. After several movies and a couple of meals we landed and trudged through the infamous immigration office.

Our boss met us at the airport and helped us take the 2-hour bus ride to Mito. I slept. Staci didn’t. We arrived to rain, 30-degree temperatures, and Oklahoma-grade wind. It was very confusing, but eventually we ended up in the car with someone who took us to our apartment.

And that’s when we met…the Kajiyamas! They are a wonderful couple that has basically adopted us as their own children. We stayed with them our first night, which was a good decision because we had no heater and it snowed. But before taking us home they proceeded to fill our apartment with everything but the kitchen stove (which they bought later). We had dinner and later breakfast at a table no more 6 inches above the floor under which my legs would not quite fit.

The Kajiyamas bought us many things for our apartment and we managed to purchase at least a few things without them paying (next post we will just give a tour of the apartment). Here’s the view from our front door (please note the cows)…

We had an intense week of training, filled out a lot of paperwork, went to our schools last Thursday and began working Friday. Here’s part of our group on the way to City Hall…

We are both quite happy right now though the language barrier is not great. Also, we have no phones or Internet, because we have no alien registration card. Usually it takes a week or so, but this year it is taking a month...

See you!

It is your birthday.

First item on the agenda was taking Vienna (the dog) to the Vet. It was very depressing and I made this video to commemorate the experience…

On Thursday, Staci celebrated a birthday. I am not authorized to disclose her age so let’s move right along to the festivities…

I spent most of the day running errands while the Mrs. went to get a pedicure with Heather and Hiroka. Our main plan (going to see a show) fell through so we called an audible and went bowling…

Here we are hoping our Wii skills would translate to actual bowling…they did not. I had the highest score (with 92), but no one could really claim a victory.

Heather is engaged! Will Jason be her Scotty Pippen? (Read Heather’s blog for explanation)

Tonight we spent time with some old friends. We ate some amazing queso and cheesecake and smores and wow that is a lot of food. I had actually forgotten we were “in the country” until a bobcat wandered up to the deck. Luckily, the cat Coco, Oleo, Oreo…(whatever the cat is going by now) defended us.

More to follow…

Home on the Ranch

Our last stop on the Maloney Farewell Tour was to see my grandparents in Lubbock. We played games, went shopping, ate steak and took naps (not in that order). It was great to see them and introduce them to Skype...

Now back in Oklahoma we are spending the rest of our time in the US with Staci’s parents…

We are currently living in their mudroom complete with washer/dryer and a bathroom that is currently out of order. It’s close quarters but is undoubtedly preparing us for an apartment in Japan...

Life in the country is not too bad, but the commute is not great. Every time we leave we are “going into town.”

Here’s picture of Tim tillin’ up the land... All that’s missing is a basket full of chicken and a big cold jug of sweet tea...

There are two new additions to the family. Their names are Vienna and Paris…They are a handful but very cute…

We leave in 10 days!

Daniel Does Dallas, Staci Sees Seminole

After leaving Alabama we spent a night in Baton Rouge, LA. We were too tired to explore the city, but did have a nice view from the window of our hotel room.

Most of our last few weeks have been in Texas. My dad and I spent a day picking up my brother from college and eating the best Chinese food I have ever had. We just spent a week with my parents shopping, studying and shooting…

We are now in Seminole (population around 6000), which personifies a local West Texas town. Complete with oil pumps, coffee shops and dueling snow cone stands it is a nice break from any number of the big cities along our path. Here we are with my grandparents…

Our time in Texas is almost over and our journey overseas is just around the corner.

The Maloney Farewell Tour

We’re homeless and…

Not pregnant or 16 and come to the realization that we have been watching too much television.

We are currently in Montgomery, Alabama visiting our friends Liz and Ryan. We made the 12-hour journey by car without a working radio. Why was our radio not working you might ask? There is a very logical explanation…we had an oil change. I’m sure it is nothing a little tinkering can’t fix.

The other day we impulsively drove down to Florida in search of sandy beaches. It was beautiful!

After being lightly toasted we did some more exploring and then went to Crabs to eat lunch/dinner. There we found the Real Housewives of Pensacola. For both their sake and yours I will not post that picture. Instead, here is one of us enjoying a good meal of mahi mahi, crab cakes, oysters and snow crabs.

This is a good first stop on our trip and it is truly wonderful to spend time with great friends.