Possibly our Last Snowstorm in America and Packing to Move to Japan...

  

This is the pile of books AFTER I had already cut down my "books I can't live without when I first fly to Japan" pile down twice. The worst part is that this pile doesn't even include my Japanese language textbooks (I have two that I use most often - one of which is "Japanese for Dummies" which is an excellent jump start on the beginning aspects of the Japanese Language. The other is a much more advanced text and there is no English in it at all.).

     Drove to New Hampshire to see some good friends from college this weekend, and drove right into a snowstorm. Now, I've grown up in New Hampshire for most of my life, so snowstorms are nothing new to me and I'm usually alright driving in them, but they really do they get annoying. There are times when I am driving down the road at about 30 miles an hour through snow that is pulling my tires all over the road (and my steering wheel with it) and thinking to myself how happy I am that living in Japan means no more driving (at least, in theory, as I will be commuting by train and bus pretty much all of the time.) Last time I was in Japan I was so thankful to not have to drive anywhere. I know some people who go to very large cities like Tokyo from small places like where I am from and they are overwhelmed by how to get around. This was not really the case with me as I quickly acclimated to the train system, allowed myself to have a sense of humor when getting lost (which is totally unavoidable at first but kind of awesome when you find someplace new that is cool and unique), and then ended up really enjoying not having to deal with gas, long distances, or car maintenance/payments.

     I find myself looking around for things that I will again miss when I return to Japan, but there aren't too many. Was driving to work the other day and thought about how my trips to Dunkin Donuts or my 40 minute commute (one way) would not really be missed in particular, but then I saw a beautiful sunset over the ocean on my way home and realized there would be little things to miss here and there as there always are when you leave a place behind. Last time I was overseas I found myself wishing I had brought a better laptop computer and this time I am making sure to bring more things that I want to Japan so I don't end up wishing I had brought something. Brian and I have been working on a list (this is mostly non-essentials) based on my last venture to Japan (plus his input on things he really wants to bring).

     Please feel free to add anything you think I've missed that's super important. Keep in mind that because we are flying (and not having anything shipped due to our being college students), we can't afford to pay for more than one checked bag each. It's expensive! Especially if you go over the 50 lb. limit per suitcase.

 1. A laptop, external hard drives, jump drives, and lots of useful computer software and hardware bits. We were informed by the school that we have to bring Windows 7 (we haven't upgraded our PCs yet) with us so that we ensure we can get it in English for a reasonable price.

 2. Our Nikon and Sony Digital Cameras, and my Video Camera. Without photography or video I am a very unhappy person indeed.

 3. As many DVDs and Playstation Games as Brian and I can cram into those multi-disk holders. We put all our jewel and plastic cases into storage and just alphabetized my disks to a pretty decent amount of organization. All of our disks fit in 3, 100-pack storage cases.

 4. The Playstation 3 and the Super Nintendo, which we just could not to leave behind.

 5. Brian has to make sure he brings plenty of clothing and shoes with him to Japan, because he is 6'4" and absolutely nothing will fit him over there. We are pretty sure we are going to have to send money home once a year to have his parents send him back clothing and/or shoes.

 6. School Supplies like pens, pencils, sharpies, and notebooks, because they are cheaper to buy here then they are overseas.

We are putting our office supplies and other random things into ziploc bags because they really are a great way to pack things into a suitcase.

 7. Curtains, a couple of tapestries, some small posters, LED string lights, and some other little decoration type things (Like my collection of Yoshis!!! I can't leave them behind! Brian got me these for my birthday last year and I love them sooo much).

In case you were wondering, these were the Yoshis we used in our Wedding Centerpiece. I was the Red Yoshi and Brian was the Green Yoshi. I really need to get my pictures back from my friend Laura who was the photographer at our wedding because I still haven't been able to post anything here on the blog (or facebook). We had a beautiful outdoor wedding in New Hampshire with an Indiana Jones theme and other geeky references thrown in. It was the best day I could have asked for.
And while we're on the topic of Yoshis, here is my favorite yoshi commercial from the US.

 8. Books....ah books. They are heavy, expensive to ship, and as an anthropologist and geek I own WAAAAY too many of them and don't want to part with them. Since we do not currently have the money to ship books, however, I will be picking only a few from my already reduced pile and bringing them over in our checked baggage.

     There is some other stuff but really those are the major things. We've been planning the move for about six months now because it is our sincere hope that after being in school for a couple of years we can get jobs in Japan and possibly just not come back to the states. (Fingers crossed... a lot). Have you traveled for a long period of time and had issues with packing your belongings into one suitcase?
 Signing out,
 Lady Jones