Time travel

I have made it to Japan now (and so has my luggage - yeah!). The trip was long but realatively easy. The firs leg of the trip was a bit surreal and felt like it wasn't really happening, like I was on autopilot. The entire trip, door to door took just under a day, but I arrived almost two days after I left (I took a short cut through a worm hole).

It seemed like Canada was just not ready to let me leave. The afternoon before leaving, the cable guy accidently knocked out the phone line in our living room so that left me scrambling a bit to try to get them to fix it. They never did. Sorry Shawn, yet another thing to add to the list of things for you to do when you get back! Then on the way to the airport the next morning, my car (which has never had problems in the past) started running very badly and the check engine light came on, I was imagining being stuck on the side of the road while my plane left. Ughhhh, sorry EP (she is going to have to deal with this nightmare or pass it off to Shawn). It sure is great to have supportive friends!

On the first leg of the journey from Victoria to Vancouver I sat beside a physical oceanographer who was just returning from a trip to China to meet about lowering oxygen levels in the oceans. We talked non-stop about his theories and the locations he has worked. I took that to be a good sign of things to come. He was very nice (and a bit surprised that I was heading to Japan without ever meeting my new boss... - personal note: this may all be a big mistake). He gave me some vetran tips on how to best avoid jetlag. His secret - don't watch the movies and close your eyes even if you aren't tired, sleep will find you.

The flight from Vancouver to Tokyo was refreshing. This is the first time that I have been on a flight where I wasn't the only one that had to stand on the seat below to reach into the overhead compartments! It was nice to be on a plane full of smaller stature people, we all fit into the seats perfectly and between me and the girl next to me, we both had room to stretch out and sleep. Chalk up one for the short people!

I heard from Shawn before leaving and he is having fun in Australia. He and KT spent some time on Moreton Island playing in the surf and kayaking with dolphins. I can't wait to see some photos! Shawn is now off to Airlie Beach and will plan a short trip out of there once he arrives. I would like to update everyone more about what he is doing, but we really haven't been able to be in touch all that much with the time difference and the remote places he has been going. He has had some typical travelling rollercoasters, but overall he sounds like he is having a wonderful time down under!

On reflection, I think being a bit isolated from Shawn has been one of the hardest things I have dealt with so far during this transition time. I can handle life out of a suitcase or a big move, but doing it without Shawn to talk to has been a huge adjustment. After over 12 years together, he is my home more than any other place or person can ever be.

It is now a sunny Sunday morning (I arrived late last night). I woke up without an alarm clock so I hope that the jetlag tips worked. I am going for a walk now to try to find some coffee or ocha (=tea). Then I will stroll over to the university for a look around.

Packing Up

It has been a long couple of weeks of packing up and cutting down on "stuff" that one accumulates when they have a house and shed to store things in. Of note this week I waved goodbye to Billy - our big brown camper van that had taken us on so many fun adventures. A German tourist bought it and plans to take it across Canada. We had always hoped to do that in the van, I am glad that the van will finally make the trip.

Another tough event was taking the cat over to his new foster home. Sooh knew that something was up long before the transfer and managed to make his wishes clear to me by plunking himself firmly inside my bag and giving me a look that said "Why don't I get to go? See look, I fit!"

I am not worried about how he will fare hanging out with Eileen and Kris for the next while, but I am less sure of how Shawn and I will do without our little buddy around. It was a sad goodbye (for me that is, the cat seems to be doing fine already).

It is hard to believe that it is my last night at "home". I have said a number of goodbyes in the past couple of days but none of it seems real just yet. With the seemingly endless lists of things to consider and tasks to get done, I haven't really had the time to sit back and think it all through, and maybe that is for the best. Perhaps it will seem more tangible when I get on the plane tomorrow.

At any rate, I am looking forward to the trip. The travel time is around 14 hours in total and the flight across the Pacific is only 8 hours. A student from my lab will be there to pick me up when I arrive, which will be nice. With luck, I will be dining on some of the freshest Sushi that northern Japan has to offer in just over 24 hours.

Canada is Golden Down Under

The Canadian dragon boat teams competing in the IDBF world Championships in Australia this weekend put on a clinic and dominated in nearly all age and gender classes. I couldn’t be more proud of our team mates Tom and Kris and of course, Shawn who raced with the maple leaf on their backs there. Way to go boys!! Above is a photo of the Canadain men in a start of a race - I put a big red arrowhead pointing out Shawn - Kris is behind him and you can't see Tom.

Here is the basic breakdown of the results (I have posted all that I could find online - the communication between the races and the rest of the world was not very good):


Shawn said that the racing went well and that the teams down there were smoking fast. Now Shawn is off on a bit of travelling in Sydney before he returns home to finish up work and pack up the house. He plans to spend some time camping and scuba diving on the East Coast of Australia.

Back home in Canada, between bouts of internet searching to find out the results of racing in Australia, I have made good progress in preparing to leave for Japan. I have managed to pack up a lot of the house and “clean sweep” my closet. A few helpful friends stopped in and gave me a hand drinking wine and cutting down on old clothes. I went from a big closet and 8 dresser drawers full of clothes, to an easily packable 4 drawers of items – thanks gals!

Before packing away my cookbooks I thought I would spend some time typing out some essential recipes that I will certainly want to use as a break from sushi. Instead, I found a great website that lists all of the Best of Bridge recipes on it (click here to find great recipes). Perfect, that leaves me more room to pack other fun things like photos!

Time is ticking and I am now down to 6 days to go until I leave. Most of the travel arrangements are in place and things around the house are mostly taken care of. Now all that is left is to say goodbye to friends and hand the cat off to Eileen. That will be a sad goodbye and I am already dreading the look that I am going to get from him when he realizes that I am leaving him somewhere that doesn’t smell like home. Other than that, I am feeling relatively ready to go and excited for the challenges ahead (and I am sure that there are going to be BIG challenges).

The first, let's call it FAQ

The big countdown is now on and my "to-do" list seems to only get longer instead of shorter and items like starting this blog keep getting bumped down on the list. That's it, it is time to buckle down and get this thing live.

Since I am still in Canada and don't have anything about Japan to write yet, I will start with "FAQ's". There have been a number of commonly asked questions lately so I will address them here.

When do you go?
I fly out on the 28th of September - that is only a mere 11 days from now. Yikes! Shawn will move there some time in November. Right now he is in Australia competing at the IDBF dragon boat world championships. To track his results go to the race website, he will race with the Premier Open crew from Canada.

Where will you live?

We will be moving to Sapporo (yes, like the beer and ichiban noodles). It is a city in northern Japan, check out the map below and follow the red arrow. Northern Japan gets snow in the winter, which will be nice to return to (or at least I think that it will be...). The city has a population of about 1.89 million and has professional baseball (the Nippon Ham Fighters....) and soccer teams. Others who have visited there tell me that it is a lot like Vancouver with its proximity to the ocean and a stunning mountain backdrop.

Initially we have a small apartment on the campus of Hokkaido University. If we are comfortable there, we may stay for most of the time there.

What will you do there?
I will be doing coastal larval ecology research with a lab at Hokkaido University and Shawn will finally get a break from supporting my destitute a$$. I know, as do most of you, that Shawn won't last very long cooking soba noodles for me every day and will soon need more stimulating challenges to keep him busy. I am sure that he will find work easily.

How's your Japanese?
Wakadimas nihongoga sukoshi hanashimas (= I speak a little Japanese). I have managed enough time to learn how to politely apologise for not understanding and am already enrolled in Japanese conversation lessons that will start in October. So far, the sounds are all very easy so our pronunciation seems good, but the sentence structure is backwards from the way we think so that will hang us up a bit I am sure. Reading Japanese is a totally different game. There are three "alphabets" and countless characters (or so it seems). I don't hold too much hope that I will be able to read easily even after being there for 18 months.

So that about covers things for now. I will surely have more to say soon - check back this weekend to see how Shawn did. I will post some comments on his races.

Thanks to everyone for their love and support so far in this big step! I can't wait to see you all in Japan!