On our way home

Well, our trip to Niseko was much needed and wonderful! We flew out of Tokyo and into Sapporo and then it was a three hour bus ride (and one rest stop) to our hotel. This picture is of the dining room in our hotel. Breakfast came with our package, lunch was a reasonable $10 a person, but dinner was a whopping $35 a person, totaling nearly $70 for two. We didn't mind though, our days were lazy and we spent a lot of time night skiing. We'd sleep in all day and then get dressed and enjoy the night slopes. We stayed on the slopes so long they finally had to tell us to stop returning to the ski lift. Night skiing was wonderful. We had everything all to ourselves and the weather seemed better at night. At any rate, it was a good way to bookend what has become a very hectic time in our life.

As of today, our house has been packed. The movers came yesterday and spent 12 hours packing our stuff. They pack fast and as a result we lost track of one air conditioner remote and one $400 electronic thing we were supposed to return. 

Today we had our temporary furniture delivered and set up shop in our living room. Our mattress, sofa, and TV are all in our living room. It's better than spreading out all over the house and lets us slowly clean the empty bedrooms. We're getting used to the new "normal" that will reign over the next two weeks. John's already got his plane tickets booked and the Navy is working on getting mine ready (I hope.)

Speaking of normal, tomorrow's the first day we won't have movers coming. It's back to our normal schedule. Thank goodness. I could use a little routine about now. Our move doesn't feel real yet and I keep thinking about my wonderful friends here and how sad I am to leave them. On the other hand, I'm ready to get back to the US and my family. Three years brings a lot of ups and downs and many of them I couldn't be there for because of the distance and sheer cost of travel. 

I'll never regret choosing Japan and would do it all over again. I've grown so much as a person and adult during my time here. However, being home will be a blessing.

I'll update soon as we slowly say good-bye to our home of three years.