Lesson Learned

On Saturday night, we were invited over to our new friend's, Louis and Evie Efron, for dinner, along with Skip and Marianne Kiil. Skip, Louis and Scott all work for Stryker, and are all relatively newly relocated to Tokyo, so we are all either going through or have gone through the same things, both work wise and life wise. It turned out to be a fantastic night- great conversation, a lot of laughs and stories shared, and a wonderful meal (it took Evie the majority of a week to find everything she needed to make dinner...which was Lasagna...so nothing crazy..but it is a matter of going to a 1/2 dozen stores just to get what you need!). As the night was getting later, we all retreated to the living area only to look at the clock and see that it was 11:10pm. Marianne announces that they have to leave, as they have to get home in time for their helper (sitter) to take the train home...which is when we realize that we also had our helper sitting the girls, and she also takes the train. We live quite a bit further than the Kiil's do from Louis and Evie, and had no idea what time the trains shut down for the night....so, we hustled back as fast as we can, only to see that the trains stop at 1am....so not only did we pay our sitter 1500 Yen an hour (9000 Y for the night- which comes to almost $100!!), but we also had to pay her cab fare home...we gave her an additional 5000Yen (roughly $55), and will find out Tuesday when she comes to clean if we need to pay her more for the ride home!! UGGHH!! Lesson learned- be home by 11pm anytime we use someone that lives outside of our building!!

Green Pepper Comparison

Take a peek at these peppers...the colored peppers, you can find in all grocery stores, and are normal sized. However, the green peppers are the size of a clementine- it is crazy! The only place you can get normal sized Green Peppers is at an international grocery store!

Japanese Toilets

This is a photo of a Japanese toilet. It is pink, as it is in the girls' restroom. In most public restrooms around the city, they also have a few stalls with Western bathrooms (toilets as we know them!), however, the further outside of central Tokyo you get, the better chance that this is what you are going to find. It might work for the small, slim Japanese, but for the regular sized American, they are not very functional! You literally have to squat over it, so you better be doing your squats daily, or you aren't going to make it (especially because there is nothing to hold on to most of the time!). My girls freak out every time they see this..I pray we are never anywhere that they have to use one, or I will have two crying children!!