Getting ready

I’m writing this post from the site of an epic battle. Good vs Evil. Predator vs Prey. The Cat vs The Fuzzy Mouse.

It all started with me getting my home organized for the pack-out. For me, getting ready for pack-out involves inventorying all of my household goods (mainly to help me get a handle on everything) and deciding what can get thrown/sent to Goodwill, what goes into storage, what goes on the boat, what goes in the air shipment, and what goes in my luggage. To add to the excitement, everything has to be staged – e.g. all of the stuff for the air shipment needs to be all together – because when the movers come to pack you out, they come in like that big thunder storm we had a week ago, and everything in their path gets swooped up and put into boxes (including garbage, if you’ve been silly enough to leave any in your house). So I’m going through all of my stuff. The other day, I pulled down a small box that I haven’t touched since I got back from Brazil. Inside were the electronic doodads that I expected, but also inside was my extra stash of fuzzy mice for the kitty. (No sense in giving the cat more mice when she still had the others!) I didn’t think much of it, but tonight I put the box on the floor, and a few minutes later, the cat is digging into the box trying to pull out a mouse. I gave it to her, and this cat, who hasn’t cared much about her mice for the past year, spent the next half hour (or more – she’s still going) throwing that mouse all over the apartment.

There isn’t much point to that story, except maybe that packing out CAN be fun!

So yes, I’m getting ready to move to Tokyo. The move is imminent now, so procrastination has largely come to an end, although my huge to-do list is not showing any progress. I was intending to write blog posts prior to this – about seeing the Hokusai exhibit at the Smithsonian, the Jakuchu exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, and some of the ancient Japanese books in the Library of Congress. I went to see the cherry blossoms down at the Tidal Basin. (This year was the 100^th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to the United States.) I saw the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery on its way to its resting place in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. And I took my mother to England for her birthday, and we drove around the Cotswolds and Cornwall.  (Tea at the Savoy is AMAZING, and I adored Blenheim Palace and the town of Bath. There were lots of other things I loved, but those were my favorites. I highly recommend them!!)

But now I’m about to move to Japan, and this blog will begin to fulfill the part of its intended function that is describing my impressions and experiences in Japan. It’s always a bittersweet thing to move. I am sad to leave friends and family here. But I am also excited to see so many of the amazing/impressive/crazy things I’ve heard about over the past year, and writing this blog will certainly help me process some of it. I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures!