Berlinfusion

Same as Yesterday

Thursday 14th April

I'm aware that I write too much. A big thank you if you manage to plough through it all, but I'll attempt to keep my word count down a little. At the moment I'm just trying to cram in as much as possible so I can get up to date and blog in real time. This is a short post, but be warned - tomorrow's is long!

Today was mostly the same as yesterday; without the mastiff-meeting, car-collection and the jolly janitor but still with the jetlag symptoms, rain and depression.

Tim went into work for the first time. This is always the worst time for a "trailing spouse". While I embrace solitude, it does hit me when, for the first time in weeks, I'm alone and in a foreign country. He's collected by a neighbouring colleague who will show him how the bus and metro system work. He left before 8am and didn't return until well past 6pm. A long day.

I try to catch up with my social networking. It's weird having a different timeline of people and I feel very far away from the usual information streams. Especially those about how Japan is faring. I finish unpacking and storing stuff away.

Then I go out in a vain search of a post office. There may be something called a Postfiliale, but it's not open, shows no opening times and appears to be someone's house. I'll have to look another day and time. I don't want to close my business but with no postal service I cannot do it. Fingers crossed I find one soon.

In the evening Tim drives us to Ikea. We have to get a double duvet as we've only been lent two old, single, feather-filled ones for our bed. I'm allergic to the feathers. But Tim forgot to get the measurements, so we just got one for Rhiannon and will head back another day. We get a few other things and head home.

Just before bedtime, I remembered that I'm due in school tomorrow to give my two talks to the kids! I read a few blogs and articles for up-to-date information, make a few notes and go to bed.

I had a bizarre dream about earthquakes. I never remember my dreams, but this one was an epic. Not a nightmare, although the subject matter was. It was more like watching a movie. Quite disturbing but it means I awake in a "talk about earthquakes" state of mind.

Although a bit nervous about getting a cab, I'm looking forward to talking to people. And I love public speaking.

Jet Lag, Giant Dogs and a Janitor

Wednesday 13th April

I awoke at 5am again after spending most of the night in the bathroom.

No, I wasn't ill, I have a peculiar jet lag symptom - needing to pee every hour or so. Actually, my jet lag is very similar to being pregnant... headache, tiredness, insomnia (yes, they do go together), fuzzy headedness, irritability and nausea. And needing to pee all the time. And eat a lot.

I think the nausea part is still my jishin yoi - earthquake sickness - making its presence felt.

While waiting for everyone else to wake up I was treated to almost two full hours of cuddles from a scarily affectionate Raymi-cat. Most unusual.

I have a pleasant day ahead as Rhiannon is going to be at school all day. She hasn't been to school properly since the Tohoku earthquake on 11th March.

Her instructions are to be standing outside the house a 8.05am to be collected by the minibus. However, it's pouring with rain so we hover in the porch looking out for it before fumbling with the damn keys to let her out of the gate when it arrives. I'm so proud of her confidence. I couldn't have done that at her age. She will be delivered back to the gate at around 4.30pm. Bliss!

Tim goes off car-hunting and I'm all alone at long last. I like solitude. Very much indeed.

I don my coat and wish I hadn't sent my wellies off on the boat and head off for my first dog walk in Germany. I'm a little nervous as I've already seen numerous dogs walking along the pavement off-leash. In Japan, dogs are never off-leash unless they are in a dog run.

Besides, the dogs in Japan wear dresses and are generally the size of guinea pigs. The dogs here are not. They are huge.

Kita and I set off. No idea where we are going but I've seen a lake on the map so I head for that. Kita is understandably skittish after her ordeal and I hope a nice long walk, albeit in the pouring rain, will help. We found our way down to the lake and the first thing we saw as we turned a muddy corner was the biggest mastiff type dog I've ever seen. And it was not on a lead. And I couldn't see the owner. Oh. My. God! Kita obviously thought the same too and didn't know what to make of it. Luckily there was a gate in the way of their meeting. I waited for the owner to show.

Shiba Inus are unusual dogs - very primitive and more like cats in many respects. For example, Kita doesn't go in for butt-sniffing but prefers to sniff the other dog's nose. Our vet in Japan told us that Shibas quite often do not like squashed-nose dogs and I wonder if this is the reason. If a dog tries to sniff Kita's butt she tends to sit down. And if that means sitting on the other dog's head, so be it. Embarrassingly she once peed on a dog who had the temerity to stick its head where she didn't want it. I prayed she wouldn't do this again...

She didn't. It was worse and she showed an aggression I've never seen in her before. No attack, but a full on Shiba scream and bared teeth showed her antipathy. Mercifully the mastiff was very well trained and friendly and just trotted off. I am quite pleased I didn't understand what its owner said to me.

Our walk continued with no further incident apart from a brief, non-contact meeting with an enormous German Shepherd and we returned home absolutely sodden.

Just as I was changing out my wet clothes, Tim phoned. The car was much further away than he expected so he'd be away for some time. Meanwhile, someone was coming to fix a leak in the bathroom, a faulty radiator thermostat. At 10am. It was 10am now so I hurried to get dressed.

The janitor arrived. A charming Polish gentleman who will be a wonderful person to get to know properly. He did his work, told me his life story and, as he was leaving asked, "where is your television? You cannot have no television if you have a child".  Hah! Ours is on the boat. Bless him, he promised to find one for us and deliver it as soon as he could. He came back with one a couple of days later.

Tim eventually and triumphantly returned with our new car and our liaison chappie.

We'd better get some food in, so, following our guide, Tim drove us to our nearest store. 'Kaisers' is the name of a chain of shops that apparently are of good quality.

But it's not within walking distance of our home.

And this is when a slight depression hit me. Nothing is nearby. We're living in a beautiful leafy suburb of Berlin, but there is nothing here, no shops, not even a train station. All shops close on Sundays, many close on Saturday afternoons too. I can no longer pop across the road for milk or food.

And where is everything else? I need a nearby post office if I'm to keep running my business. A vet, dentist, doctor... where are they?

The thought of driving here terrifies me. It's all on the wrong side of the road and I've never driven that way before. Besides, I'm not yet allowed to drive here for insurance reasons so will have to rely on Tim for that. And he will be at work.

I start comparing Berlin to Tokyo and this is not a good thing. I have moments of "I don't want to be here". I must snap out of that but am finding it hard.

The Busy Day Continues - Dustbins & School

Still Tuesday 12th April 2011 - this may take three posts as so much happened.

So, we had lunch and continued unpacking while Rhiannon ran amok in the expanse of garden.

Suddenly the door buzzer sounded - an unpleasant noise making us jump out of our skin. I lean to look out of the window and see dustmen asking for our wheelie bin which is behind a locked gate. I try to tell them that no, we don't have any rubbish, but they don't understand.

Quick, where are the keys? There's a box full to the brim of random keys in the kitchen and Tim has put his set somewhere 'safe'. Luckily, Tim found his keys and dealt with the men. I hadn't realised we even had wheelie bins...

Getting in and out of this house is a major palaver. There's a high gate to the front garden that can only be opened with a key - from both inside and out. Then there's the key to get in the front door. If the front door shuts behind us and we don't have our key... that's it, we're stuck. Oh, and there's yet another key for the rickety fence-mounted mailbox. Upon opening it, I was thrilled to find two "New Home" cards from very thoughtful and lovely friends.

Then it was time to visit the international school we'd chosen. Tim phoned for a cab (using the number in our handy home-guidebook) and managed to speak to someone who understood English.

How did we select this school? Some friends are amazed that we hadn't made the 24 hour trip to visit various schools beforehand. But seriously, it's too long a trip to do that. I did a lot of internet research instead. I did feel a little nervous about it all - our choice of school in Tokyo turned out to be a big mistake.

Here we had a choice of four schools; I discounted two instantly as they didn't run the full British curriculum (I think this was the reason - it was all done a year ago) and we will probably have to return to the UK after this posting.

Of the two that were left, I was very reluctant to choose one from the same family as the Tokyo school but tried to remain open-minded. However, after doing all my research I decided on one, based mainly on the photos of the buildings and grounds - possibly not the most relevant reasons! Actually, I'm just kidding - their pastoral care and certain other aspects really appealed to me and I thought it would suit Rhiannon down to the ground. But I left the ultimate decision to Rhiannon, without telling her the names of the two schools.

She chose the same as me, but for very different reasons. The shoes she could wear! One school had a yellow uniform - "No way, Mum!" While the chosen one allowed ballet flats and a pretty summer dress. Shallow child.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine from Tokyo is also moving to Berlin later this year and visited last summer to look at all the schools. We have different criteria for our children so she chose a different school, but was able to report her findings back to me which was useful. After the earthquake in Japan she came to Berlin for a while but sadly we just missed each other by a day. I'm really looking forward to seeing her again later this year.

We arrived at school a little early and were astounded by its sheer beauty. The grounds are extensive and a pair of red squirrels bounded across the lawns. Lawns! In Tokyo the school playground was on the roof of a seven or eight storey building or on Astroturf. 

The headmistress was absolutely delightful. She showed us the various buildings and found Rhiannon's new class where she asked two girls to come out and show Rhiannon around the school. They skipped off together very happily.

The head told us they never accept children without seeing them first but she made an exception for us because Rhiannon's native language is English and her school reports were so good. Did she read the wrong ones?

Then we were introduced to another woman who will be the new head from September. Again, she was very personable. I was seriously flagging with jetlag by now though. So when she asked me what I was doing on Friday I said, "nothing".

"You are now," she laughed, "I'd like you to come and speak at our primary assemblies about your experiences in the earthquake in Japan." 

Ah.

Armed with the times of the assemblies we collected a very happy Rhiannon and headed for home. She has already made two friends of the girls who took her around. And found some conkers  in the school grounds. Red squirrels and conkers - what a lovely place.

The school have also invited Rhiannon to come into school for the rest of the week so she can find her way around and settle in; free of charge, meals and bus included.

Bus?

Yes, this is the best bit ever - the school provides a door-to-door bus service. I will never have to do a school run again. Sweet heaven!

For this, I will talk to the children about anything they ask.

First Full Day in Berlin - Morning

Tuesday 12th April 2011 dawned... at dawn.

Rhiannon woke us up just before 5am with the excited news that she'd seen a red squirrel in the garden. Yeah, OK dear...

Unable to get back to sleep I got up, dressed and trotted downstairs where I took a look outside for the first time.

Wow! What a huge garden we've inherited. Our 'garden' in Tokyo was about the size of most people's bathrooms, while this one is a field by comparison. In the centre is an enormous beech tree with a swing and a rope on it. Aged initials are carved into the trunk. A few shrubs surround the edges with pines and conifers at the end. A couple of small raised beds sit near the house where a small clump of daffodils shine in the morning light.

While supping my tea and drinking in the welcome green view I spotted a shape moving along the fence. Sure enough it was a red squirrel with a super-bushy tail. A proper Squirrel Nutkin! Gorgeous.

Rhiannon went straight out onto the swing and spent most of the day on it. It's so fantastic that she's finally got somewhere to play outside.

Time to evaluate our new home. Firstly I went for a quick walk around the garden to see what was there and to check that it would be dog-safe. It's not. The fence is only knee high so we can't let Kita out on her own untethered. What a shame. There's a lot of perimeter to re-fence; I can't see us being able to afford that. The weather's chilly and grey so I don't stay out for long.

Someone's left us a red folder with useful notes about living here. For example, details about recycling - but not when the rubbish collections are. Suggestions of places to go and what to do are also included. I peruse this, still in a daze of jetlag and travel exhaustion while Rhiannon happily swings away outside.

We've got a busy day ahead. Unpacking, of course. Someone's coming at 10am to tell us how things work in the house. We've an appointment with Rhiannon's new school at 3pm and we're hoping our pets will be delivered at around lunchtime. Tim's also expecting a call from the person delivering our new car telling him where and when to meet and collect it.

Unpacking takes forever. We don't have as much storage space here and I was horrified to see only one bookcase. I have thousands of books to come and no idea where they will go. Later we will have a restyle of the furniture in the house in an effort to make it work for us. I forgot to mention before - none of the furniture is ours, we have to make do with what's here and it's uninspiring to say the least. 

I'm also checking out where I will have my "office". Downstairs is open plan; bedrooms upstairs aren't quite right. However, we do have an enormous basement with several rooms, including a laundry room. But I cannot envisage working in a basement. I need to see outside.

We'll turn the main room into a den for Rhiannon, another is a laundry room and the others are damp and pokey. So it's either a bedroom or a corner of the dining room area again. I plump for the latter so I can see the garden. Not ideal, but it will do.

Now all I need is some paying work so I can justify buying a new desk!

Our 10am appointment goes OK. Due to the jetlag though, I didn't take in much. I asked about the possibility of getting a new fence and didn't get a very optimistic response. We'll have to wait and see.

Around lunchtime we received a phone call from the pet shippers. All's well, thank goodness, but we can't expect our furry creatures to arrive before 8pm. Customs clearance, I guess. They've had a horribly long trip. Japan to Frankfurt by plane, an overnight stay at Frankfurt's "Animal Lounge". According to their website the "lounge" can house every animal imaginable. I wonder what Kita thought of cows, horses and bears! Then they have to endure a road trip of about 7 hours to get to us in Berlin. Poor things.

The unpacking continued. 

And I will tell you about our afternoon and evening in the next post. Yes, it was a busy day.

 

 

Leaving Japan

I thought leaving Japan would be hard and I was right.

However, the experience of being in the Tohoku 9.0 magnitude earthquake with all its subsequent upheaval - geological as well as psychological - made it a little easier. Perhaps at the back of my mind was the thought that the Fukushima nuclear situation was more serious than we were told. But on the other hand, Tokyo is very far from the crisis zone and I trusted the independent information we were given. Further forward in my brain was the real worry that Tokyo would have The Big One (earthquake) with all the tectonic movement and pressure building elsewhere.

I desperately wanted to go and help some of the many thousands of displaced and grieving families but was unable to leave my home. Rhiannon's school was closed for what seemed like forever. They finally, reluctantly and under pressure, opened for one week just before the Easter holidays which gave me a little respite time to sort out some packing.

Aftershocks continued on a daily basis. We were all far more jumpy about them than before 11th March and this added to the immense stress I was under. I was (and still am to a certain extent) suffering from jishin yoi - earthquake sickness - a form of nausea, probably psychological but real for all that. It seems to be common judging by the searches on my Japanory blog and comments others have made to me.

Moving home is a harrowing experience in any case. But add to that the fact we were moving to almost the other side of the world (again) into a house we haven't chosen or even seen (again) and to a country I haven't been to before (again) and you may understand a little of the anxiety I was suffering.

I worried about how Rhiannon would cope with the move; she's spent half her life in Japan. Luckily, her reluctance and anxiety about moving was alleviated somewhat by the school closure (a single benefit!) and her friends also not being around. She was definitely not sad to leave the school where she had unresolved bullying problems.

As well as all that, I was fretting about how our dog and cat would fare.

When we arrived in Japan in 2006 we had two cats. Sadly, one died a week after our arrival having suffered a blood clot. This time we have a much loved dog, Kita - a Japanese Shiba Inu - to ship as well. She doesn't take well to separation and change and had been traumatised by the earthquake. To say I was very worried about her would be a massive understatement.

Because so many of my friends had left Japan post-earthquake I didn't get chance to say "sayonara" to them. Tim had a small goodbye "do" at the work bar on Friday 8th April where he got a little emotional; they were his workmates and good friends as well, so that was understandable.

Then the weekend was spent frantically packing, delivering electronic equipment to Tim's successor and generally trying to fit everything into weight-correct suitcases. The pets were taken to board by our pet shipping handler on Saturday.

Our possessions went in three shipments. Most of it was packed up on 1st March and sent in a  container on a boat. It was slightly delayed due to the earthquake but we were able to track its progress online. If it hadn't have been packed then, we would have lost a lot of precious items in the quake.This comprised about 90% of our belongings, including all but a few of my clothes.

The next batch went by plane a week before we left Japan. Included in that was my lifeline - my PC. I still haven't got it set up yet (missing some cabling and also why I don't have photos to include yet) so I'm writing this on a teeny laptop . RSI beckons. And the rest we have to carry with us - remaining clothes, vital papers, jewellery, Rhiannon's beloved cuddlies and random bits and pieces not included in the other shipments.

We went out for our last meal in Japan on Sunday and left home at 7.30am on Monday 11th April for the first leg of our trip. With 8 suitcases!

Itinerary: Japan Narita airport - London Heathrow, London Heathrow - Berlin Tegel.

This has been changed numerous times over the past weeks. We were meant to go from Haneda airport which is much closer to our home and the very early departure would mean we would arrive at our new house in daylight. Then the flights were changed due to a lack of crew and fuel to hop over to Seoul, South Korea before heading on. Finally they settled on the above which would mean we would arrive in Berlin late in the evening.

On the drive to Narita I drank in my last views of sunny Tokyo. The sakura (cherry blossoms) were in prime flower and looked stunning against the bright blue sky. Souped-up scooters whizzed along ridden in style by people with little regard to safe helmets; the billboards, the noodle-like road scheme with  tunnels and flyovers competing with the standard roads on the sat-nav. Craning my neck I saw Tokyo Tower with its newly bent spire (again, earthquake related).

We drove over Rainbow Bridge for the last time and then sped along the highway to the easy and calm Narita airport.

As we piled our cases onto the check in machine and the girl at the counter quipped "is that all?"

Yes, that's all. That's everything we have left to take out of Japan forever.

With a lump in my throat the plane took off. I didn't have a window seat so couldn't see Fuji-san for the last time. Perhaps that was for the best.

I fought back tears and ordered some therapeutic champagne.

Here's to the next adventure.

I kept repeating that to myself, but with a heavy heart.

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Berlinfusion!

Finally! I've chosen a name for my new blog and selected a theme and layout - for now. I've just discovered it doesn't support a particular widget I like, so I may change it at some point. I have finished configuring as much as I can but I'm not sure how much of it works yet.

A quick note about the blog name: I wanted a play on words and have pages of lists in my notebook of possible options. Some had too many syllables to be memorable to anyone but me. A couple were a little off the wall (no pun intended) and others had been used already. I like the play of "fusion" and "infusion".

 1) The merging of different elements into a union.

2)  Physics A nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy.

The latter definition caught my attention having been right in the middle of blogging about the huge earthquake in Japan and subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima.

And "infusion"? Well, I've always got a good old cup of tea to hand!

It also alludes to "confusion"; a state I regularly find myself in...

Anyway, for those of you who know me, hello and welcome!
And for those who don't, please take a look at my About me page so you can learn a little bit more about who I am. A brief post about our arrival is on my other blog, Japanory.

We arrived in Berlin last Monday night (11th April 2011) after an extraordinarily long journey from Tokyo.

Some of our baggage turned up today which was exciting. The main bulk of it all is due to arrive at the end of next week. I'm looking forward to being able to turn this house into a home by inundating it with all my knick-knacks and numerous wall decorations.

At the moment I am sitting on a very uncomfortable dining room chair with a miniature laptop which has a Korean keyboard layout. Not conducive to writing much. Hopefully, husband Tim will set up my newly arrived main computer tomorrow so I can do some real writing at long last. As long as my precious computer has survived the journey...

Anyway, it's coming up for 2am so I will stop rambling on for now and will be back soon.

Goodnight!