Teresa at Home in Nagoya, Japan

The last time we checked in with Teresa who recently relocated from Lake Stevens, Washington to Nagoya, Japan she and husband Steve were hotelling it at the Nagoya Hilton while Boeing was processing their “housing papers.” They have since settled into their modern, Western-style home – albeit not without a few kinks and funny stories.

Following are pieces from Teresa’s September 11, 2011 email - beginning with bidets and bathing:

our move went very smoothly with only a few garage sale items breaking, so no big deal. we love our house and yard and i have so many plants i've already lost count. a few interesting things about the house: we have bidets in both bathrooms, or washlets as they call them here. not only do they wash your privates, but they blow dry them as well. then again, maybe my friend was just pulling my leg when she told me about the blow drying because i haven't seen a sign for that, i'm so gullible ;-) they actually have those in a lot of public bathrooms as well-only in japan. taking a bath was a bit of a challenge at first. the controls are all digital, and there are 5 buttons to push. even though our realtor wrote little notes in english, they were very hard to read and of course when i put on my glasses, they got all fogged up!

This next tidbit had me rolling on the floor…the visual of Teresa trying to cook:

the stove is also digital. you have to push one button to turn it on, another to pick which burner you want to use and yet another to pick the desired temp. which ranges from 0-10. the first night i cooked i couldn't get the front burners to work. we'd totally forgotten that our realtor told us we needed special pots for those 2 burners. it's due to some type of safety precaution. when you remove your pot or pan, it immediately turns off and cools off, therefore keeping curious little children from burning themselves. last night as i was finishing dinner all the burners automatically shut off. i kept trying to figure out what had happened and the only thing i could think of is that i put a lid on one of the burners, it wasn't even turned on and i had immediately removed it. hearing how frustrated i was getting, steve came to help and after a few minutes he noticed a key emblem on the surface of the stove. it had turned red which made him realize it had turned, or locked off the burners. once he pushed it we were able to get the burners back on and i was able to finish cooking.

Coming from the Great Pacific Northwest recycling is not new to Teresa, however, I found this comment interesting and I’d like to hear more detail:

last but not least is the recycling. to make a long story short, things have to be sorted into 6 different groups.

(Cynthia: I’ve also heard that if you don’t sort your recyclables correctly and tie them in the preferred fashion, you will be scolded and they may not be accepted!)

In closing, Teresa advises that she is still feeding the feral cats and that two friends have recently had babies so she has the opportunity to “play grandma" in Nagoya. Additionally, Teresa and Steve live close to the professional soccer team's Brazillian coach and they have been invited to a game and BBQ. It sounds like she’s settling right in…Sayonara for now!