When we were first offered this two year assignment to Japan, pretty much all we thought about was how interesting and exciting it would be to experience living in another place and another culture. We really didn’t consider just how complicated and exhausting the actual “moving” part of the experience would be. Not that I regret our decision in any way… I would still choose to do this even so… but since part of the reason I am doing this blog is to inform people about how this whole process works (the good and the bad), I have to be honest about how stressful it can be.
I am SO ready to be done with this part and on to the adventure part of it. And… in 4 days we will be. But those 4 days will be… and actually the past month or more has been… the most stressful experience of my life. Mostly just working out what to do with all of our “stuff” here for the two years that we will be there. We have to move out of our house here, and put everything that we aren’t taking to Japan into storage. We had to “re-home” our pets (to our children), including driving 500 miles to our daughter’s home with our 17+ year old kitty. Throw the Christmas holidays into the mix, and the past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride.
Today has been more laundry and cleaning, the horrible refrigerator and pantry “purge”… and more work with the landscape maintenance company. Tomorrow is last minute appointments with dentist and chiropractor, a haircut, and final packing of our luggage. Also, we have two showings of our home to potential renters. Thursday will be movers packing our allotted 1000 pound shipment of household goods — which will arrive in Tokyo in 2 to 3 weeks. Friday, more last minute appointments and packing. Then Saturday we leave.
The actual packing and storing of the rest of our stuff… and leasing of our home… won’t actually take place until February. My husband has a business trip from Tokyo to Germany, and we will return here for a few days on our way back to Tokyo and move out of the house. Did I mention that we are also selling off one of our cars? One will go into storage in February, and the other is being sold this week. Our mail will be collected at my husband’s company here, and will be sent to us in Tokyo.
Like I said… lots of details that we never considered at the outset… And there will be a lot more details once we get to Tokyo to set up our home there. It is all getting done, day by day. And… My next post will be from TOKYO!!
Four Years in Japan ... and now Three Years in London 
Thank you so much for sharing and being honest. I can’t believe all it takes to accomplish this. How in the world do you know what stuff you can take? Are there “rules” or helpful hints the moving company provides? How did you know what things weigh? I have goosebumps thinking about what it would be like to pack up my house and walk away for two years. Yikes!
I just finished thru “Almost There.” I’ll read more tomorrow or the next day.
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