Three more nights staying in this hotel. By then it will be 2 weeks and one day living here. It is a nice enough hotel… It has been very comfortable, if somewhat of a tight fit with all of our suitcases. It has nice facilities… Free wifi (very important!) Restaurants are mediocre and hugely overpriced, but that is to be expected. They have a nice guest lounge — which is where I am now while they clean our room — and it has free coffee/espresso, so I’m happy with that. The hotel staff is all very friendly and attentive. We have enjoyed our stay here.
But… It is a hotel… and I am tired of not having my own space. I used to envy my husband for his travel. No company I have ever worked for has offered to send me somewhere and put me up in a hotel and pay for all my meals. It sounded like such an exciting thing to travel for work. I really appreciate that his company is taking such good care of us here, but I am so ready to be in our own place and settled again. We have been living out of suitcases for long enough.
Sunday, my husband leaves for another business meeting — this one in Buenos Aires. I don’t envy him this trip because it involves nearly a full 24 hours of travel from Tokyo… First leg to Frankfurt (11 hours), three hour layover, then a second flight to Argentina (another 10 or 11 hours.) I — in the meantime — will be moving into our Tokyo apartment on Monday morning, and getting things set up there. Our shipped goods from home will arrive Tuesday.
The relocation company, fortunately, has been handling most of the set up and arrangements — since we are not very fluent in the language here. They have rented the furniture, and set up utilities… I have to arrange for cable and internet, but they are helping with that as well. They will pick me up from the hotel, and help get the bags moved to the apartment, be there for the “key ceremony” (when they hand over the key to me), and they will take me to City Hall to register and get updated Residence Cards. There are a lot of rules here in Japan. A lot of hoops to jump through to come live here. I am thankful to the company and the relocation service for helping with all of this.
We met yesterday with our tax adviser… Taxes get really complicated when you are an Expat. We will have to pay taxes in the US and here in Japan as well. So… the company has provided us with an adviser here and one back in the States. I think it will all turn out fine, but right now all of these details and arrangements are making me a bit crazy. Who knew at the outset what all was going to be involved here? When they first suggested this loaned assignment, all we thought about was experiencing another culture. No one said, “Hey… think about this…”
I am not regretting this decision… LOL, at least not yet… I do still believe that the opportunities will be worth all of this hassle, but this is certainly turning into an eye-opening experience.
Three more nights. I am excited to move on!
Four Years in Japan ... and now Three Years in London 