By the Numbers

10 - Months since I (Teresa) moved to Japan. (Michael has been here almost 11 months.)

1 of 5 - Pictures that we shipped from the US that are now hanging on our walls. (We didn't get pictures hung in our Chicago condo until almost 3 years after moving in, so this is pretty good.)

1 of 4 - Pictures purchased in Japan that are now hanging on our walls.

4.5 - Months Nola has been in Japan.

06:30 - Average time Nola decides it is time for us to wake up. This is progress! Chicago wake up times averaged between 5:15 and 5:30.

00:00 - Average time Michael gets home from the office. This is not progress. Chicago get-home-from work times averaged between 19:00 and 20:00.

9 - Visitors we have had so far in Tokyo. We loved having each and every one of them. Come visit us!

2 - Full bathrooms in our apartment. This makes having visitors even easier.

4 - Number of trash categories that we separate at home - Combustible, Non-Combustible, Plastic Recyclable, Non-Plastic Recyclable. I am not convinced that we are separating trash correctly - it is a horribly complicated process.

5 of 9 - Number of plants I have killed since moving to Japan. I loved our balcony garden in Chicago, but I just can't seem to remember to water the plants here. At least I haven't spent a fortune on them. The happiest, most hearty plants we have came from the 100 Yen Shop.

5 - Shrines on our "street." Really, our street is more like a cul-de-sac. There are 6 buildings total - 5 shrines and us.

2 - Construction sites I pass to get to the subway.

3 - Construction Security Guards I have made friends with. We smile at each other and say "Good Morning" (in Japanese) every day. I think they say other things too, but I can't understand them. They make me feel like I'm really a part of the neighborhood.