Yeah, I know, it's been a while...

It's been "hurry up and wait"for months now, and that's exactly how it felt when we got our house.  Three weeks we waited, and then suddenly we were rushing in here with government furniture, my suitcases and Robb's suits and surf boards and suddenly buying plates and cups and silverware and curtains and odds and ends and rearranging and cleaning and and and-- FINALLY some R&R in our beautiful little beach house : )

Part of our living room-- you can see our tatami room in the back

No joke, we are both from AZ and these are the tiles in our Japanese home--what are the odds?!

We LOVE this house, it's a perfect size for us and it's right in front of the beach--we couldn't ask for more!  Oh wait, that's right, our awesome friends live a few houses down so we just meet up at the beach and paddle out until we can't see land in front of us and watch the sunset together.  Yeah, it's that ridiculously happy here.

View from our front porch at sunset

R&R on the deck

Fixing up a bike on the deck

Last week started off with a bang with my first official Japanese lesson! I'm finally getting help because, let me tell you, learning Japanese on my own is not an easy task.  Getting through the alphabets was one thing, but after that I seemed to hit a wall when I realized how much I had to learn to become fluent and I kind of froze up with anxiety and made the effort to find a teacher.

I signed up at Kumon, which is usually a math and science tutoring center, but here in Japan they also offer Japanese as a foreign language.  It's a genius program, I think, because it lets you work on your own inside of the classroom so it's essentially work at your own pace and ask questions when necessary.  After every unit the teacher comes up to you and makes sure you understand the material, does a mini "test"so she knows if you're ready to move on.

The hilarious part about all of this is that because it's a tutoring center, I am sitting in this small classroom surrounded by 20 tiny Japanese children running around with papers, pencils and backpacks and always staring at me--the giant blonde girl towering over them--repeating basic Japanese words and slowly starting to read and write.

One little boy was trying to practice his English with me, and I asked him if he liked baseball and he started jumping up and down with excitement when I mentioned his favorite sport, SO... I'm pretty sure he's now my boyfriend.

My studio is slowly coming together.  It has an amazing view and I made my first dress for a good friend back home.  Can't wait to see how Japan influences my designs...

I  leave you with this little gem:  T-shirt from American Village
Retail price 700 Yen,  Life Advice: Priceless.