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Moving Day - Friday December 7th, 2018

I never thought we’d live in Japan much less experience two different housing situations in the span of our time here (our four year “Japanniversary” is October 19th, 2020!!). To say we adored our former, gorgeous little apartment is an understatement. (Detailed in a previous blog post if you are interested.) We did not adore the thin walls between our unit and the neighbors who had three children under 5 and the insomniac neighbors above us who frequently woke us up at 1 and 2 am dropping very heavy objects on the floor above our bedroom. We loved that apartment so much I spent the better part of an entire year going crazy before we decided to pull the trigger and move again, as we were certain we’d not find any improvement on our open layout, south-facing, brand new construction apartment in an ideal location (on two subway lines in an area we loved) . It was most important to be able to leave Japan when we felt done with our adventures here, and we did not. We scoured the internet for months looking at windowless, cramped, old houses and apartments before we came across this interesting house or duplex in Motoyama area about 15 minutes drive north of our apartment. It sat immediately adjacent to shrine grounds which meant an unusual wall of trees on a hillside in an otherwise concrete jungle of a city. We could not tell from the listing if it was a stand-alone home or if it shared walls with the neighbors – we had to drive and walk to the side of the house to see that maybe 12 inches separate the two homes. I booked a lunch time viewing to see the inside with our relocation company and the property management. Upon first viewing in person it was a definite NO – instead of all being on one floor and open, the layout was narrow and tight and separated into small spaces over three floors. The third floor ceilings are so low I could touch the ceilings with my fingers. I could open the window and stick my arm out to touch my neighbor’s house. There was almost no storage space or closet space. The rooms felt too small to be able to have our furniture in them and walk around. Most of the windows faced north and it would be dark and closed in, light-wise. The spiral stairways were so steep and narrow it felt more like a ladder than a stair case. I had to grip the rails to keep from falling up and down the stairs. No way.

I don’t really remember when my definitive gut feeling of no faded and we started to reconsider and reaching out to our relocation agent to see if the house was still available. Because Justin and I had found the house listing on our own searching outside of the expat relo company listings, in order for the relocation company to coordinate the showing of it to us, they had had to list it in their database. Because of this, they had already began showing it to other expat families coming to Nagoya once we had started looking at it. Despite sitting on the market for many months it could have gone at any time. We sat and nervously awaited to hear if it was still available. It was!

Small detail – unlike American homes, the entry and extremely narrow and steep staircases meant we’d need to meet with a mover to assess if we could even get our furniture in the house (particularly our bed and my beloved custom-made Restoration Hardware leather couch – a small size to fit in my Capitol Hill studio apartment by American standards at 7’ long, but massive by Japanese standards) as it must be lifted in through sliding windows on the second and third floor via a crane. This particular home, in addition to having a driveway potentially too narrow to even drive the crane truck into, has electrical wires crisscrossing in front of the second floor where some of the furniture would need to be brought in through a window. The furniture must be raised over the wires and gingerly lowered down the other side, angling in to the house without hitting the wires.

I’ll never forget the evening I’d meet the mover and our relocation specialist and friend Mayumi to discuss the logistics of moving to see if we could even physically move into the house we’d decided to take a risk on. It was a dark, early October evening with a gentle rain. I pulled up into the car port in our tiny Pajero Mini and waited for the mover and Mayumi to arrive. Justin had still been at work. I sat in the car and listened to the sound of the rain in the trees and this amazing chorus of crickets. It was peaceful on a soul level. No traffic speeding by, no screeching kids. Once everyone had arrived, we squatted on the empty living room floor, the three of us discussing the aspects of the potential move. Good news, the crane truck would fit in the driveway, bad news, no guarantees could be made about any of our furniture fitting in that could not fit up the staircase. This was MOST of our furniture (see photos of stairway below). If we wanted to take the house it meant on the moving day we’d find out if we must sell our couch and get rid of our bed and all sorts of other stuff (pantry, fridge, shelving, etc) just to live who knows how much longer in Japan as there was no guarantee in months or years of how long Justin would be employed here… In some ways we needed to take the risk, however in a lot of ways, it made no sense and we stood to lose a lot. The easier choice would have been to head back to the US. But that isn’t us ;-)

The mover man was particularly nice, he agreed how lovely the crickets and quiet of the house was. In his quote he asked what day we’d like to move in. I told him we’d get the keys on December 3rd and we’d like to move the furniture on Dec 7th. He pulled out his calendar and told me those were both Tai-an days. My friend the relo agent told me something I never knew about Japanese culture – there are certain days which are consider lucky days or unlucky days for things specifically such as opening a new business, moving homes, having surgeries/medical procedures, and getting married. Of the six categories of lucky/unlucky days only one is considered lucky all day long, and there are 5-6 of these days which are lucky all day each month. Both Dec 3rd and Dec 7th were these so-called Tai-an days. Being an engineer I calculated roughly a 3% chance of any chosen 2 days in a year being both Tai-an days. I felt goosebumps and a sweeping sense of wonder at this unexpected cultural experience. Serendipity and magic on a level that wasn’t lost on me. Despite not knowing if our furniture would fit, despite not knowing if I’d feel claustrophobic and closed in with the smaller, separated lay out and the least sunlight possible, the experience of the peaceful crickets, quiet lot, and the tai-an days moved me to trust it was meant to be.

You can read about Tai-an days and this other Japanese calendar here.

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A 3% chance that both the day we’d receive the keys (Dec 3) and the day we’d move in (Dec 7) would both be Tai-an days in the Japanese calendar.

All’s well that ends well. Dreading the experience of moving – I had forgotten what country I am in. The whole moving experience was expertly orchestrated with so much care and attention to detail it was FUN to watch. The PTSD for movers is left over from America. Japanese movers even remove their shoes every time they enter and exit no matter what they are carrying.

Going on two years in this home and we love it. It is beyond perfect. We wish we could extract it from Japan and bring it wherever we go next. Beyond anything else this experience makes me question all that I hold as “must-haves” or what I think I know about myself vs. simply just what I am used to. Only a few times in life does certainty one way (that we would very likely not enjoy the home) give way to adjustment and falling in love. Initial arrival to Japan and I saw how close together the homes are. But Japan is quiet and homes are built so they have great privacy which makes what might be suffocating in the US just cozy here.

My initial feeling of ‘closed-in’ has given way to loving the coziness of the layout and privacy it offers. Third floor office/bedrooms and second floor living and first floor bathroom and laundry provide ample separation when one person is working or sleeping.

I now want the smallest house we can fit in – I can’t imagine furnishing and keeping most homes clean. It has been a lesson in how little space we actually need to feel comfortable. We have downsized and donated maybe half of the belongings we found we don't truly need.

It is everything we need and nothing we don’t – not to mention when will you have any house with zero yard work (and zero HOAs) while having the gorgeous forest and temple grounds out the window - laying in bed all I can see is a wall of green to the northwest - idyllic for sipping morning coffee!! The only neighbors are a couple quiet families and an adjacent junior college for pharmacy and dentistry. We are literally off a side street which is off a side street – no traffic noise in the middle of Japan’s 4th largest city. Our favorite convenience mart is a 3 minute walk (Google ‘Lawson’ and their famous ‘karaage kun’/chicken nuggets). Our two favorite Starbucks are walking distance or a 5 minute drive and we are right on our favorite 30-40 mile bike ride into the neighboring countryside. There is hardly a day which goes by where we don’t say how much we love this house and how much we will miss it when the day comes that we must leave.

Only when writing this blog post did I realize that “Taian” means “Great peace.” Indeed.