Where I mix February and March into a post

 We've now been here over eighteen months.  More than half-way.  Last year at this exact time I was starting to feel adjusted, appreciating Japan, and really excited for the changing season.  Then we got hit with covid and twenty days of required quarantine, my in-laws moved back to the states, I got my new calling (which I still mostly dislike), Mike started travelling, and the boys got injured, which included crutches, appointments, surgery, and physical therapy. I think all of that, as well as starting therapy, made me take some steps backwards.  It's taken me all those months to dig myself back out but I feel like I'm back to appreciating Japan and our time here.  I've kept my eyes open all these months for the ways this experience in Japan is serving me and that's a skill I'm grateful for.  It's really helped me through the difficult things here. There are still a lot of annoyances but I'm much better at accepting them and integrating them into my life.   

Japan is a beautiful country and the Spring is just magical.  We are currently in the stage of all things blooming.  The plum blossoms have dropped their leaves and now the cherry blossoms are bursting open all over the city.  In two weeks it will be a magical fairy garden.  The magnolias are blooming too.  Felicity and I walk past a giant magnolia tree every day to and from school and we've watched the progress of the buds for over a month.  Those giant furry buds have opened up to gorgeous white flowers. We've found the companion to the kinmokusei orange flower I rave about every fall.  The Daphne flower is a bush with tiny little white flower with pink or purple on the back that smells like a sweet perfume.  Every wind gust sends the most delightful smell out into the world.  I love it.  There are other trees with big red flowers all over the city right now.  I don't know what kind of flower they are and tiny little yellow buds on bushes.  Next month we will get to enjoy wisteria and tulips and dogwoods. I didn't really think I was a flower girl but maybe this paragraph shows that I am.  

It's not cold anymore and not hot yet so we are in the perfect time of year before the rain and heat come.

Anyway, I feel grateful that I can navigate the subways and buses better, I know where to get my food, and the kids are all happy.  

Next week we are going to Okinawa.  I think it's probably still a little cold for the beach but we are going anyway and I'm really excited about it.  We are staying at a military resort on the North end of the Island.  I am feeling some stress about getting ready for the trip. I don't think Piper or Felicity have any shorts that fit them and I can't just hop over to a store and buy them any. Less than 24 hours after we get back Andy and Laura and their boys Nick and Noah are coming to visit.  I won't have time to change sheets or wash all our laundry from the trip and we won't be able to get to the commissary for food before then.  We might be walking to the Kobini every night for our dinners.  The boys are planning on giving up their rooms and letting Andy's family sleep on their beds so it's going to be a mess of sheets and blankets and dirty clothes all over the living room for a week but I'm excited to have family here and really hope to just enjoy them and not worry about not having a stocked fridge or the cleanest house for their arrival.  I do that.  I worry.  

Lastly, it's been almost three weeks since starting the medicine.  I think it's helping.  So far none of the concerns I had about starting the medication have manifested themselves so that is a relief.  He did say it would take six to eight weeks to really see a difference and I am on the lowest dose possible so I'm interested to see what happens as the weeks go by. 

For being a short month, February felt long.  It was a busy month filled with a lot of good things so I've got a lot of photos to share.  First up are photos from a walk around Yanaka Ginza.  We started at Nezu shrine and then made our way to the cat street.