July 18, 2018 by findingbackroads

Surprise! New blog name!

Yes, I have changed my blog name!

My original blog name was Sandier Pastures, a name I picked when I started blogging when we moved to Dubai from Japan in 2007. I was happily blogging for eleven years and used the handle @sandierpastures in my social media accounts. Everyone who knows me connects that name automatically to me that PR people started addressing their emails to me as “Dear Sandie”.

I started blogging using Sandier Pastures without thinking of anything at that time. That at one point in time, we could move somewhere where there’s no sand.

TIP TO NEW BLOGGERS: Pick a blog name that is not restrictive either by your location or your life situation. Also, pick a blog name that’s easier to understand.

I struggled a bit with my old blog name, with even some people wondering, “is it English?” Sandier Pastures was born from a play of the idiomatic expression, “greener pastures” which means a better life or situation than what is now. Most people move abroad to work for better opportunities, however, our main intention of crossing over to the desert land of the UAE was to experience living abroad as an expat family and for my daughter (then 3) and husband to be able to learn English. Thus, our pasture wasn’t really greener, just sandier.

It’s been half a year since we moved out of Dubai and relocated to Japan. It made me cringe every time I use my blog name and social media handles. I don’t know if my followers/blog reader felt the same but I know I had to change it. To be honest, I had a hard time choosing a new blog name. I had some brilliant ideas but then the domain would not be available or very expensive or the Instagram/Twitter is already taken.

WHY “FINDING BACKROADS”?

Because I love backroads?

A backroad is defined as a little-used secondary road, especially one through a rural or sparsely populated area. I chose this new blog name (and URL to boot, thankfully it’s available) because we live in a place with so many backroads right now and more so, “finding backroads” reflects how I travel; how my family travels.

A few days ago, my husband and I were looking for this certain shrine. A few minutes into the drive, he said, “do you want to take that backroad over there?” And I realize, we do this a lot. We don’t just from Point A to B. Most of the time, we find backroads to discover off the beaten path tracks, often without anybody there, just the way we like it.

WHERE THIS BLOG IS GOING

Blogging has been quite challenging right now, time wise. But I think I couldn’t quit writing just yet. I’d be updating this blog every chance I get to share stories, discovering backroads and showing you another side of Japan that you may not know. (Yes, there are rice paddies in Japan and there are places where the streets are dark at 8 pm)

I am going to explore this new home of ours, my husband’s hometown and hope to share the Japan that we love to anyone wishing to visit through my new project called Travel with Grace!

Please subscribe to get first hand information when I launch the project soon!

June 25, 2018January 31, 2022 by findingbackroads

Take a look at another side of Japan

Today I looked out of our bedroom window and realized, it’s been exactly one year since we visited this countryside. Tokamachi. My husband’s hometown. The place he grew up. And though we’ve visited a few times in the past, I could never get tired of the view, be it in summer or in winter or spring and maybe fall (we will yet to experience fall soon!).

Last year when I was here with the kids, it didn’t occur to me that we’d be moving back to Japan. Much more, live here. Not at all. We stayed for less than a week but we loved all the green fields that extended as far as our eyes can see, the laid back and slow life and even embraced the noise of the frogs at night like it’s white noise lulling us to sleep.

The place we lived before, Dubai, is hideous by June, weather wise. That’s the time of the year when the kids couldn’t even go out or stay out for longer periods of time during day time due to the heat so we weren’t looking forward to going back soon. Summer in Japan is the other way around – it’s perfect from May when all the snow has melted and everything comes alive!

Little did we know that a year after, we’d end up living here, experiencing our third season (we arrived in the middle of winter!) and raising the kids here.

WHERE IS TOKAMACHI?

Tokamachi City is located in southern Niigata Prefecture, along the coast of the Sea of Japan. Though it’s a ‘city’, it’s far from being the big city in Japan that you might imagine. Five regions make up Tokamachi City and most of the area is covered by lush green forests, rice fields and suffering from huge population decline so most towns are sleepy towns, literally.

With the Shinano River flowing through the center, the city consists of a basin and surrounding hilly and mountainous areas. It is the heart of Japan’s snow country with three to four meters of snow each winter. Rice is cultivated widely in the city, a production area of well-known Uonuma Koshihikari rice.

It is about 240 kilometers from Tokyo and accessible by bullet train from Tokyo to Echigo-Yuzawa and the local Hokuhoku line from Echigo-Yuzawa station. You can reach Tokamachi City in two hours from Tokyo.

WHAT IS IN TOKAMACHI?

Clean, unpolluted air.

Delicious water from the mountains.

Vast green spaces.

Fresh food from nearby farms.

Slower pace of life.

Stars in the night.

Fireflies in the garden.

Warm and friendly locals.

While travelers tend to be drawn to Japan’s major cities, there’s much to be savored in its quiet countryside, where a different, deeper kind of beauty awaits. We have only one regret moving here. And that is, why we didn’t do it sooner.

Are you ready to explore more of Japan than the heavily congested cities full of tourists? Come visit our countryside, you will get to see less buildings and more serene shrines and temples. Less people and more natural landscapes. Afraid to get lost physically and in translation (because yes, it does happen if you don’t know the local language)? I’m happy to help! I’ll write more details about it soon.

As per statistics, the number of foreigners who visited Japan in 2017 has reached to almost 30 million, with most flocking to its vibrant capital city, Tokyo. The big city of Tokyo is great and overflowing with things to do, but there’s so much to Japan beyond the busy Shibuya crossing.

Have you been to Japan? If you’ve been to Tokyo, did my photos make you want to visit the countryside next time?

June 4, 2018 by findingbackroads

Spring comes to our new home

The promise of spring’s arrival is enough to get anyone through the bitter winter.

People who visit this area called, “snow country” in Niigata prefecture would think it will take a year for all the snow to melt. And I can’t blame them, I mean look at this. This picture was taken last February, in the middle of winter and nope, we weren’t having a super snow storm because when it snows in this part of Japan, it is always super snow storm.

Fortunately, there are four seasons in Japan so there is no such thing as one full year of winter though every winter day you may feel like it. At one point or another, all the snow will have to melt, paving way for another phase of life, the spring season.

I love spring. I think it’s one of life’s mystery, one of Earth’s miracles. For me spring is a time of renewal. I love to watch the gardens around me as the daffodils and tulips and cherry blossoms (!) start to show their beauty. It is such a miracle that this can happen each year. The sun gets stronger and you really begin to feel its warmth against your face.

Things begin to come alive. Or they just simply BEGIN. The fiscal year in Japan starts in April. This is when the new school year start and new college graduates start working. This spring is definitely a new beginning for us – Benjamin attending first grade at the elementary school.

When I was living in Dubai, I was perfectly ok without experiencing the seasons. It was so convenient to be able to wear the same type of clothes everyday all throughout the year. And also not suffer from pollen allergy in spring time. I lived in Japan for 10+ years before moving to Dubai so I thought, I’ve had my fill of spring, I won’t miss it. However, I didn’t realize how much I loved and longed for the seasons once we moved back to Japan.

We arrived and started our life here in the beginning of the year, in the middle of winter and then now everything is becoming alive and green.

Spring is also the time we finally change the tires in our car from studless snow tires to normal ones. Benjamin gets to help do it, only because he really, really wanted to do it so he is in charge of turning the screws as if he knows what he’s doing. Oh boys and cars.

Speaking of seasons, when we moved here in the middle of winter, I was worried the kids would hate me. That they’d utter the word ‘Dubai’ (our previous home and where they grew up) every single winter day. But surprisingly, not only did they welcome the change, one of them actually LOVES winter. Weird, I know but in the eyes of a child, everything is fresh and new, it seems.

It’s the kids first experience of the spring season and it may be the warmer weather, or the greens outside or the fact that even if it’s April or May, they can actually play outside. In Dubai, they start to get lesser and lesser time outdoors in these months due to the heat.

Looking at the smiles on their faces, I am confident to say that our move to Japan was a great decision, at least, for them. They get to know their grandparents better (we live with them), they get to know about the culture and heritage that’s part of who they are and then they get to experience the changing of the seasons (and lots of outdoor time).

Do you live in a place with four seasons? Which one is your favorite?

March 15, 2018February 3, 2022 by findingbackroads

Starting a new life in Niigata

For the past two months, this is the view that greets me every morning when I wake up and open the curtains.

If you saw the photos I recently posted on my Instagram account during our move to Japan, specifically in Niigata prefecture, you would tell me I’ve gone crazy. And I’m going to tell you, you’re not alone in telling me that.

Yes, we traded the year round sunshine (and skyscrapers and heat!) of Dubai to this.

The peaceful, rural, countryside living over the big city life.

Why here and not Tokyo? Because we have decided to live more simply and not run around like headless chickens to get into packed trains every morning. That’s why I have declined offers of work in metropolitan Tokyo – I feel I am too old to handle the pressure of the daily commute and the work that pays more that would naturally mean work is more. We wanted to get the kids closer to nature and closer to their grandparents while they’re still around.

(This is where their father was born and raised until he moved out for college in the big city.)

You see all white in my photos because we moved to Japan after 11 years in Dubai in the middle of winter and settled in one of Japan’s snowiest areas where from December to March, cold Siberian air streaming south and east across the relatively warm waters of the Sea of Japan generate bands of clouds that dump snow over the mountains on the western part of Japan’s main island of Honshu.

(All these snow is too much? No baby, this is just the start. Pic taken a few days after we arrived in mid-January 2018)

Parts of Niigata Prefecture receive up to 8 meters (26.25 ft) of snow; the prefectural average is 5.78 meters (almost 19 ft). The city of Tsunan (next city to us) sometimes can get 10 meters (32.8 ft) of snow, literally covering the entire town if not for the very efficient snow clearing trucks that run regularly 24/7! Snow is so much that residents in most villages in Niigata prefecture must enter homes through special second-story entrances, including the in-laws’ house where we live now.

I’ve been to Tokamachi city in Niigata prefecture many times before, even in winter time but never stayed long enough to see how this small rural beauty which is evergreen in summer turn into a sprawling white wonderland in winter. The amount of snow is no joke but the resilience of the people living here echoes the life lesson, “this too shall pass”.

During January and February, they’ll be days where it snows like it would snow forever, no ending in sight. There will be mornings where we wake up to a 50 centimeters of snow and our car buried in white stuff – something I miss about living in Dubai is that you can easily get on your car and speed away, no snow to rake out in ‘winter’.

To be honest, I tried so hard not to end up living here because of the images about the dreadful images playing in my mind. But my husband said, how will you know if we don’t try? Surprisingly, I am not hating life here at all. I mean, not right now (maybe because I didn’t have to drive through the snow storms to work yet?). Snow storms can be dark and gloomy and dangerous and the most inconvenient thing is that, here, life goes on. Schools or work have not been suspended so far because of a snow storm. Like, ever, my mother in-law says.

When it snows, it’s kind of depressing but when the sun peeks out after a storm, it makes you think the snow storm that passed was just a bad nightmare. (And when it snows again, you’d wonder if the great sunshiny weather was just a wonderful dream…)

Beautiful, no? Snow is definitely beautiful to look at, in the photos. But to live with it, is another thing.

Luckily, there is no such thing as a whole year of winter. (even if my son wishes so!)

It’s almost spring as I write this. I’ve put off blogging for a while though I had the time (I am not working yet!) – I was busy cleaning, arranging things and renovating an almost 50 year old house, turning over corners that have been untouched for at least twenty years!

February 21, 2018 by findingbackroads

Sand dunes, in Japan?

Oh, in case you’re new here and/or not following me on social media, especially on Instagram, we’ve moved to Japan. It’s been a month since I started sleep talking in Nihongo again. And if you ask me how we’re all doing, thank you, we’re all doing fine (except that – my daughter claims that I have started snoring frequently something that I didn’t do in Dubai…)

We were in Tottori prefecture for ten days last January.

When we decided to leave Dubai and settle in Japan, my husband’s birth place and the place where I spent 10 years before we moved to Dubai in January 2007, we brainstormed where to live and work within Japan. Can we handle densely populated Tokyo where life happens in fast forward or would we be happy in the countryside? The range of choices for place to settle was varied and then there was Tottori prefecture.

Tottori. WHERE THE HECK IS THAT? I bet not many of you have heard of such place.

Tottori is located in the southern part of Japan, along the coast of Sea of Japan. The nearest international airport is Kansai International Airport in Osaka. From Osaka, it’s about 2 hours by bus or car.

WHY TOTTORI?

Everyone gives me a blank stare when I say we plan to move to Tottori and quickly ask, why? First let me say – people, there’s more to Japan than just Tokyo or Osaka or Kyoto. 🙂

There was a job opportunity for me at Tottori and the city government had a program called “Ijuu taiken” (trial residence) where you can rent a fully furnished house for a maximum of 30 days (based on the availability) for only 1,200 yen per day, including water, electricity and on winter, kerosene for the heaters. That’s merely US$11 or about AED40 per day for a full house furnished with the basic things to function.

I think it’s a really great program because after all, you’ll never know how you’ll feel about the place and how it is to live there if you don’t try to live there. In those thirty days, the city government provides support with connecting you to employment agencies so you can find work in Tottori and eventually settle there. Why do they do all these?

Tottori prefecture is the least populated prefecture in Japan and they need more people.

To know more about trial residence in Tottori, please check out this link (only in Japanese language though): Trial residence in Tottori

WHAT IS IN TOTTORI?

Aside from the possibility of work for me, there is plenty of nature in Tottori. There was a lake just beside the house we stayed. I love that the kids are closer to nature, which was one of the reasons we left Dubai. The house provided for us was located outside of the city proper. It was such a stark contrast from the big city of Dubai. There are no skyscrapers nor bright lights and we loved it.

It was also near to the famous landmark in Tottori, the Tottori sand dunes. We can walk up to the lift station and cross to the sand dunes. Benjamin was so thrilled of all of these new experiences! (Pristine joined a local school so she wasn’t in most of our pictures except if it’s a weekend)

Unfortunately, the possibility of residing and settling in Tottori did not work well with us – this is something you can’t know till you actually live in a place. I am glad and thankful about the trial residence program, it helped us decide things better but mostly, we can’t avail of the national health insurance if we don’t have a permanent place to live and then of course, we can’t commit to rent an apartment if we didn’t have jobs…the job would come eventually but that would take a bit of time, minimum of a month maybe to settle? With kids in tow, we cannot risk not being covered by the national health insurance, especially snow season has started. What if they slip? Or catch a cold or something worse?

Also, I know this sounds strange but I feel something was missing in Tottori. It was a beautiful place and the house we stayed temporarily was near to the sea (my happy place) and there was a lake too. But walking around, I can’t imagine myself living there for a long time.

And…then there’s the famous and only sand dunes in Japan!

To be honest, I wanted our move to Tottori to work for a bit of a selfish reason: there a desert there or specifically, sand dunes. The largest in area in all of Japan.

Imagine if we lived here, I then wouldn’t have to change the name of my blog!

THE TOTTORI SAND DUNES

Since we were already there, we wanted to check out the Tottori Sand Dunes and without a car, we’re lucky the house we temporarily lived was near to it.

It snowed the day before so there’s a layer of snow above the sand, to the delight of the tourists (including my kids).

There was a huge and steep hill that Benjamin and Pristine really wanted to climb. It must be the main attraction in the sand dunes area as all of the people did climb. So I had to, if I didn’t like to! However, the view at the top was well worth the sweat! (Please tell me I’m not the only one sweating in winter!)

This is the Sea of Japan. The body of water on the other side of Japan, in the Kanto region (Tokyo, etc) is the Pacific Ocean. Places along the coast of the Sea of Japan are know to have really heavy snow fall during winter and Tottori isn’t an exemption.

We left Tottori heading to Niigata prefecture, my husband’s hometown. It was a long travel by bus (!). Tottori to Osaka was 2 hours and then we got on night bus leaving Osaka at 8 pm and arriving in Niigata at 6am the next day!

I would love to visit Tottori again, when it’s warmer season and discover so many off the beaten tracks there. There’s definitely many things to discover. I found this on YouTube:

Our time in Tottori was memorable because it was like a relief from the chaotic move from Dubai to Japan. Now, we are settled in our new ‘home’, with my husband’s folks. I’ll write more about our new life here but do check out my account on Instagram as I post updates there more frequently!

January 13, 2018November 17, 2021 by findingbackroads

Why we left Dubai

Expat Life, Personal
Dubai, expat, expat life, Family, Japan, Personal
25 Comments

I don’t know how many times I’ve apologized for the lack of updates on this blog so I’m not going to do it now because I can’t promise to be consistent in writing with all the things currently going on in my life. But if you are reading this, thank you for still being here.

If you have followed me on social media, you may have come across posts where I mentioned that we have left Dubai, our home for the past 10 years and 11 months. To many, it was a sudden move, a surprising decision even, especially when I said we’re moving back to Japan – it’s shocking to some people who has heard me say I will try hard not to live in Japan again, after we left in 2007. (But that is another blog post to write)

I struggled for the time to be able to sit down to write this post and even thought of just closing down this blog and quit writing. But who am I kidding? I don’t know if I’ll ever lose my love for writing. Sentences have already formed n my head even before our flight out of Dubai took off and I couldn’t wait to be able to open my laptop and write away these thoughts.

Also, when you have followers on social media and readers on your blog, you feel some kind of social responsibility to be transparent, to share the goings on in your life, especially they have followed you from the start. And I really wanted to write this post to collectively tell our story for those reading this and for myself, as a reminder years from now why we made this big move.

There is not one single reason why we left Dubai. It is a mix of so many reasons that snowballed into the major but necessary decision to pack up and leave.

Reason #1: my work

“Life’s too short to do the things you don’t love doing.”

Somehow, this quote had been crossing my mind so often I wake up in cold sweat in the middle of the night.

It wasn’t always like that. I am grateful to be given the chance to work in Dubai in my previous company with so many wonderful people who became not just my work colleagues, but my friends. My day job allowed me and my family to live in Dubai comfortably and indulge in life’s little pleasures like traveling outside of the UAE.

However, after many years, the stuff I do for a living has brought more stress than happiness no matter how I tell myself ,”get over it, this too shall pass”. Day in, day out, getting on the train, running to catch the time, sweating profusely during the grueling hot months (more than half of the year?!), sitting down from 8 am to 6 pm on mechanical mode going through papers and papers, putting in over time some of the time but feeling unappreciated, etc. And then repeat again till the last work day of the week. Lately, the theme of my life had been #WaitingForWeekends.

When you reach the point where you dread when the weekend ends and the work week begins, you know life has become stressful and unhealthy. When sometimes you find yourself half-assing your work, unconsciously, you know you need to put an end to it.

I know that sounds like a selfish thing. And there are bills to pay. Believe me, I have battled voices in my head saying, “you should be grateful you have a job!” or “the pay is good, the work is not difficult, why leave?” or “why don’t you just get up, show up, sit for 8 hours and wait for the paycheck?” and then on the other side, so many voices of reasons that would sum up:

“Are you sure you want to do the same thing everyday for the next ten years?”

And the answer to that was NO.

I guess when you work in a place that long, (10 years and 11 months for me in the same company), you would want some sort of change. I’ve asked for it but that change didn’t come and I didn’t see it coming at all. Doing something over and over again that long is not sustainable, at least for me. I feel my feelings weren’t normal because in my previous company, people have worked for 10, 20 or even 30 years. No one ever leaves (almost) that people didn’t believe I resigned and started to speculate and spread rumors that I was terminated. When I said I submitted my resignation paper last November 2017, there wasn’t a single soul who didn’t think I was joking. “Why would you?”

There’s also the lingering matter of my age. I’m 41 and it came to the critical point where IF I have to change jobs, I have to quit the current one NOW otherwise stay there till I retire. There was no change in the horizon with the current one and no, I don’t want to do the same thing I was doing day in and day out for the next 3,650 days of my life.

“So if you didn’t like your job, why didn’t you apply for other jobs, in Dubai?”

We move on to reason #2.

Reason #2: the kids

There are several reasons worthy enough of a separate blog post that could be controversial to other families raising their kids in Dubai. Dubai is still a great place for families for many, however, PERSONALLY, I feel it wasn’t the best place for us anymore. The lifestyle didn’t fit what we wanted for our family.

I have a child who is transitioning into adulthood. She is 14, and while very open minded and sensible, I feel that living in Dubai as she transitions into this very important phase in life will not ready her or arm her with important life skills she needs and resilience when life is not so convenient and comfortable anymore in the outside world.

The other child is six years old and always happier when taken outdoors, not just for a period of time (cooler months in Dubai) but everyday.

Reason #3: the husband’s job instability

Background: we moved to Dubai because of my work; he was the trailing spouse.

To his credit, he really tried. He has come a long way from someone who didn’t know how to speak or write proper English sentences to someone who can negotiate business affairs using a language foreign to him. He is Japanese and only speaks Japanese language with me from the start. And in Japan where we previously lived, there is no need to use English.

In the past years when his job doesn’t work out due to various unfortunate reasons like salary was too low to compensate for the long hours, company downsizing, etc, he managed to get another and then another. He even worked in Saudi Arabia for a year while the kids and I remained in Dubai in 2016.

We decided, ENOUGH.

Now that we are in Japan, he can find something that would suit him better here. It’s his home country after all and as for me – I can manage to fit in, as I did for 10 years I was here before moving to Dubai. I can find something here should I decide to work (I have worked here for 5 years after graduation before).

Reason #4: there’s no forever in Dubai

Dubai is a transient place. More than 80% of the population are expats from 200 different countries…who will ultimately leave one day, it’s just a question of WHEN. It’s actually scary when you really think about it.

Why? The UAE doesn’t offer permanent residency – visas are tied with your job that if you lose it, you only have 30 days to either find a new one or exit the country, no citizenship offered as well.

It’s a temporary place where people come to earn and/or save.

I liken living in Dubai as part of the story of the Japanese folk tale of Urashima Taro – a fisherman who gets to visit a beautiful kingdom under the sea as a reward for rescuing a tortoise. The kingdom under the sea is like paradise and Urashima Taro lingered on, enjoying every moment, forgetting about the outside world. When he came up and went back to land, he was shocked to find out so many years have passed since the last time he was there.

Most expats in Dubai, us included, arrived thinking they’ll stay “just for a couple of years” but then the lifestyle is too comfortable, convenient and appealing, the malls so big, bright and shiny LOL, and we all end up making Dubai our semi-permanent home and before we know it, we’ve been living in this glorious city for years and decades.

And leaving gets harder and harder the longer you live in Dubai.

It’s a transient place and we’re all waiting for that “snap” that could be in the form of: you or your spouse losing your jobs and can’t find one before the 30 days grace period ends, you or your spouse’s company closes down and can’t find another company to sponsor your visa before the 30 days grace period ends, Dubai’s economy all together snaps and you become redundant or worst case scenario, war erupts in the Middle East (the UAE is peaceful right now and I think it will be for the next years…but then again, there’s no guarantee?)

So what if the “snap” happens tomorrow and we have no savings or when we’re 50? Where will we go? Will there be any companies to accept us back home or somewhere else?

We felt it is time to settle and build a permanent home.

WHY THE MOVE TO…JAPAN?

We are all Japan passport holders, my husband is from here and we have family here (his side, our children’s grandparents who are so delighted with our move). Japan will always be that place we can base ourselves the easiest, move with least effort, financially, logistically. Here, we are eligible for social insurance and school for the kids is free.

Also, we feel it’s time for our children to get to know the culture and heritage that’s part of who they are.

Are we staying here for good? I don’t know about the “for good” part but “for now”, yes.

No matter how comfortable and almost perfect life is in Dubai, we are only there on borrowed time. With the visa, we are given the privilege to stay in Dubai/UAE. In Japan, we have the right to stay as long as we can.

One interesting thing about this move – much like when people in Dubai asked me why we left Japan, people here in Japan are asking me why we left Dubai – a seemingly modern day Utopia where everything is convenient; even the heat is a mild matter as we live in temperature controlled houses and sleep with our comforters even when it’s nearing 50C outside.

The grass is always greener on the other side, eh?

*****

January 13th 2018 (that’s today in my time zone) would have been our 11 years anniversary in Dubai but we’re no longer there. I wanted to start the new year fresh and new so I chose to leave before 2017 ended. Honestly, I thought I’d write a really sappy post how I missed life in Dubai but not right now. I actually didn’t have time to grieve over leaving the city we called home for nearly 11 years. I was so busy with so many things like patching things at work before my exit, selling/giving away/disposing things at home and preparing to leave for the Philippines last month for my sister’s wedding. (Had several incidents even before we landed in Manila with Benjamin suddenly getting sick on the plane and we had to call emergency when we landed and then the airline losing 2 of my checked in luggage and typhoon Vinta got our flights to my hometown cancelled …who has time to be sappy about Dubai?)

And then this move to Japan.

I might eventually get nostalgic and write the sappy post someday but not today. I’m busy looking forward to the challenges we’ll all face. The kids’ attending Japanese school, me looking for a job (or deciding to stay at home!), looking for a permanent house etc.

Oh, and the harsh winter. I am more bothered of the cold, cold temp inside the house this winter to be grieving about the past.

I do have a passing thought and probably an advice to you expats thinking about leaving Dubai: don’t leave when Dubai is at its most gorgeous in the “winter” months, especially if you’re destination is the real winter world. You’ll miss and long for Dubai’s glorious sunshines in December.

Leave during the summer when you’re cursing your way out of the airport and happily looking forward to your normal world destination where you can stand outside without your arm pits transforming into waterfalls of sweat and you can breathe without being choked by 95% humidity.

Oh and one last thing keeping me from grieving?

I need a new blog name.

October 24, 2017January 31, 2022 by findingbackroads

Visiting Japan’s small town charm

I’ve been thinking a lot about Japan lately. I blame my husband – we have been watching Japanese news on the TV almost every night at bed time. Everything sounds and feels familiar once again. I blame my mother in law who, right now got addicted to sending Japanese foodstuff lately. Or this is just plain nostalgia attack for me, which happens every now and then. I don’t know. Japan has always been that place that hold a very special place in my heart. I’ve lived there for more than ten years, starting when I was nineteen years old. It’s hard to forget.

Japan has appeared in my dreams lately, too – suddenly, I see myself living there again and I wake up, say to myself, yeah why not?

The horror, right? People who’d hear me right now would probably recall the reasons I told them why we left way back in 2007: the work-life balance sucks (at least for us middle class working parents in the city), the lack of available domestic help, etc., the cold winters.

But that place would always be our home. When and if all else fails, we know we would have Japan as a place to go, a retreat, a place to reset, if we want to.

We were in Japan last summer and I took the kids to their grandparents in the countryside. It’s a long way from Tokyo – 2 hours via Shinkansen or the bullet train and another hour by regular train. It’s Benjamin’s first time to see his grandfather and grandmother from his father’s side. This visit was long overdue.

We know it’s nearing Niigata prefecture when the buildings disappear and replaced by two to three storey houses and rice fields upon rice fields as far as the eyes can see.

MEETING BENJAMIN FOR THE FIRST TIME

My in-laws had been looking forward to meeting the kids for months. Now, my father in-law is a workaholic, has a day job but also maintains a rice farm. At 68 years old now, he should have retired already – which he did three years ago, however after only a month, he volunteered to work again at the same company 3-4 times a week and still maintained his rice farm. For more than thirty years, he is proud to say, he has not applied for any leave, whether medical or for vacation.

But when I told him I’d be visiting them with the kids in tow? He took a full week off!

He said he’d meet us at the station but I didn’t expect he would be waiting for us at the train platform, right where we get down the train! I didn’t even see him when he scooped Benjamin up as soon as he got out of the train!

Here’s the thing, he has not seen photos of Benjamin before.

WHY? By some kind of sorcery, my in-laws do not own a smart phone and there is NO internet at their house. So there’s no way I can send pictures of the kids. The last time we met them, Benjamin wasn’t born yet.

I asked him, how did he know it was his grand child? What if he took the wrong child? It would have been a disaster. He simply told me, Benjamin’s face looks familiar that without a doubt he knew he got the right child to hold. Benjamin looked like my husband when he was younger. Benjamin on the other hand, did not protest as well, even if he has not seen this man in his whole life!

It was raining when we arrived but grandpa took us to the groceries and told the kids – go crazy and buy anything you want!

My crazy kids went straight to the food aisle. They’re definitely my kids.

My FIL even picked up a cake from the bakery and we celebrated both Benjamin and Pristine’s birthday at home, complete with candles. “This is for all the birthdays we’ve missed!”, the grandparents said.

TOURING AROUND THE SMALL TOWN

The next morning, the weather cleared up and FIL didn’t waste time and drove us around the town. The kids just finished breakfast and were still in their pajamas.

He then took us to see all the rice paddies. It was summer and this part of Japan was bathed in sea of green patches of rice plantations. Another first for my father in-law: driving an automatic car! He only drives manual transmission but then had rented a van for us. The available vehicles to rent were all automatic so he drove one.

(He’s that type of being picky about things he is not familiar with but he endured this!)

Ah, the serene countryside in Niigata prefecture. My husband was born and brought up here. There’s nothing fancy, no bright lights, billboards and crowds you would see in the streets of metropolitan Tokyo. It’s dark after 8pm and in the summer time, you’d hear the chorus of the frogs which is annoying at first but kind of becomes white noise that lulls you to sleep. The kids hyperventilated at the sight of fireflies in the pitch black garden at night.

I love summers in Niigata though it can be hot and humid because this prefecture is coastal. But it’s when the Earth comes alive.

The kids had a lovely time walking around but the most exciting part for Benjamin must be getting on one of his grandfather’s tractors (for farming)! It must be every boy’s dream to get into these real life monster trucks!

My mother in-law has clinical depression and had been in and out of the hospital and on medication for so many years. During summer though, she is well. She has tried her best to be in her ‘best form’ (her term) to meet the kids. She told me she’s thankful I took the kids to visit them, it dispelled the loneliness of their home, if only for a short while. It was enough that they know they aren’t truly alone and that they have something to look forward from now on.

My in-laws don’t speak any English. Pristine can converse with them in Nihongo but Benjamin cannot – we have to work on that (thankfully, the big sister is always there to translate). That didn’t hinder him from getting close to them and for the short time we were there, he has constructed short Nihongo sentences and blurted them out proudly.

I am grateful my kids have sweet and kind grandparents on my side and I am equally thankful they have another set from my husband’s side. What lucky kids.

You may ask, why do the grandparents NOT visit us here in Dubai and we have to go to Japan? Good question, actually since we’re almost eleven years here and they have not visited even once. For my in-laws, who has lived in this small town from the day they were born, travelling is this big, insurmountable thing that takes too much energy and COURAGE to tackle. It’s simply not their thing and we have accepted that.

And besides, I don’t think the kids mind hopping on the plane and riding the bullet train to get to them! I definitely don’t! (Although it’s a bit stressful to sync the time and meetup with them because as I have mentioned, they do not have mobile phones! I had to plan the time we get on the train, let them know what time we arrive and on which train and STICK to it. Hello the 1980’s!)

Are you an expat family living away from the grandparents? How often do you visit them?

September 15, 2017 by findingbackroads

Shin Yokohama Ramen Museum – is it worth it?

One of the “must do” things to do on our trip to Japan was to EAT. And oh boy, our list was long! There’s simple eats at the convenient stores to that special soba in Niigata (my husband’s hometown), summer sweets, curry rice, gyoza and of course, RAMEN! My kids are crazy with ramen which is quite understandable because their parents bonded really well during ramen dates years ago.

While Googling to create itinerary for our short stay in Tokyo, I came across the words: Shin Yokohama RAMEN MUSEUM. For a die hard ramen afficionado, including that in the Japan itinerary is a done deal.

The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum (spelled “Raumen” on the building’s facade) was founded in 1994 as the world’s first food-themed amusement park.

How to get there

The JR Yokohama line is the only way to get to Shin Yokohama station directly from Tokyo. You can also get here via Shinkansen, if you happen to be in Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya or other places on the Tokaido line. The ramen museum is only a 10 minutes walk from Shin Yokohama station.

The museum spreads to three floors with the ground floor a store then basement 1 and 2. There is a small museum section with the history of ramen and such on the ground floor, plus the official museum shop. You can purchase ramen sets to go here.

A walk down a few flights transports you to 1958 Japan – the era when the first instant ramen was introduced to the Japanese market. The place is complete with cramped alleyways, old neon signs and vintage Japanese movie posters. It’s a delightful treat and a huge contrast to the modern scene outside.

Entering the museum was like entering time machine that brought us back to the Japan’s good old days in 1958. There’s a bar at the center, surrounded by ramen shops.

We met a policeman from the past, wearing old uniform popular during those days. It’s a very strange yet fascinating feeling.

And after appreciating the trip back in time, we went on to decide which ramen we’d like to eat!

Ramen varies by region in Japan, and there are at least 30 distinctive types hailing from various regions. There are nine ramen shops at the ramen museum from Sapporo, Tokyo, Hakata, Kumamoto and other local areas, and each of them serves their own flavor of ramen such as soy sauce, miso, pork bone broth (tonkotsu) – my favorite.

Each restaurant has a vending machine outside. This is where you order. Deposit your yen, select your meal, grab your tickets (one for each item you order) and give them to your host. The machines are entirely in Japanese but they do have laminated menus in other languages including English.

At 1,100 yen for a bowl of ramen, I thought it was expensive but also realized, you’re just not paying solely for the ramen but the ambiance while eating the ramen. Okay, you already paid 310 yen for the entrance but then again, I still feel it was worth it in the end when I see how my kids loved every nook and corner of ‘old Japan’. It got me in a very natsukashii mood.

Is it worth a visit?

Being transported to an old Japanese village brought the magic for us at the Ramen Museum. And to explore every nook and cranny was such a joy. Despite some reviews at Tripadvisor saying it’s not worth your time and you can actually have all sorts of ramen anywhere in Tokyo anyway (true) but the quirkiness of the place actually appealed to us. This place is not exactly a museum in my opinion, but more of offers a sample of ramen variety.

If you’re coming to Yokohama for the day, I would suggest combining a trip to the museum and then a sidetrip to the very real and vibrant Chinatown and Motomachi area in Yokohama.

September 6, 2017 by findingbackroads

Visiting the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka

Have you seen any Ghibli movies? You must have heard or watched some of it but never realized it’s a “Ghibli” (pronounced, “jiburi” in Japanese) – Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away or My Neighbor Totoro. The delightful animated films of Studio Ghibli are full of magic and fairytales. They can be very simple, dark, fantastical, melancholy, ecstatic, endearing, and wondrous. My then boyfriend (now husband) first introduced me to the Ghibli universe while we were in college and gave me a DVD of his favorite Ghibli movie, telling me, “watch it, I promise you will like it.”

I instantly became a Ghibli fan and from then, I set about absorbing every other Ghibli film I came across.

I first visited the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka in 2013 and was delighted. I know I had to go back!

The museum is relatively small and you can finish your “tour” in just a couple of hours and not miss anything. It’s more like a day theme park than a “museum” per se. We really enjoyed the interactive displays and the fun artwork as well as the sections in the museum that showcase how the artwork goes from concept to screen. The amount of work involved is tremendous. However, the important part is how magical Hayao Miyazaki has made it. It shows the development process of animation and the the thought process of Miyazaki and his team. The displays of original artwork from the films are truly stunning!

The park is really child friendly, and there are lots of nooks and crannies that children can explore.

HOW TO REACH THE MUSEUM

There are two options to reach the museum from Mitaka station via JR East (20-30 minutes from Shinjuku station, depending on whether you get on a local or express train): on foot and by public transport (bus).

If you choose to go on foot, take the south exit of Mitaka station and turn left and walk along Tamagawa Josui. The museum can be reached in about 15 minutes.

I think the more popular option is to take the bus. The bus service is offered between the south exit of Mitaka Station and the museum. The ride takes about ten minutes. You should take either a loop bus which departs Mitaka Station, travels to the Ghibli museum and back to Mitaka station (yellow bus in the above pic) or a bus towards Myojogakuen via the Ghibli museum.

A one-way fare is 210 yen for adults and 110 yen for children. You can buy a round ticket with a ticket machine located near the bus terminal or at a bus information center; these cost 320 yen for adults and 160 yen for children.

** It is very important to come before your designated entrance time printed on the ticket. If you are late for more than 30 minutes, your tickets will be forfeited and you will not be admitted to the museum.

INSIDE THE GHIBLI MUSEUM

As much as the topmost photo looks like the main entrance, with a giant fluffy Totoro in the box, this is not the main entrance. This is the main entrance.

The kids are so happy to be here. I actually didn’t tell them we’d be going because I almost didn’t get the tickets, not for the reason that they’re expensive (they’re not!) but the tickets sell really fast. There’s a sale period and it is a challenge to buy the tickets from overseas, firstly, because of the time zone (Japan is 5 hours ahead).

Example, tickets for the month of June are sold from May 10 onwards only and they sell like hotcakes! I actually almost forgot it was already May 10th until a friend reminded me while I was at work! It was already May 10, 11 am in Dubai so it is already 4 pm in Japan! The sale link had been opened for 16 hours already. Result – most of the dates and times for June are already sold out, including our first preferred date and time. Thankfully, we have another day in Tokyo available but at the entrance time available is only for 4 pm, instead of the 10 am morning schedule we wanted.

Anyways, I got the tickets. The next two days when I checked again just out of curiousity, all the dates and times were sold out so if you are planning to go, do plan ahead and set your alarm!

NO CAMERAS ALLOWED INSIDE

The museum is a must visit for Ghibli fans but unfortunately, I can’t show you any photos of the inside of the museum, since it has a strict no-photos allowed policy. It’s sad as I would really like to have had a record of how it looked. There are winding staircases, little nooks that only children can fit through, comfy wing-backed chairs and plenty of small touches here and there that make the museum a beautiful work of art.

Their reasoning for this is written in Japanese that translates,

The Ghibli Museum is a portal to a storybook world. As the main character in a story, we ask that you experience the Museum space with your own eyes and senses, instead of through a camera’s viewfinder. We ask that you make what you experienced in the Museum the special memory that you take home with you.

I have photos however, taken outside the building, in the gardens. Do you recognize this character from the movie, A Castle in the Sky?

(It’s such a pity we have a very blurred picture taken by a stranger…)

There is a small cafe and ice cream shop outside of the main building. From the robot area, we went to the cafe. It was allowed to take photos there so here’s some.

The kids are overwhelmed by the abundance of nature around – the museum is located within a park, after all.

Another area where you can take photos…this square from one of the scenes in the anime.

TRAVEL TIPS BEFORE YOU GO

Tickets MUST be purchased in advance. >How to buy tickets outside Japan >How to buy tickets in Japan (CAUTION: I’ve read that some sites sell tickets with a ridiculous “service fee”, beware of them. It’s pretty straightforward to buy the tickets even if you’re outside of Japan – just follow the links from the main website and remember, on the 10th of the month before you go! Example, you want to go in June, buy on 10th May.)
You must not come later than the designated time printed in the ticket.
No cameras allowed inside.
There are no English translations (but don’t worry, the pictures are still worth seeing)
Bring a print out of the confirmation plus your passport in order to enter the museum.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Website: Ghibli Museum in Mitaka
Address: Tokyo, Mitaka, Shimorenjaku 1-1-83 (located at the west garden of Inokashira Park)
Hours: Museum 10:00 – 18:00, Café Mugiwaraboshi 11:00 – 19:00 (last entry: 18:00)
Closed: Tuesday and may be closed for periodic maintenance work
Wi-Fi: Unavailable
Nearest Station: Mitaka Station of the JR Chuo Line
Access: 15 minute walk from the South Exit of Mitaka Station; Community bus service from the Mitaka station (charged)
Ticket Prices: Adults/university students 1000 yen, Middle/high school students 700 yen, Children aged 4 and up 100 yen *Tickets must be obtained in advance

Should I go?

Is the Ghibli Museum worth a visit? If you are a Ghibli fan, absolutely! Though I think even if you’re not specifically a Ghibli fan, the creative process of animation will amaze and entertain you. If you have children, I think this museum is a must too. Our visit to Ghibli Museum was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Tokyo.

July 20, 2017February 3, 2022 by findingbackroads

Our trip to Japan, summer 2017

It’s currently summer vacation for all of the kids in the UAE. It’s actually over a month already since most of the schools have closed for the school year 2017. Since classes will start on September 10, that’s about 12 weeks long of holidays!

When I planned where to take the kids in summer and though our family budget is tight, I couldn’t let them just stay at home for 12 long weeks and wait for the weekends for me to take them outside. I work full time so yeah, I can only take them out on weekends because this mom is lazy to take out people and drive after work, except maybe for groceries.

The peak of UAE’s summer is these months of June-September so playing outside isn’t really an option. This is actually the challenge for families staying in the country during these months. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of entertainment options, indoors usually inside a mall but if given a choice, I would love the kids to be outside than in the malls.

Anyway, I managed to find fairly inexpensive airfare for the three of us from Dubai-Narita via Singapore on Singapore Airlines last March. It’s been four years since our last visit to Japan and it got me really excited!

The last time we traveled to Japan, Benjamin was less than two years old. Pristine was nine. This was them when we landed in Narita in 2013.

And this was them in the same spot in 2017!

I couldn’t remember their original pose but know that Pristine was carrying her little brother so we tried to replicate the shot. What difference four years make!

We took Singapore Airways and I don’t know, I felt our flight was really long this time. Seven hours from Dubai to Singapore, a couple of hours layover at the wonderful Changi Airport (probably my favorite airport in the whole world, after Dubai International) and again another seven hours from Singapore to Narita.

The kids were really great during the flight, as they’ve always been. No fuss even with the disturbing turbulence as we approached Narita. The captain announced bad weather and we’d have a bumpy ride. There were many kids on the flight and I heard a few vomiting sounds…I was scared Benjamin, who is prone to motion sickness would follow too but thankfully, he didn’t!

KOMBINI!

The first thing we did when we got out security? Go attack the first convenience store (kombini in Japanese colloquial) inside the airport! It was a small store but it already got our spirits high!

Who buys 2,000/3,000 yen worth of stuff from convenience stores?! Us, obviously. We have a love affair with with Japan’s kombini. Located on every block in urban areas, the Japanese convenience store is much more than a ubiquitous repository of junk food. Konbini food, believe it or not, is actually pretty decent. They’re more than the microwavable chimichangas you’ll find in other country’s convenience stores, konbini food is delicious and always kept fresh.

It sells the ever handy cure for mild hunger: onigiri, bento, seasonal dishes and sweets, sushi and soba, manga and medicine, alcohol and many, many more you can think of!

It was late when we arrived at the station near our Airbnb so we bought food stuff in case the kids (and I!) get hungry later in the night. Nah, we were just really excited to buy the stuffs we missed!

OUR FIRST MORNING IN JAPAN

We arrived around 10 pm after a long flight from Dubai and Singapore and I learned a valuable lesson: our morning after itinerary should have been: SLEEP ALL DAY.

Because anyway, we had our kombini food already in case we get hungry, we don’t need to go out really. The kids were heavily jet lagged or just plain tired and showed no signs of rousing from their sleep even if it was already 10 or 11 am or even 12 noon!

(It might be because our modest Airbnb was so nice and comfy – it deserves a special blog post soon!)

Our time in Japan is very limited and I didn’t want to waste it so I had to wake them up just before 1 pm. Fair enough, no? They were fully rested and ready to tackle the day.

We were in Tokyo on the last week of June and OMG, the weather was really nice!

Japan is still in that tsuyu season (rainy season just before summer). The temps were already warm enough for the locals but coming from a place with 45C temperature in Dubai, 27C in Tokyo was HEAVEN. We were walking and would stop on the side of the road to just close our eyes and feel the cool breeze whenever it comes.

Our first order of the day? LUNCH!

I have listed the restaurants to go and food to eat while in Tokyo months back before our trip. Our every meal has been planned already, well, except for the random kombini visits where we buy snacks while we are on the move. We went to Coco Ichibanya because we missed the Japanese curry!

EATING OUT IN JAPAN ON BUDGET

If you think eating out in Japan is expensive (Tokyo has this notorious reputation of being expensive generally), take note that there are several food shops where you can have a great inexpensive meal. Some of our favorite go to’s are: Coco Ichibanya and also C & C Curry (located at most train stations), and on most streets in Tokyo: Sukiya, Matsuya and Yoshinoya.

When we finished our hearty lunch, the weather was really warming up. It’s supposed to be rainy season but we were lucky enough not to get wet – it was sunny and nice in Tokyo (although we were ok to get rained on or perhaps buy the transparent umbrella from the kombini!).

We could feel the early pangs of summer heat as we got out of the basement restaurant.

Our very important itinerary for that day was a visit to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka at 4pm. I’ll write a separate blog post about that but do any of you reading this post know about Hayao Miyazaki’s wonderful animes? If you haven’t, I encourage you to start watching them. You can start with Spirited Away or Totoro or even Howl’s Moving Castle.

We had yakiniku dinner with friends on our first night at Shinjuku. Some of you might have seen my Instastories on Instagram and asked, “you make your own dinner at the restaurant table?”

Yes, yakiniku – from Wikipedia: yakiniku refers to a Japanese style of cooking bite-size meat and vegetables on gridirons or griddles over flame of wood charcoals carbonized by dry distillation or gas/electric grill. At yakiniku restaurants, the meat grillers are on your table and yes, you cook your own meal (which is fun). We had 90 minutes of yakiniku tabehodai (eat all you can, including rice, salads) for 1,980 yen (US$18) per person.

It’s eat all you can for 90 minutes. Can you still say Japan is expensive?

We went home late tired but very satisfied with our first full day in Japan. I am so happy to be able to roam around Tokyo with my kids, now both of them walking really well (no more baby carriers! no more strollers and diaper bags to lug around!). They are also both aware now which is really nice because I get to tell them stories of the time I was a student in Japan roaming in these familiar streets. And they actually listen AND ask questions which throws me back to memory lane time and time again. Ah, those were the days!

Never in my imagination that years after that point in my life that I’d walk around Tokyo with my own kids!

It seems that our travel to Japan is following a pattern: every 4 years. The last time we flew to Japan was 4 years ago in 2013 and before that was also 4 years ago in 2009. I hope it won’t take another 4 years before we go there again.