Moving On

Good Day Everyone,

I hope you’re all keeping well. It certainly has been a while since I sat down to write a blog post! Life has been all sorts of craziness these past couple of months but things have finally settled down, albeit only for a short while ;o).

As you may know, our Japan adventure came to an end in May. Japan was always going to be a short term thing, and I know some people may question whether it was actually worth it for just nine months. Moving to a new country requires a significant investment of time, energy and money but for us it was totally worth it. Japan is sooo unique and different to anywhere else in the world that we just couldn’t pass it up when the opportunity arose. Having visited Japan a few months prior to moving there, I can tell you that living in a country is a completely different experience to visiting the country as a tourist.

Mount Fuji

Once we found out that our Japan adventure was coming to an end, there was one trip that we just had to make, and that was to go see Mount Fuji. This famous sacred mountain is visible from Yokohama, where we lived, on a clear day but we just had to go see it closer up. Fuji-San (as it’s known locally) is surrounded by five lakes to its northern side, and so hubby and I planned a two day trip to the Fuji Five Lakes. This is what will be coming up in subsequent blog posts and on my YouTube channel.

Our last sunrise from our Yokohama apartment

We spent most of May in a bit of a whirlwind. We had days where we were drowning in bubble wrap as we started to pack up our belongings into shipping boxes, and days where we were rushing around taking in some last minute sights. I tried to capture as much as I could on my vlogging camera so that I could continue making videos about Japan once we returned to the UK. My arthritis riddled body can capture footage more easily than it can edit it into vlogs so please bear with me.

We also had the challenge of selling all of our furniture that we’d only recently bought. We soon learnt that Japan does not have a big second hand market and recycling furniture is a very costly affair. If we hadn’t managed to sell our furniture, we’d have had to pay a lot of money to have it collected by a recycling firm. This explains why expats often give their furniture away for free on the local Craigslist. Luckily for us, we managed to sell everything, albeit at a fraction of the price we paid, with just a week to go!

This meant that we then had to spend our last week staying in various hotels. We spent three nights in Tokyo and used it as an opportunity to visit a few of the sights (I’m sure there will be a blog post &/or vlog coming soon). The rest of the week was spent in Yokohama liaising with the local authorities and utility companies to wrap things up before we left.

On our way back to the UK, we stopped off in Singapore for six days to de-stress as the last couple of weeks in Japan were pretty taxing, and to catch up with friends. It was sooo good to be in a country where we could speak the language and get vegetarian and halal food ;o). I did do a bit of vlogging whilst in Singapore and will post that on my YouTube channel soon.

Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore

The iconic Singapore Merlion

We adjusted to being back in Singapore so easily that it was a bit like coming home, although I had forgotten just how hot and humid Singapore was! The heat definitely got to me, as did the stress of the move and consequently I spent a couple of days on bed rest as my body started to react to the past few weeks. The six days went by way too quickly and before we knew it we were on another plane making our way back to the UK.

Cora the Caravan - our current home

We’ve not been back a month yet and already Japan and Singapore feel like distant memories, more so for me, as hubby has had a trip back to Singapore for work purposes. It feels strange to be back in the UK after four years of living in Asia. And what feels even stranger is living in a caravan…that’s right, hubby and I are currently living in a caravan. Not something I ever imagined doing but then again, I never imagined living in Japan either ;o).

Love Sheen xxx

Missing In Action & Moving

Good Day Everyone,

I've been MIA (missing in action) recently as I've had another arthritic flare which has been really frustrating. Aside from the pain and associated insomnia, a flare up tends to restrict my movements and ability to do simple everyday things from walking to taking a shower. As a result I haven't been able to post any Japan vlogs even though I have a backlog of video footage accumulated. It wasn't until I started my YouTube channel that I realised just how much work goes into producing a 10-15min vlog, esp. when you work at a snail's pace like me courtesy of my arthritic hands!

The good news is that I seem to be over the worst of it and back in the land of the living.... and Instagram :o). Me not posting on Instagram is usually a testament as to how bad my flare up has been!

The other bit of news that I have to share with you is that hubby and I are moving. Our little adventure in Japan is coming to an end soon. We are not yet sure where the next chapter of life is going to take us, but what we do know is that we will be spending a week in Singapore (our previous home) in June, before we head back to our real home, the UK for a bit.

These days we are immersed in bubble wrap and shipping boxes as we pack up our lives for the second time in 12 months, and try to sell furniture that we only just bought a few months ago! We are also trying to make the most of the time we have left in Japan and recently spent two days at Mount Fuji which was a fantastic little trip. I have lots of exciting vlogs to share with you over the coming months but things might be a bit slow. When I'm having a good health day I'll be wanting to spend it outside enjoying the last bit of Japan, rather than sitting in my bed editing vlogs, as I'm sure you'll understand :o).

We are very much looking forward to our stay in Singapore. After the stress of packing and sorting everything out in Japan, we will be in need of some downtime. Also it will be lovely to catch up with our old friends and eat lots and lots of fruit ;o).

On a final note, whilst living with chronic illnesses can be soul destroying at times, it's not without it's perks.... yes perks. Thanks to my pain induced insomnia I was awake at 4.30am to watch this breathtakingly beautiful sunrise - these photos are completely unedited! It almost reduced me to tears and made my heart swell up with so much gratitude for the beauty my eyes see. In that moment, for just a short while, I forgot all about my pain :o).

Love Sheen xxx

JVlog #4: Japan Apartment Tour

Good Day Everyone,

Thank goodness it's Friday! This week has been a bit of a write off for me. I wasn't feeling too great over the weekend and just took it easy. As the weather was pretty cold and I wasn't feeling well I ended up eating a bit too much cheese on toast (wintery comfort food). This had a really bad affect on both me and my arthritic joints. I've had two migraines to deal with as well as a very angry arthritic spine this week. After making a conscious effort to eat very cleanly over the last couple of days, I'm finally feeling better today... Just in time for the weekend.

Whilst I didn't get any blog posts written this week, I did manage to film this video today. It is a tour of our apartment in Japan. We've given this tour to many of our friends and family over Skype as people have been curious about where we are living. We've all heard of the capsule hotels ;o)

We live in a two bedroom apartment. Whilst it is half the size (approx. 65sq.m) of our apartment in Singapore (but sadly not half the price), the spectacular view over Yokohama Bay more than makes up for the lack of space. To be honest, despite the smaller size, hubby and I are managing perfectly fine within the space that we have. It is only when we live in a smaller place that we often realise that we don't need as much space as we think we do to live comfortably. Obviously there is a big difference between need and want... I'm still dreaming of my own walk in wardrobe and vanity area ;o).

From our apartment we get to see the most amazing sunrises. You can see/read more about those here. Also something that I forgot to mention in the video is that we can actually see the heliport from our living room! We can see the helicopters taking off and coming back into land which is pretty awesome. In addition, we see the planes coming into land at Haneda airport which isn't too far from where we live :o)

Although we found this particular apartment ourselves on the internet, we had to use an estate agent to sort the contract because we don't speak Japanese and most landlords don't speak English. Whilst the apartment is owned by a private landlord, the development complex that the apartment is in is owned by a Japanese corporation. In our rental contract we had to agree to be considerate to our neighbours and confirm that we do not belong to the Japanese mafia...Not something you see often in a rental contract ;o)

We do not have any double glazing or central heating in the apartment nor do we have any gas. We cook on electric induction hobs. The apartment has under floor heating in the main living area and air conditioning units in the bedrooms which blow out warm air. Luckily, as we get the morning sun the apartment isn't too cold during the day, but with it being winter, the under floor heating is on every evening.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our current home. Did you notice that I've now learnt how to incorporate music into my YouTube videos :o). I'm hoping to improve my recording and editing skills as I do more of these. Do let me know in the comments section if you have any questions about our Japanese home or life in Japan.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend :o)

Love Sheen xxx