Finally in Kyushu

 We took a train from Sendai to Kawasaki in the Tokyo area and stayed over night in a hotel. My daughter and granddaughter came the next morning and accompanied us to Haneda Airport. My other daughter and grandson met us along the way. We took a cheap flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka Airport. The total cost was a bit less than flying directly from Sendai to Fukuoka, no cheap tickets. From the airport we took a taxi to our new apartment. When we arrived my wife's sister and husband and their daughter's two children were already there. After an hour or so, two trucks pulled up outside. Our household goods had arrived.

The transportation company's crew was led by a young woman and they brought in all the boxes, spreading them out in one of the tatami mat rooms, and our furniture which they rebuilt. During the afternoon, various specialist arrived to fix our TV and telephone. As you can see, the room is well lit. The window door on the right faces south and leads to our balcony, which is about a meter wide and mainly a place to dry clothes.

 This is the view in the other direction. We have a closet that goes across the entire width of the room and there is another in the bedroom which is behind this closet. The kitchen is through the door on the left. You can see some of the cabinets.

We decided to take our time with the unpacking and even now, more than two week's later we are still not completely settled. There is not stove and we have not bought the oven that we are planning on. We have been living on premade food from the local supermarkets and things that can be made with hot water from an electric hotpot.

As always with moves there was lots of paperwork that had to be done. One of the first things that was necessary was to go the government office and register. We took a bus from near the bank where we had established a new account. As we went along, it was clear how much this area is still countryside.

 This is the view from in front of the government office - rice paddies and farm houses.

 We moved during cherry blossom season and this tree near the office was beautiful.

Just as in Sendai, the local river is have construction on its banks. This is a huge project and the work stretches for three or four kilometers.