My Thanksgiving List

1. I am thankful for all the kind strangers in the world. People who give up their seat for me on the train, help me carry my stroller up and down the train station stairs and ask me if I need help when I am trying to read my map with a confused look on my face in a crowded area.

2. A great visiting teacher who helps me understand the difference between hard and soft flour, wet and dry sugar, and when to use each kind. (it matters!)

3. I am thankful I know how to read! Not being able to speak, read or write Japanese has given me a glimpse of what it must be like for illiterate people. It's frustrating and sometimes embarrassing as I usually have to mime and do a lot of hand motions to get my point across. I can’t distinguish between junk mail and bills. I've stopped getting the mail. I just leave it in the mailbox for Ryan. I wander up and down each and every aisle at the store because I can't read the aisle names. I've bought salt when I thought I was buying sugar. Pictures are a lifesaver! I recently read a statistic that there are 1 billion illiterate people in the world today. The most frustating thing for me has got to be the inability to do a lot of the little things in life without having to give it more thought than you normally would. Whatever you need to do is going to require some thought as to how you’re going to make yourself understood.

4. I'm thankful for our Vonage phone company, who makes it possible for us to still have a US phone number, letting us talk to our families whenever we want.

5. Weather--I didn't appreciate what we had in California till we left. It rains all the time here and mosquitoes are everwhere! I am thankful for sunny days--I try to make a point to get outside every day that it doesn't rain. besides walking to and from the bus stop.

6. Costco. what would I do without it? There are three Costcos in Tokyo--each 45 minutes away in different directiosn from our home. Even though they only carry some American products, it makes cooking so much easier and is sometimes nice to eat something not made out of rice! Campbell soups, Eggo Waffles, canned peaches, California imported grapes (Japanese grapes are huge and mushy) and Skippy peanut butter are some of the things I can find there.

7. Basics things like my sight and a place to live. Every Saturday morning, Ryan watches the kids so I can go jogging at Yoyogi Park, one of Tokyo's largest parks, about 10 minutes away. Ponds, forests, bike and jogging paths, and huge grassy areas. It's a really fun place. Saturday mornings there is a run with the blind program set up at the park, where blind people who want to jog, are paired up with a regular jogger (someone who can see) They are connected with a cord and the leader runs slightly in front of the blind person, tugging on the cord when it's time to turn. It makes me thankful that as I run, I can look around and admire the beautiful park, see the leaves falling off the trees etc. Yoyogi Park also has a large homeless camp on one side. Don't worry Mom, it's totally safe, but very sad. They even line up their shoes outside their tents just like in a Japanese home.

8. I am thankful that the church is here (and a temple!)--even on the other side of the world.

9. I'm thankful for three great kids and a wonderful husband who was brave enough to ask for an overseas assignment, which eventually led us to Tokyo.