Rigdon Review: Our Adventures Abroad

 I mentioned previously that our definition of adventure has changed since embarking on this journey (which began months before we arrived at the airport to take off).  We have decided, as a family, that we have to look at the ENTIRE experience as an adventure, even if the adventure sucks sometimes.  Even if, occasionally, it is a bust.   We had a bust this last week. Monday, Labor Day.  American holiday but not a Japanese holiday (obviously..?).  BUT...with a Super Typhoon Haishen coming our direction, our prefecture closed public schools, so Holland also had no school that day. The typhoon wasn't expected to hit hard, really we were supposed to get a bit of wind and rain, so we decided that as long as it stayed like that, we would go to Hiroshima (45-60 minute drive).  Keane has been wanting to go to a Pokemon center since he found out we were moving to Japan, and there were a few other things we thought would be fun to check out. The weather co...

Long before we even arrived, we knew that we would have two very different options for our children to attend school in Japan: 1. The DODEA (Department of Defense Education Activity) schools located on the base.  These schools are American style schools, they are top of the line, the resources they have are incredible and no expense is spared.   2. Local Japanese schools, located off base.  Here the children would have all classes in Japanese, they would attend a "Japanese as a second language" class, but other than that, it would be an all in type of situation. Andrew and I thought a lot about this, and before coming we thought that for our family and for our situation we would really like the kids to go to Japanese school.  Our intentions for coming to Japan were and still are to have an immersive cultural experience.  On the base, you don't even realize that you are outside of the United States.  We decided, however, to wait to make the final decisi...