Movin' On

The movers come tomorrow to take our boat shipment. This means that we sort out the bare essentials that we really need with us for the next month and a half, and they are going to take everything else. We'll have rental furniture delivered when our things are cleared out. Simple, yes?

Not even.

We are learning how complicated a move from Japan can be. For one thing, the roads in the neighborhood are so narrow that a regular sized moving truck is an impossibility. Instead, our movers will load up a small truck, drive it down to the dock, load it on the crate and then come back for another load. This will stretch the move across THREE DAYS.

Meanwhile, we are not allowed to throw the stuff we no longer want away. We have to buy stickers from the city for those items that they will recycle. For other things, we need to flag down the little man who drives through the neighborhood every so often, collecting cast offs. Glass and ceramics can be disposed of in once location, wood and clothing in another etc., etc.. It's a real adventure.

During this process, I have been amazed to discover the amount of STUFF that we have accumulated over the past four years. And you know what? I don't want to take it all with me! Someone once said that our possessions take up room in our psyche as well as in our homes. The more we have, the more we have to keep track of, and we are burdened. Boy, are we burdened.

I wonder if we have any of those recycle stickers left over...