Hi Everyone, (Note you can click on any picture to see a larger version of it) I have a lot of things on my wish list to do while we are here in Japan, but without a doubt at the top of the list was to see the cherry trees in bloom in the spring. Last weekend they were at thier peak, and it was glorious! Marc took friday off, and I skipped my Japanese lesson so we could go explore. There are cherry trees everywhere, but there ares several places where they were planted "en masse" and those areas [View Full Entry]

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Sapporo Snow Festival Pictures Asia » Japan » Tokyo By The Levins March 24th 2007These are the pics from the Snow Festival. The narrative of our visit to the Snow Festival is included in the previous Blog entry. [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone…… I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but they are still having problems with the email notifications on the blog website, so I haven’t felt as “pressured” to post an entry. In addition, as we get more and more settled, we are going out exploring more and more, which leaves less time for sitting at the computer. Marc has become really busy at work, and while he likes it very much, his hours are a bit strange with telephone conferences back to the states at odd hours (due to the time changes). I have [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! I am sorry I haven’t posted a blog entry in so long. (I seem to start every blog entry that way, don’t I?) A few weeks ago the blog host site lost its email service so it could not send email notifications to our subscribers. Thus, I thought I would wait to post an entry until the email service was back up, but that STLL hasn’t happened, so I am going to post this entry and then send an email to everyone from my regular email and hope that (1) I can do it and (2) I don’t miss [View Full Entry]

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When we first rented our apartment, the realtor arranged to have a "technology" company called Asist Solutions which does a lot of work for them and the expat community to provide an estimate on phone, internet, and satellite television connectivity. They came out the day of our walk through to provide the estimate for: Internet set up Wireless router set up Two skyperfect tv (for Japanese tv) antenna purchase, installation, and connection Armed Forces Network (AFN) TV (10 channels of US tv) satelitte antenna installation and connection All together, the estimate was for 128,000 Yen [View Full Entry]

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I am sorry I have not written a blog entry in so long, it is just that we’ve been busy with the holidays and all that. I have to thank all of you (again) for the wonderful comments and messages Marc and I have gotten on our blog. The comments and messages make us feel so connected to all of you “back home” and all of our friends all over the world (Mac & Mary in Isle of Man for instance!!) This blog has become very important to us….you can’t imagine what it means to us to know you are interested [View Full Entry]

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In my last blog entry I was telling you all how well I have learned the train and subway systems. I guess after today I need to eat my words a bit. When the subway stops, the conductor usually opens the "exit" doors (on one side of the car) and waits for everyone to get out before opening the "boarding" doors on the other side of the car. One of my shortcuts has been to not get off when the "exit" door opens, but to wait a few seconds for him to open the "boarding" doors on the other side of [View Full Entry]

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This is Marc with my first attempt at a blog entry. I am not near as good a writer as is Arlene so please bear with me. Trains and Subways When we were searching for apartments, one of our goals was to keep my commute to one hour each way. It is close. In the morning I walk down the hill and around the corner a few minutes to Azabu Juban subway station. Then, it is down three staircases and an escalator to the turnstiles and then down another staircase to the track all in around seven minutes. If I time [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone, FINALLY.... by popular demand... pictures of our aparmtent in Japan. Let me know if you have questions! More later...... [View Full Entry]

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I am so sorry I have not written sooner, we have just had so much going on. My back is now back to 100% and I am feeling great. Usually my back acts up like that about every 3 - 4 years so the way I look at it, I am good for a while now! We have moved into our apartment, and we really like it. We are also starting to find our way around the Roppongi / Azabu Juban areas as well. Marc is settling into a routine at work, though things are slow now with various people on [View Full Entry]

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