We had the moving company come on July 29th and then officially moved out on the 30th.  My new job paid for the moving company and for my flight to Osaka and Yuki flew on air miles so it worked out to be a pretty cheap move.  

The night before we left Funabashi, Miwa and Nao took us out for a farewell dinner.  Then they really helped us out by taking us to the airport the next day (Thanks again you guys!!!).  For those of you who remember, Nao and Miwa are the ones who came to Vancouver for their honeymoon.  They will be at the wedding too and are looking forward to meeting up with everyone again.  

Kumi (Yuki's younger sister) met us at the airport in Osaka and drove us to Nishiwaki.  We spent the night at Yukis folks before heading to meet with my new employer and picking up the keys to our new place.  

The guy before us left the place pretty clean but it still took us a while to get

everything together.  Our place has been remodelled recently so the interior is quite neat and new looking.  The exterior looks a bit run down (a lot actually) but we are trying to make it look better.  We have our bedroom upstairs (fully furnished) and a small TV room (with a big TV in it and more channels than I have ever had) upstairs as well.  Downstairs is the kitchen and shower/laundry room.  The best part of the new place is we have a backyard!  Yuki's dad brought over some nice wooden pallets and I used them to make a patio out back which I covered with artificial turf.  We put a roof over the patio and it is great.  Last night we sat out there and played cards.  

Our new town doesn't have a train station so it is a little tough to get around without a car.  Yesterday we bought a small car.  There are 2 types of cars over here.  Regular size and tiny.  

Tiny means under 550cc.  This translates into slow acceleration, good gas mileage, cheaper insurance and cheaper annual inspection fees (about 750 dollars compared with 1500 or so for a regular car).  The car is quite sporty looking but not very peppy.  Its got power everything and air-conditioning!  Best of all, we got it off of a family that Yuki's family knows so I don't think that we got screwed at all.

Of course you can click on the pictures for a bigger version!