SpokaneFixer

Visiting Japan was never on my bucket list. In fact, visiting any country outside of good ol’ ‘Merica was never all that appealing to me. I grew up with an unhealthy fear of losing a passport and getting stuck forever overseas, unable to return home. I have no idea how that (mostly) unfounded fear developed, so feel free to psycho-analyze me all you want.

Who knew I would end up working for a company with a worldwide footprint and travel to the far corners of the earth often? One day, said company wanted me to go to northern Japan. Fine. I had just been to Italy and Germany for the first time, so why not just round out those Axis powers in their order of surrender and be done with it? ‘Merica.

Well, I went, and Japan tried its best to kill me. I landed just prior to the landfall of Super Typhoon Phanfone and arrived at my hotel just in time to stay put and weather the storm. A week later, I was working under a desk when the ground began to shake. Traumatizing images of Little Foot, Cera, and the Sharptooth briefly haunted me until I realized the ground wasn’t going to break up around me. The next night, I woke up to my hotel building swaying in an aftershock. That wasn’t unnerving at all. Then, as if Japan hadn’t toyed with me enough, I got stuck in a 12 hour delay waiting for Super Typhoon Vongfong to pass through. Well played, Japan.

I’ve been back to Japan since this episode, but without any of the excitement. I figured for sure the next time I went, I’d get to deal with all of the other natural disasters Japan has to offer: volcanoes, tsunamis, nuclear disasters, Godzilla… But it didn’t happen. And I’m alive to tell about it.

When we bought our short sale, part of the sale was an agreement to make it baseline livable. This included a new roof, a couple doors, and some flooring. Once the flooring was installed (thank you, Gray Homes) and the area rug was laid out, our oldest kiddo built an epic train set with Thomas the Tank Engine track. Our daughter, who was only around six months old, did what was most natural to her – she proceeded to destroy everything in her path. While my son could have been frustrated, instead he was guided to pretend that “Godzilla attacks!” and roll with the punches. It became a game, and for the next several years, my daughter became known as Godzilla anytime she destroyed something in her path. I did have to stop calling her that and began using her real name shortly before she started attending public school. I couldn’t have kids teasing her, you know?

Before

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War and Reconstruction

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Building the City

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Godzilla Attack!

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