Am I Ginger Or Am I Mary Ann?

I don't know if  I can answer the Gilligan's Island question, but I know I felt like a rescued castaway as three fabulous truckloads of food and treasures from the United States were dragged into my house!!!!    
I jumped up and down squealing every time I opened a box.  My wonderful Japanese movers made fun of me when I hugged my vacuum cleaner.  I did not realize how much I adored and missed real furniture, pots, pans, linens, my coffee maker and my SPLENDA!!!!  My boys are delighted with their giant Costco boxes of cereal, JE loves having her apple sauce and her oatmeal, and M seems to have a new reverence for toilet paper that doesn't shred.   I brought 60 rolls of toilet paper, 28 pillows, four televisions, 2 sets of patio furniture and one grill...just to name a fraction...  

Living Room

   

Powder Room

      

This is our entry foyer with my shoe sign the Japanese tutor loved!!!  All the houses I have seen here have the giant "shoe cabinet" in a marble floored entry.   LOVE THAT!!!   In Japan, a good hostess provides extra slippers for visitors....so, of course, I have multiples!!

      

                                       JE is VERY proud of her new bunk beds!!

The painting was a going-away present from her friend, Sharon, from Korea.

More pictures to come, along with notes on some cool restaurant discoveries...I know I swore I'd do just local Japanese fare, but they are very good at making what the comfort food we crave!  So I have to politely conform to awesome and familiar cuisine...like Libre (California-style Mexican place with awesome burritos, perfect Margaritas, and Corona beer!) and White Smoke (Authentic Texas Smoke house - amazing ribs!), PizzaKaya (going back there tonight for Derek's out of the park California pizza), and Andy's Shinhinomoto ( a great host/chef serving mind-blowingly incredible fresh seafood from Tsukiji Fish Market ).  Not sure I should have brought my pots and pans, actually, because now my family of locusts is expecting Food Network mom to reappear...

My new dining room!

PS...There are 6 blogs prior to this one...click "Older Posts" (just below this page) for access to the beginning of our  journey!