Koalas and Turtles

Thursday 24 July 2014

We are building a house !

After the triple disaster in Japan on March 11, 2011, we made the very difficult decision to move to Australia. We have been here since November 2011 and in that time have bought 3 cars and sold 2. Kame aka Turtle has brought his dream motor bike and now we own some land and are building a house! We couldn't have done any of this without our amazing Aussie and Japanese families. Thank you. We bought land at Warner Lakes, about 5 minutes from Kames work. We are building with Coral Homes. It's been quite a journey already but worth it so far.
Here is the process so far so you can see how long it took.
Land deposit 17/11/2013 手付け金 (土地)
House deposit 24/11/2013 手付け金 (建物)
Land loan approval 6/01/2014 土地ローン認可
Land settlement 16/01/2014 土地売買成立
House contract signing 27/03/2014 契約書にサイン
House loan approval 17/04/2014 銀行から住宅ローン認可がおりる。
Colour selection appointment 28/04/2014 内装、外装カラーミーティング
Clipsal appointment 30/04/2014 電装関係ミーティング
Council approval 4/06/2014 市役所から住宅建築の認可がおりる。
Covenant approval. 30/06/2014 土地開発会社からの認可がおりる。
Build start date 17/07/2014 着工

We chose the land because of the unique shape. This made the land cheaper per square meter and meant that we needed to choose a builder that could do a custom design for us. We had plans from GJ Gardener, Hallmark Homes and Coral Homes because they were in our budget. We really liked the display home at GJ Gardener but they were too slow in getting a draft plan to us. It was a toss up between Hallmark and Coral homes at the end and we just liked the custom design that Andrew from Coral Homes did for us a bit better. We have had to take a long time in getting to the building stage due to us being in Japan while settlement went through and also some appointments have been while I was in Sydney on my course so we had to postpone.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Catch up

Hi
Let's catch up on life for Koala and Turtle.
Since our last post a lot has happened.

RETURN TO OZ

Koala went back to Oz for a visit in March 2008 for a number or reasons.
1) My best friends wedding. Congrats Kerrie and John.
2) My sisters 21st birthday. Congrats Leanne.

Kerrie and John

Family and friends

Best friends

Singing a song for our little sister

My beautiful baby sister - Leanne

Dancing queens

HERE are some more photos of my time in OZ

HEALTH

When I came back to Japan I took a huge life changing step and I quit drinking alcohol. YES, I quit drinking on May 2nd, 2008. I spent 2-3 months going to AA meetings to help me quit and I haven't had a drop since. Thanks a million to everyone, especially my amazing husband aka Turtle, who supported me during this tough transition. It is the best thing I have ever done and I hope I can stick to it. One day at a time they say, but I do hope and believe that I will never drink again.
We have had a bad run with the flu and some injuries in 2010 but nothing too major.

KYOTO TRIP and HOKKAIDO TRIP

We also went to Kyoto in May 2008 for a few days. Poor Turtle had a broken foot, and Koala almost had a broken back from pushing him in a wheelchair around Kyoto.lol

Ready for our journey.

Crutch-man

Camera on Wheels

My favorite temple

Turtles like it too

Kinkakiji - Golden Temple

In Feb 2009 we went to the Sapporo Snow festival in Hokkaido. The best holiday in my life so far.

Airport

OTARU

Making friends

Igloo

Snow luv

Turtle needed a cold drink

Snow boat- this was so much fun

Build a snowman

Snowman land

Frosty is born

Working it

Snow Sculptures

MORE PHOTOS here

WORK

At the same time I started a new job at Chit Chat Cafe English school where I was the only teacher for close to a year for all adult, kids and baby classes- this was a tough but very educational and growing experience. Thank you Natalie and Mika, I could learn a lot from both of you and now have my own school called Koala Kim's English in Haruhino.

WE MOVED

In August 2009 we moved from our apartment in Chiyogaoka to a brand new terrace house in Haruhino. Still renting.
We moved so that we could start Koala Kim's English. Our friend is the headmaster of Haruhino Junior High school, and he recommended that we move to Haruhino.
We have been here 16 months and are a part of the community. Koala volunteers twice a week at the school, runs English book reading classes 4 times a month at the community center and teaches English in our new home. We love living in Haruhino, it is a new area with lots of open space and everyone is very friendly.

VISITORS

During this time we had Gavin visit us from the Sunshine Coast; Simon, Sam and Sylvie from Byron Bay; and Jak from Brisbane. They stayed with us in Chiyogoaka.

My cousin, Molly, from Ireland had a 8 hour wait at Narita Airport. So we picked her up, went to a Temple, had lunch and dropped her back.
We also met up with Joanne, Kevin and their 3 boys in Tokyo for a day.

Ayako from Kyoto, Darlene and Brad from the Gold Coast, Cedric from France, Leanne and Sarah from Brisbane, Jake form Brisbane and Koalas parents from Brisbane have stayed with us in Haruhino.

Here are just a few of our visitors

Jake

Leanne and Sarah

Molly

Jak

Ayako

PETS

Big Fella- the Turtle, and Orange guy and Red guy - the Newts came with us from the old place to Haruhino.

Koala- the Guinea pig joined our family in December 2009.

Bic- the Dog is still at Turtles parents house.

Sasha- the Cat passed away in Australia at a ripe old age of 17 yrs. RIP my beautiful Sasha

FAMILIES

Both of our families have had a few health problems but everyone is ok at the moment :-)Koalas Parents and sister came for a visit, now we are waiting on Otooto Kevin to come and see our new place. Hint Hint

TURTLE

Turtle has been studying hard and passed a few English exams this year - congratulations. His English is so good now.

Now he is my right hand man in running Koala Kim's English. We both work other jobs too, but Turtle really puts in long hours and is a champion.
Lucky me:-)

Hopefully he will add something to this blog for our Japanese readers- hint hint.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT TO LET US KNOW IF ANYONE OUT ThERE IS READING OUR BLOG :-)

That's all for now. Bye

While you wait....

... Check out my other blog for my new business here

Long time no see. お久し振り

Wow
That was such a long hibernation. We almost forgot that this blog existed, sorry.

Well we are still alive and have lots of news. Watch this space.......

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Sorry we were hibernating.

Hi there
We have decided to come out of hibernation to support Earth hour.
So come on everyone.... help us come outta hibernation by turning off your lights for 1 hour on March 28th from 830 -930pm. We promise that if you can help us and the world by supporting Earth Hour then we might just be able to muster up enough energy to start blogging again.

Thanks
Koala and Turtle

note to self.. don't plan to blog at 830pm this Saturday night.

Sunday 25 May 2008

2008 - first visitors from Oz- Part 2

January 18th

This was the day we had all been waiting for. Who wouldn't look forward to a day of sitting in cramped yoga style positions while watching giant babies trying to push each other out of a large mud playpen? Luckily the beer and sake was flowing.
YES YOU GUESSED IT...we went to Ryogoku Kokugikan (Ryogoku National Sports Arena) to watch live SUMO.

Actually it was a great experience and a definite must do for anyone who lives in or visits Japan.

First we stopped off in Akihabara and Ryan and Sarah looked at a few digital HD recorders. they found a bargain but decided to think about it while watching the Sumo and ended up getting the camera on the way home.

Words cant describe the sumo experience so here are some pictures. Sorry some of these aren't such good quality

Outside the RYOGOKU KOKUGIKAN