Some folks have mentioned that I should post notes about our moving home experience for others. Others have asked generally what it's been like and if there's anything that they should know. I wanted to write a few things down while I remember them. Things that I wished I had known that may be helpful to others, but everyone is different so please consider your own situation before following anything I say as gospel! :)
Number one thing I wish: that we had never bought so much STUFF! Stuff ties you down. It clutters your home and it also clutters your mind. Everything you buy, you have to keep, sell, give away, or throw out. What we kept (mostly sentimental and practical, expensive stuff) was shipped in a container back to Canada. It wasn't really much to ship (we figured about $12 for a cubic foot), but it was a hassle to pack and to make decisions about (making decisions about what to keep is exhausting!). If you buy something that is valuable, you will likely want to insure it for the duration of its shipment and this adds more expense. Aside from the work packing, the expense moving, and the mental energy expended deciding what to ship, there is also the worry about your stuff getting lost or damaged. After all of this, I learned that I wish we hadn't bought so much stuff.
Number two: everything is going to take way longer than you think and there will be complications. We experienced this with every important job in the moving process; for example: the packing/organization of boxes, the movers' schedules and services, the vaccinating and recording keeping of our cats' vet visits for both exportation and importation, the cancelling of utilities, the clearing out of our stuff from our house (which was virtually never-ending), and the cleaning of the house we left. With the movers, we chose Vanpac and so far they have been very good. We chose them about two months before our move date and our move date was changed three times (once by us to give us an extra 2 days, twice by the company which gave us an extra 8 days). It was good to have those extra days. Even after all those delays, we still had last-minute stuff that necessitated two parcels sent via the Post Office (surface). We watched Youtube videos on how to pack and this helped a lot, but the advice we got regarding the numbering of the boxes really complicated things! A video we watched suggested colour coding the boxes accoring to which room you were designating the box for and then numbering the boxes with the colours (eg yellow box 1 out of 20; red box 3 out of 10, etc.). Vanpac was shocked when we asked if this was okay and adamantly said that they needed all the boxes in one numbering scheme, numbered consecutively! We had to change all of our box numbers the night before (took hours) and then do the listing of contents with box value on Vanpac's forms as well as decided which items to insure and which not to. I was up to 5:30 am doing this. IF I CAN SAVE ONE PERSON FROM THIS MISTAKE I WILL HAVE CONSIDERED OUR MISTAKES TO HAVE BEEN WORTHWHILE!!! :D
Number three: you should start spending more time with friends long before you leave because things get way too hectic and stressed in the last few weeks to see everyone you want to see and spend quality time with them. If you want to have quality visits with people at your sayonara party, consider booking a party room or entire bar for your sayonara party. We booked our party on what we thought was a slow night at a pub only to have the pub book a wedding party the same night! Our party was limited to the area right in front of the stage which was really noisy and no good for conversations or quality visits. I wish we had just had a number of small gatherings at restaurants or our home instead of the pub party, but that's the way I roll. You might be a real party animal that loves shouting at your friends through the din of bar noise, if so: party on!
Number four: your landlord will probably not give you back your deposit, however, ours DID! We are still quite amazed about that. We had had 5 different landlords over the 14 years we lived in our house and the first 4 were devil spawn. The last one was a sweetheart though. I'm glad that we gave me two months' notice and emptied/cleaned the house for him. There was a bit of a mix up with our leaving mid-month and paying til the end of the month (which we thought would allow friends to come and get some big furniture and stuff we left for them). Lesson learned: communication should have been done via a Japanese friend and we should have put it in writing too.
Number five: even after you think you have given away or sold everything, you will find more stuff that needs taken care of (it seems that these items had some type of invisibility cloak over them and we didn't 'see' them until a week or few days before).
Number six: every organization you deal with will give you a different answer to the same question each time you ask. To be completely safe about the proper procedure take notes (including the answer, the person who gave it to you, and the date you spoke with that person's name) and contact the organization several times (for example, Air Canada and the Animal Quarantine Services regarding flying with animals and taking animals out of the country respectively). We had to practically teach the Air Canada counter staff how to ship animals at Narita. I don't know if they had had a recent turnover of staff or what, but really, they hardly knew what to do with us (even a young couple next to us were being told they had to pay 80,000yen for a second piece of luggage--but that's a story I put on a different page).
Number seven: you will be helped by angels (some with physical form) to do everything you need to do, just when you think you are ready to give up and dissolve into a wet puddle of frustrated tears of exhaustion. I'm not sure why this is, but I'm sure it's true and applies to everyone even if you think you don't deserve to be blessed.
Number eight: you might also benefit from the feeling of detachment (errrr...perhaps it was just lack of sleep or inability to comprehend that we were actually leaving our Japanese home and community after almost 15 years) during your preparations, but this detachment begins to break down at strange moments (like when we packed our desktop computers or when I started hugging our friends good-bye outside our front door). When detachment fails, have tissues at the ready.
That's all for now...if you have any questions, please put them into comments and I'll try my best to answer them from our experience.
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