My wife the missionary

For all concerned, Aubrey is in Kikai now, and she is living the island life.
She has now been there for 5 days. It's been an up-and-down struggle for her, since she speaks little Japanese (but is learning) and doesn't really know such little things as how to operate the washing machine, what to buy at the grocery store, how to ask if the yellow-and-black spiders she sees all over the place (outside, mind you, not in the house) are dangerous. She's undergoing some culture shock, as one would well imagine, really.
The main difficulty, I would say, is that we're apart and we'll have to wait 4 weeks before we'll see each other again. Until then, long-distance is the word. The 14-hour time difference keeps things interesting, but the fact that I work at night here in the Central US makes it sometimes easier and sometimes harder than it would be for a normal person to keep in touch.
But I got my plane ticket for Japan, which is great news! It's a flight from Dallas to Osaka, leaving 25 August. So I'm excited for that. Can't wait for that, really - it means that I won't be working my hellish schedule anymore and that I'll soon be reunited with my sweet wife.