These girls they wanted to get up with me, right? To see the sunrise?

We stayed up almost until 12:00 but we didn't make it. No, you were out cold.

I could not wake up.

For us, Twenty Twenty Two was the “Year of Unexpected Happenings,”

and right at the start of the year we would get a taste of the unexpected — in a very fun way.

What's going on outside Sarah?

It's snowing. It's snowing!

Let's see.

Oh my goodness. That is like for real!

Sweet! How awesome is that!

It's snowing! Oh my goodness!

So, we are going to go to a conbini to pay some bills and buy some more milk,

Then we can have some hot chocolate later.

Scooting in the snow.

Everyone who lives in Tokyo, this is so fun because it hardly ever snows here.

Let me tell you what, dude.

If this keeps up, we are going to have some snow on the ground.

As if a theme for the year to come, when something unexpected came our way, we made the most of it.

The kids are playing with their friends at the park.

Oh my goodness.

Hey Sarah. What do you have?

Are you making a snowman?

Here's the body

They're having a snowball fight.

A snowball fight!

You got me!

You can become so familiar with something, that once you see it in a different light, it becomes completely new

like seeing your own neighborhood covered in snow.

Life is just like that too — you need the unexpected to help break things up and see things in a different way.

Trying something new can do the same thing,

as it did for us when we took the family to have the Japanese meal Shyabu Shyabu for the first time.

Our children have never tried Shyabu Shyabu, so we're going to bring them for their first experience.

This one is ours.

The blue light. But all of those is ours.

All of the meat has come.

It comes in these trays here, and then you put it in the oil.

Shyabu Shyabu was a blast and we've been back several times since,

but some of the most unexpected findings were when we tried some of the unique items on the Japanese menu at McDonalds.

We just bought all the crazy, unique things that are on the menu at McDonalds in Japan,

And we are going to try them now and see what we think!

Come to Becca.

Here goes Becca.

Gonna give it a bite. The Samurai Mac.

It comes to like your heart. What do you mean it comes to your heart?

Oh, she's trying it.

Even Ruth was inspired to try her hand at making a Japanese dish called Tonkatsu or fried pork cutlet, and it was an instant success.

You are not trying a little bit. You are trying a lot!

All of that food made us have to get some exercise in new ways as well.

Getting some Zumba on in here, huh?

Are you supervising them? Yeah?

For foreigners in Japan, one of our unexpected joys has been the friends we have made at our local kindergarten.

Joshua's birthday was an especially fun time to celebrate at school and at home.

How's it going guys?! Good!

OK smile everybody!

Smile 1, 2, 3!

Cheese!

Yea!

Our close friends and family are most precious to us.

And with all of your support, we reached a milestone that we never expected when we started YouTube in 2018.

We just hit 100,000 subscribers on Life in Japan!

Yeah!

[Drumroll]

Hey, pass it around, let everyone see it. Wow, how cool! It's a mirror!

Oh my goodness, my kids already got it dirty.

Yeah! Oh my goodness! Now we've gotta go for gold.

Life is full of the unexpected. Like taking a winter weekend getaway to the nearby Izu Peninsula

and being surprised by the Sakura and Plum blossoms,

This is pretty!

or heading to an area of Tokyo known for kitchenware for Ruth to explore.

Today we are at Kappabashi Dori

It's a famous street full of houseware things — like kitchen stuff!

Embracing the unexpected is the way we grow as humans.

Wouldn't that be a pretty solid bowl? Yeah, that is pretty. Very cool.

The choice is yours — what do you get? Oh my goodness!

Change is as much a part of life as the seasons — it comes whether you're ready or not.

And for us, big changes happened in the Spring as Joshua graduated from Kindergarten.

He would soon follow the steps of his sisters and move on to our local Japanese elementary school.

But it wasn't just Joshua who was moving on.

The whole family braced for the unknown as our oldest twin daughters Rebecca and Anna graduated elementary school in grand Japanese fashion.

When Spring Break finally comes, it's a chance to relax,

take a deep breath of fresh spring air, and spend some time with friends and loved ones.

Soon, it will be time for the biggest change of all — new schools for 3 of our kids.

Little did we know that this would not be the biggest school change of the year.

OK Dude- you did it, didn't you?!

Officially in Elementary school.

As Sakura petals began to fall, Rebecca and Anna entered the unknown world of junior-high school in Japan.

Things get much more serious in Junior High, with uniforms, longer schedules and some tough adjustments on how things work.

What's different about Junior High and elementary?

Well, we walk all of 45 minutes for Junior High

Elementary school is around 15 minutes.

Also... Bye!

The schedule is strict...

And uniforms! Yes, uniforms.

And huge backpack!

It looks heavy. Let's go.

But it wasn't just the girls that had big adjustments.

This year Joshua joined Sarah in going to elementary school, and the two have become closer than ever.

It's a big day for the Reutter crew. Yes!

Joshua's first undoukai... No!

In elementary school. Oh, in elementary school.

Joshua, what did you think about your first undoukai?

Pretty fun.

And you ran super fast, that was good!

I'm this fast...

We work hard so that when we do have a break, we can enjoy it to the full,

and as spring turned to summer, we looked for some new adventures around us.

What we found were some amazing Japanese parks and gardens as well as one of the funnest slide that we've done in Japan yet.

This year was also Joshua's first year riding his bike without the assistance of training wheels, and since he got it, he hasn't looked back.

Whoa Dude, you did a full lap no problem. Awesome!

Going for a second lap, sweet!

This was also the year that Sarah fell in love with lizards,

and we tried our best to find whatever we could, wherever we could.

A big one?

Is it there still Izzy? We don't know.

We don't know yet?

Right now I'm eating squid though.

Now you're eating the squid? You're eating the bait?!

Ane me. And you?!

Oh my goodness! What a cutie-pie.

The summer heat came unexpectedly earlier and way hotter than normal.

We looked for things to do indoors, and we stumbled upon an incredible find in nearby Odaiba.

Whoa! Oh my goodness!

Whoa! Look at this, guys!

Whoa!

That is so cool. You know what, you could easily got lost in here, huh?

Joshua, look at mommy.

It's nice to be indoors when it's hot out,

but some things like birthdays and fireworks are even more memorable in the heat,

as was the case for Sarah's 9th birthday party.

Oh my stars, that is a whole lot of fireworks!

Whoa, good golly!

Yeah!

Once summer break came, we took the longest airplane trip in our lives

and crossed the globe to Santarém in Brazil, the city where Ruth grew up and where our girls were born.

It was our chance to retrace our family roots together

and voyage out onto the great Amazon River where we lived for seven years.

Hey Sarah. Did you come to see the sunset?

It's pretty awesome, huh?

The Amazon is wild and raw, full of adventure, wildlife and incredible scenery.

It did not disappoint us.

This is what we call adventure.

Anna's turn Here goes Anna Cakes.

Oh you scared me.

Let go! Let go! Now!

It was so good to reconnect with friends and family again,

and we spoke at several different events and conferences.

At a woman's event, Ruth shared her story of our first child who died in childbirth,

and the hope that we found in Jesus.

The whole time in Brazil was a whirlwind like no other

and the whole adventure ended up being our first feature-length film here on YouTube.

If you're looking for something good to watch, look no further than our Amazon Adventure!

We are heading home finally!

There was two epic long flights

But the way back was really cool.

As we flew over the Himalaya mountains

[strange noise]

What the heck is that?!

What happened Nate?

I don't know.

Flat tire.

Is it? Maybe we have a flat tire.

Upon returning to Japan, the unexpected turned our lives upside down,

starting with our car breaking down on one of Tokyo's busiest highways.

Not expected.

OK, the wrecker has made it.

The police are behind us and the wrecker is in front of us.

Well, we stay in the car to get towed, and that's my first experience with that.

This is not how I saw today ending, but you know...

But believe it or not, that was not the night's biggest surprise.

Ah, we are back home finally!

Can I tell the bad news?

What's the bad news?

They cut all of the... No! I'm telling it!

I went into the back yard, and all the trees were [knocked over] on the ground.

And look what they did to our backyard while we were gone.

They killed our backyard!

So they're officially asking us to move

An unexpected and urgent search began for a new place to live.

But the options were extremely limited.

Look at that. I'd have to have a little burner stove.

Nope nope nope, not going to work.

Whoa, look at the size of this.

Options took us up to an hour away, but none of the options felt right.

Ok let's see, what does the kitchen look like?

Oh, this is tight!

Alright, we're checking out the next place.

And it is like 2 minutes from the station, it's so close.

Wow, good-sized room here.

Most options seemed great at first, until we discovered something that made it impractical.

This is nice.

Whoa!

I don't know if my stuff would fit in here because the elevators the size of a peanut.

Look at the tiny little elevator.

So the search went on to nearly a dozen different places,

until we finally heard back about an 4-bedroom apartment near us available to rent.

Guess what?! We just got a big call!

We're going to move!

I've gotta call my sister...

I'm going to be close to my sister!

Hello?

Yes, we had finally found a place to move!

Our new neighbors! Say hi!

But our unexpected move was met with an unexpected storm.

What's that say there?

Japan braces for flooding/destructive winds from super typhoon Nanmadol

Category 4 major hurricane.

Just what you need while you're trying to move, right?

Hopefully it passes within the next week because we move in two weeks.

The storm we faced was not just outdoors, but indoors as well

as we scrambled to uproot our lives and replant it down the train line.

That's a lot of boxes.

It's a lot of boxes, my goodness!

We have a lot of crap in this house.

I have a lot of baking supplies.

The boxes are filling up everywhere.

You guys packing, packing, packing?

Just throwing everything in.

The typhoon did come, but thankfully it was not as bad as what they were predicting.

But when moving day came, we were blessed with good weather.