Not taking the buyout

We recently decided to sign onto the Washington Post's future, for better or worse, when we decided not to take the WaPo's buyout offer for its longtime employees.

This was our struggle, just one year after we decided to move to Japan: Should Blaine quit the Post, accept a generous and steady buyout-related income, and start freelancing from Seattle - while I'd get a new full-time job? It was a tempting offer, especially given newspapers' tough times and falling profits.

Or should we stay in Japan for the duration of Blaine's planned posting, enjoy his fine work as a foreign correspondent, see how my editing and writing develops, and hang onto the kids' fantastic schools and the family's overseas experience - not knowing what the future holds for our next posting? We decided to stick around.

For me, the bottom line was seeing this is a onetime chance for our family to live something other than a typical American life: house, minivan, schools, soccer practice, big grocery stores and non-exotic vacations. The schools here are a big seller: We love them, and they may be the best schools that Lucinda (and maybe even Arno) ever attend, though I hope not.

When the buyout option popped up, I applied for Lucinda to attend 1st grade in our very good Seattle neighborhood public school, Stevens Elementary. She would have gone there this year for kindergarten in Seattle, but now, for 1st grade, there wasn't a space for her. Instead, she was #4 on the Stevens waiting list, with no guarantee of admission before September, and she was randomly assigned to a low-testing school a few miles away. This did not exactly make me want to rush back to Seattle.

But the truth is, the kids have done wonderfully here, and we're excited about their next school year. Arno's teachers told us last week that he's actually -speaking- Japanese to them, which was completely new info to us (he doesn't bother speaking it to us). And Lucinda performed in a short Japanese play today for her school assembly. No matter how long we stay - 3 or 4 years total, probably - they'll go home with some terrific language skills and a better understanding of the rest of the world.

Even as we made our decision, I know many families who are leaving Tokyo this year - more than in past years, friends say. Some bankers have been laid off, some US companies are pulling their people back, and some have run out of time. Many people are having "sayonara parties" right now. I'm glad we're not among them.