Japan and Base Housing

We are FINALLY out of TLF. We are in base housing and have temporary furniture and our "baggage" shipment. It almost feels like we're moved in, but not quite. Once we get our furniture and all of our stuff (some time in the next 3-5 weeks) it will really feel like home.

Wednesday and yesterday Mike had to attend "right start" briefings all day and I went with him. We learned some stuff on Wednesday, but yesterday was the big day. We took the driving class and test (both passed with 100% of course =). Of course it was just a written test with no driving involved. I'm still a little nervous but am quickly adjusting to seeing cars on the wrong side of the road.

Also part of yesterday was a bus tour. It covered the whole base and the we went off base for lunch to a place called Joyful Honda. Oh boy was that interesting! First of all, they only take yen. No dollars and no credit cards. So we got some yen at the ATM in TLF.

So we got off the bus and they just kind of let us go. There was a food court with lots of choices of places to eat at. They had KFC and McDonald's but who wants to go to Japan and have McDonald's? So we got brave. Here's the menu at the place we finally picked:

The close-up is of the things we ordered. It was surprisingly easy to order since we could just point. Here's what we got:

It was seafood. There were a few things we weren't sure about, but it all tasted pretty good. Especially the pot stickers. We both ate most of our food, but it was a HUGE serving so neither one of us finished it. I'm wondering if maybe each one was meant for 2 people to share?

After lunch we walked around for a while. The place we were at was kind of like a mall with lots of different shops. One was a pet store and we saw all kinds of people with their dogs... even in the other stores (one was grocery/drug). That was weird!

Another odd thing was this umbrella display:

And this vending machine which is what all the vending machines here look like:


We didn't have a whole lot of time to wander around before it was time to get back on the bus and head back to base. But it was plenty of time for me! I need authentic Japan in small doses at first, I think.

Today we moved into our new home. It's a two-bedroom apartment, about 900 square feet on the 8th floor of a tower.

The towers are built on rollers which I guess are like ball bearings. That way during the earthquakes they sway instead of being rigid and falling down. I guess we just missed a pretty good-sized earthquake a few days before we got here. That will be very scary for me the first time, I'm sure!! While the apartment is small, the amount of storage is unbelievable. We have more storage and counter space in our kitchen here than in our old house. In addition to our closets inside which are MANY, we have a closet outside on our balcony with shelves. We also have a caged area in a large shared storage room down the hall from our apartment, too. (For the Christmas tree, suitcases, etc.) Right now there is only one other family on our floor and the tower as a whole is pretty sparsely populated.

Some interesting things about the towers... #1-the light switches. They're like this everywhere in Japan:


#2-The key. They are NOT like this anywhere else that I've seen, but I haven't exactly been examining doorknobs:


#3-As much storage as there is elsewhere, it's practically nonexistent in the bathrooms:


#4-The balconies. We have one outside our bedroom that is part of the fire-escape system. We can't put anything out there (like chairs or whatever) but it's a very nice view. The other one is outside our living room and is a pretty decent size. Also has a good view and room for a grill and a couple of chairs, or maybe a set of patio furniture. And before everyone starts worrying about Jackson, there is safety netting on all the balconies. Which is great since the first thing he did out there was start trying to stick his feet between the railings. (He's still not allowed to do that since I don't think it's a good habit to start.) I would be way too nervous to let him out there EVER without the netting. If you open the picture of the tower full-size you can see the netting. Mike tested its strength by hanging on it.

One somewhat annoying thing is the lights. They're all motion-sensor lights. Which is great if you're walking into a dark apartment. But not so great if you're sitting on the laptop and have to keep getting up so the light turns back on. Quite bothersome I have to say.

Some more random pictures of our apartment:

I don't understand the two-directional flush choice.

View out our bedroom balcony.

View out the living room balcony.

From the kitchen looking into the living room.

Kitchen.

So that's the tower in a nutshell. Also today, it snowed. A lot. It's not supposed to snow that much here and it wasn't in the forecast for this almost-March day. Surprise!
We don't have a car yet, and nothing other than snack food in our apartment. So we had to walk to get lunch. In the snow. Oh joy. But then after we were done eating, Jackson and I went back to the apartment, and Mike went car shopping. In the snow. Luckily not long after, it let up considerably. Jackson is napping, which is good because he was EXHAUSTED. We've all had a long day. Mike is still car shopping and I'm catching up on my internet-ing. It's very nice to have convenient access. Although I won't know for sure how fast it is until we test out the webcam, it seems to have pretty decent speed. It's DSL, which is new to us, so we'll just have to see how it goes.

This is the last of the adventure blogs for now. I don't foresee having a whole lot to write about in the near future. But of course I will continue to write about nothing anyways. As soon as I post this, I'm updating the photobucket website. So for those of you who aren't checking it 18 times a day (ahem.. Char... ahem), you might want to drop by sometime in the next few days.

P.S. Just before I posted this, they did the end-of-the-day thing they do at all the bases. At Little Rock, it was at 1630, but apparently here it's at 1700. In the states they just play the national anthem, but here they play the Japanese national anthem first, then ours. Kinda cool. Although I'm sure I won't think so when I'm driving or walking somewhere and have to stop for longer to listen to not one, but two, national anthems.

More traveling--Part 3 (getting to Japan)

Thursday, February 19^th was the biggest day. And the earliest. Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:25, but we had to be at the airport at 7:05. Which meant we wanted to be there at 6:30. When we told the shuttle people that they wanted to make sure we had plenty of time and ended up getting us there about 5:50. They picked us up in the lobby of our hotel at 5:10. So once again, we were up about 4:30am. (That gets old quick, let me tell you.) At the airport, we had paperwork to fill out and information to give and bags to weigh. We got to the gate and than had to sit there for about 3 ½ hours. We made Jackson run around and took turns chasing him hoping he’d sleep on the plane.

The plane ride was LONG. We boarded at 9, and took off around 10. I was a little concerned when I saw that they scheduled an hour for boarding, but it really took that long. It was a HUGE plane (Airbus 330 if you care). There were 4 seats in the middle and 2 on each side. We had 2 on the side and one across the aisle. When we got the seat assignments we thought it sucked, but when we got on the plane we realized it was the best setup so that we could put Jackson’s massive car seat by the window. Jackson slept for the first 2 hours. I think his eyes were closed before the tires were off the ground. They turned the lights on to serve lunch and that woke him up. One thing about travelling from Seattle to Japan is that it stayed daylight the whole time. Everyone had their window shades closed but every now and then a kid (mine) would lift the shade. The kid in front of us did it a couple of times when Jackson was trying to fall asleep. For the next 7 hours, there was no sleeping. Mike and I traded seats a couple of times. The plane had great entertainment. Free games, movies, etc. at your seat. Unfortunately Mike and I didn’t get to enjoy them TOO much since Jackson needed constant entertainment. I did manage to watch “The Secret Life of Bees” but it took about 3 ½ hours to get all the way through it since I had to keep pausing and rewinding it. Finally we got Jackson to fall asleep again. We fought with him for probably close to 2 hours trying to get him down. Mike is the one who gets credit for success. He sang him to sleep… which involved CONSTANT singing for at least 30 minutes. An hour and a half later it was time for breakfast and they turned the lights on… guess who woke up again? Mike and I were confused by the breakfast choice since it was dinner time in Seattle and lunch time in Japan. After breakfast we got all our stuff together since it was almost time to land (YEA!!!!). Once the plane landed we all had to stay sitting until the security forces (cops) cleared the plane. I guess they were looking for stowaways… who knows? Then we finally got off the plane and we were in JAPAN!!

We went through customs (an active duty airman checking our passports) and got our bags. Mike had a sponsor (MSgt Williams) that he had been in contact with for a while back in Little Rock. He was waiting for us and that was such a great convenience!! We loaded up our bags and headed out for a tour around the base. By this time it was Friday afternoon in Japan, but we were on Seattle/Ohio time and it was the middle of the night. Jackson was exhausted but surprisingly cooperative. But Mike and I were wide awake! MSgt Williams took us for a quick base tour. We saw a bunch of stuff but had no clue where we were or how to get back to those places. Eventually we went back to the hotel and crashed. Once again we went to sleep at 3pm thinking it was a nap and ended up sleeping all night. We’ve tried to get our bedtime adjusted an hour or so every night and are hoping that we’ll be all the way adjusted within a week.

One of the really nice things about this base is how compact it is. Everything that we need is within walking distance of TLF. We spend time each morning waiting for stuff to open since we’re still getting up early. The enlisted club is open 24 hours on the weekend so we did get breakfast at about 4am on Sunday. The commissary and BX are much nicer here than at Little Rock. I guess since for the most part it’s the only option. It’s not like you can run off-base to Wal-Mart. So far I haven’t noticed anything they don’t have, but they have a lot less selection than what we have in the states. For example, they only had 2 choices of animal crackers instead of 5 or 6. And they get some special milk here that is ultra-pasteurized and stays good for like a month.

There are a lot of people that work in the YCC (Yokota Community Center—has the BX, commissary, toy store, food court, dollar store, etc.) that are Japanese. They all know English, but it can still be hard to understand with the accent. In the 100 yen store (like a dollar store) there are a lot of things that don’t have any English on them. If it were French or especially Spanish, I could at least figure out some of the words and maybe make some sense out of something. But with Japanese, I’m completely lost. I did try to learn a little before we left but it wasn’t nearly enough. It’s a little scary and that’s still on base! Mike’s been off-base twice to look at cars, but I haven’t gotten that brave yet.

The weather here is pretty cold. Especially at 4am when we’re up and venturing out some days. It’s been pretty much the same every day though, except it drizzled a little yesterday. I guess it will warm up eventually!

We could possibly be in permanent housing by Friday. We got to go look at a tower yesterday. They’re like condos or apartments. It’s pretty small, but has a ton of storage space. We already knew how small they were because we had floor plans mailed to us in Little Rock. There were a few structural things we didn’t know (like the wall between the kitchen and the living/dining room is really an open wall with a counter/bar—now we don’t have a good place for the TV), but overall it’s pretty much what we expected.

TV here is interesting. We get what’s called American Forces Network. They are pretty good about putting prime time shows on in prime time here (so we see them 14 hours after they air in the US). But it’s not like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX. There is really only one or two channels that show “prime time” type shows so they have to pick and choose which ones to show in prime time (American Idol) and which ones they show at 1am (Grey’s Anatomy). I was disturbed to see that you can’t watch shows online at abc.com, fox.com, etc. after they air unless you’re in the US. Luckily, I found a few other sites to use, so I’m done panicking.

We don’t have a phone yet, but will within 2 days of moving in to our housing. We’ll have a US phone number and it will be free for us to call anywhere in the states and anywhere on base. It’ll also be free for anyone to call us (well, you’ll have to pay long-distance fees if you have them). That will be pretty nice. And we always have the webcam. We’re using ooVoo which has turned out to work really well. We’ve talked to Mike’s parents and my mom and Aunt Sheila a few times. It’s been breaking up a little, but I think that’s mostly because we’re using WiFi in the hotel and there are always a million people on it at the same time. Hopefully it will improve when we have moved into our apartment and have “good” internet. Although we’re not sure how “good” it will be just yet. For now, we’ll make do with what we have. We only get reception in the hallway by the elevators and downstairs in the lobby. So e-mail responses may be slow. But we will respond when we can.

There are lots of tours to Japanese stuff that the base does. We’ve scheduled 3 for March. We’re not wasting any time!! One is a tour that’s sole purpose is to teach you how to use the Japan rail and subway systems. We’re also doing the Fire Walking Ceremony at Mt. Takao and the Shiraito Waterfall and Oshino Village. They all sound very exciting and I’m sure we’ll post pictures after we take them. I know everyone is expecting pictures of Japan, but we don’t’ have any yet. The base is just a base. Other than weird road signs, and cars on the left side of the road, it pretty much looks like the states. I promise we’ll post some as soon as we get them taken.

There are also a lot of great programs on base. I’m already planning on joining the Enlisted Spouse’s Club. And there’s an indoor pool on base that has open swim two afternoons a week. AND the library does a story time every Monday. Jackson and I went yesterday and it was a lot of fun. One week a month is American, one is Spanish, and two are Japanese. Yesterday was Japanese and I think I learned a few words. I definitely got more out of it than Jackson did, but he still had a good time. We even made an origami project.

Whew! Now we’re all updated. Feel free to e-mail/facebook/myspace whenever you can. We miss everyone!!

Traveling--Part 2 (Seattle)

Tuesday, February 17th was a big day. We had to get up at 4am to go to the airport on our way to Seattle. We thought for sure Jackson would be so pooped he’d sleep on the plane. He did sleep for about an hour on the way from Dayton to Denver, but that was it. We had to literally run from one gate to the next in Denver so no time for food or bathroom breaks. We landed in Seattle about 10:30 local time. After catching a shuttle to our hotel and checking in we decided to get some food. The clock said 11:30, but out stomachs said 2:30 and we hadn’t had much to eat. We managed to have lunch in the Pike Place Market which was pretty cool. It was a very nice little restaurant. It was a little cramped, but had VERY good food.
I ended up having salmon in some form at every meal in Seattle. I just couldn’t make myself get chicken with all the great seafood choices!! After we walked around the market a little,
and bought some fruit to snack on

we headed back to the hotel. At this point it was almost 3pm and we were all tired. We laid down for “naps” but ended up staying asleep all night. We woke up at 4:30 the next morning ready to go. FYI, Seattle isn’t up that early. We goofed off in the hotel room until 6 and then headed out to find some breakfast. The market was completely empty. We killed time and let Jackson run around a bunch.

Did I mention that Jackson's gloves were packed in a box that we mailed from Ohio to Japan? He never leaves them on anyways... but we gave him mine because it was pretty cold out! This part was kind of inside so his coat was off, but we wanted to TRY to keep his hands warm... good luck! Actually, he does a better job leaving MY gloves on than he d

One restaurant opened at 7 for breakfast. It had a pretty great view

and also good food (I had salmon lox—I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I had salmon for every meal).

We planned on doing lots of things in Seattle that didn’t happen. The Space Needle was one of them since it was cloudy on Wednesday. We also planned on a tour at Safeco field but the timing didn’t work out right. One thing that DID happen was Bainbridge Island. We took a ferry to the island and had lunch there. We also found a great (read: expensive) ice cream place. Try convincing a 16 month old that the ice cream supply isn’t endless.
We walked everywhere and it was about a 20-block hike to the port for the ferry. It was worse on the way back since it was uphill.

Bainbridge Island was okay, but downtown Seattle was much cooler. The ferry ride was fun and we got some good pictures of downtown on the way back across.

Oh so much traveling--Part 1 (North Carolina/Ohio)

I typed this in Word and it was 5 pages so I decided to break it up into 3 posts. Sorry in advance for being so long-winded. I just had so much updating to do!

We made one last round of visits to our families before the big move. Mike out processed from Little Rock on Thursday, February 6^th. We had already loaded the van and the U-Haul we rented at our house. We also had the dogs in the van ready to go. We left the base at a little after 10:00 headed for North Carolina. The U-Haul was just a small trailer that had some things in it that we were leaving at Mike’s parents’ house for storage while we are in Japan. We planned on stopping for the night at some point between Little Rock and NC. We stopped twice for food and gas and to walk the dogs. I started feeling ready to stop about 10:30. We were supposed to get off I-40 fairly soon so we decided we would just stay at a hotel at that exit. Unfortunately that exit was completely devoid of civilization. All we had were mapquest directions, so continuing on 40 was out of the question since we had no idea how much further it would be before we got to an exit with something at it. (We would later find out that staying on 40 for another 30-40 miles would’ve only added 9 minutes to our trip—the definite better choice!) So we continued on this 2-lane road for 2 ½ hours. The whole time I was still searching for a hotel. By the time we finally saw one we were only 45 minutes from Mike’s parents’ house. We got there about 1:30 am (14 ½ hours after we started). It was nice to not have to deal with the dogs and the baby in a hotel, but man was that a long drive! I don’t know how Mike did it. He had planned on changing into civilian clothes since he had to out process in his uniform, but he was so anxious to get on the road he skipped that step. I figured he’d change at a stop, but he never did. So he drove all that way in his uniform (and boots!). Yuck!

North Carolina was a good visit as usual. The dogs got along really well. Of course Wendy had already met Penny and Sadie before, but it had been a while. And Lexi gets along with everyone. Jada came for a day and brought her dog, Tipsey. Five dogs makes for a pretty crowded household! Jackson had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and getting spoiled rotten.

He had a hard time sleeping since his room didn’t have curtains, but he made it.

One day, Mike and I took him to a nearby playground. He had a BLAST! I did have to be mean to some girl that chose the swing right by where he was standing instead of the swing next to it, then decided to kick him. But other than that, he was great. He loved the swings, the slides, and the DIRT.

We left North Carolina headed for Ohio on Thursday, February 12^th. We left the U-Haul in North Carolina so we could go a little faster, but it also meant all the suitcases were in the back of the van and the dogs had less room. We stacked them on one side to keep them from trying to climb up front. Lexi was fine but on the way to NC, Wendy kept trying to get into the second row with Jackson or up front with me. They had about half of the back of the van to lie down on their beds and were pretty happy for the ride. This drive was m

uch shorter, only about 9 hours. Jackson had a rough time since he doesn’t sleep well in the van (or on planes…) but we made it with no real problems.

Our time in Ohio was pretty busy! Mike and I had to get new driver’s licenses on Saturday. We were there when they opened but we were still there forever! We spent a lot of time with Mimi, Grampers, and OSheila.

Uncle CamCam even made a few appearances. One night, we watched Camden play basketball.

Uncle Don showed us a bunch of his stuff from when he was in Japan 10 years ago. We had dinner with a friend on Saturday night, which was great food. We spent all day Saturday at Don and Sheila’s house. Their niece, Julie, has a son, Tyler that is 6 weeks older than Jackson. They always have a lot of fun when they get together.

As usual, Mike spent a lot of time doing two things: golfing, and playing cards. He doesn’t get a chance to play cards very often, so when he’s around my family he makes the most of his time with fellow card players. And golf, well, that’s just par for the course. (Like my pun? =) One day in Ohio, he even golfed in the SNOW. Yep, I am NOT making that up!!

I convinced everyone to play hand and foot one day. It’s my favorite card game (thanks, Jennie!), but it requires 6 decks. So while we were busy putting decks together from the infamous card basket, Jackson was “helping”.

On Sunday we drove to Kentucky. We had a good visit with Grandpa,

Grammy,

and PaPa.

We hung out at Grammy and PaPa’s house for a while. Jackson was kind of roaming around with Mike behind him. At one point, he found a bowl of apples and picked one up. Before Mike could stop him, he took a bite out of it. They came into the living room and Mike was like, “Umm… can Jackson have an apple? Because he kind of already helped himself.” He didn’t put it down for the rest of the visit.

We left our van with my dad to sell for us. That involved getting some stuff notarized (on a Sunday) which turned out to be a much less painful process than I anticipated. After lunch and notary we headed back to Ohio.

We got to visit with Mark, Christine, Ben, Amanda, and MoMo on Monday night.

Unfortunately, Christine and the kids were out of town and by the time their plane got in, Jackson was already asleep.

It was a little sad to say good-bye to everyone (in Little Rock, North Carolina, AND Ohio/Kentucky), but we knew we’d be back for visits (Jackson and I more so than Mike) and we were all so excited it was hard to be sad for long.