Seeing the island

Since we are now professional drivers, we ventured out in our soon-to-be-owned "blue banger".  Cars here are all VERY used and VERY old and, quite frankly, VERY ugly.  I thought it was unsexy to drive a mini-van in the States, but behind the wheel of the blue banger I feel as close to nun status as a non-Catholic can get.  Ah, the sacrifices we make for the military...

We drove up island in as strait a line as possible so we didn't get lost or hit.  Found some neat beaches, lots of interesting looking, albeit mystery, shops and restaurants until we got into the resorts.  We pulled off at a sign for a lighthouse, but ended up on this short cliff walk with some spectacular views of the water and the rock formations caused by the waves.  The water is incredibly colored bues, aqua and green and clear, clear, clear.

This morning we received the phone call from the housing office to say they had two units for us to look at.  The way it works is that they give you two empty units to look at and you get to say yay or nay to them.  If you like neither, they give you two more to look at.  If you don't like those, you get put back on the waiting list.  Needless to say, I have been quite anxious.  I think I said that we visited our friend's unit, which if offered to me in the States I would run away from, but here consider it to be quite nice.  The housing office, true to military protocol, would not let us request that unit even though they are moving out on August 8th.  I also learned that there was another unit in their same quadplex that was open, but was told yesterday that it had been offered out to someone else.  Well, this morning they offered us that unit!  Yeah!!!  So we should be able to move in next week, although I'm not sure when our stuff will be here.  Haven't heard about that yet.

Today we went with my friend and our soon-to-be neighbors to another Army base where there was a cool water slide and splash pad right on this beautiful tropical beach.  Seems like there are lots of tropical beaches to explore.  Stevie ventured out on his own and found a bike shop and bought himself a new bike.  He says it's instead of a car (cost about as much as a car over here!), I say wait until the first Typhoon hits and then he'll reconsider not buying a car!

"It's like chewing a squishy rubber band."

Yes, that was London's description of eating octopus sushi.  Which is actually a very good description of it.  Stevie foiled my meatloaf dinner by bringing home a platter of sushi, sake and "sand cakes".  Biddy was very enthusiastic and dug right into the stuff eating fish egg (didn't like that one too much), salmon, octopus and some other kind of fish sushi.  Way to go Biddy!  He wanted to try the sake, but didn't get away with that one!  The sand cakes are some kind of dessert cake with what looks to be a cinnamon sugar topping, but the only word in English on the wrapper is sand.  So we're calling them the sand cakes.  Cannon and Emmy were not so adventurous and stuck with the meatloaf.

Today, Stevie and I took the driving test - a written test - and passed!!!  We thought the kids were going to have to sit in the room with us while we took the test, but a Marine drill intructor and a Special Forces soldier volunteered to watch them for us while we went inside.  Normally I would be a little nervous leaving my kids with strangers, but somehow I figured it was going to be ok.  Emmy and London happily attacked the Special Forces guy with their rubber lizards unaware that the guy was trained to kill a man at least 10 different ways!  Thankfully, he didn't opt to use those skills on the kids.

So now we're considered "professional drivers" by the Japanese government.  With many, many warnings not to speed, hit any one, or drink and drive, they sent us off to drive on the opposite side of the road.  I still haven't tried it, but Stevie took the helm right away and navigated us to the housing office.  Unfortunately, we didn't have as good as luck there and were told that they are still working on our file...  I am very nervous about this one thing as I know how important a home can be and some of the places on the bases look, well, worse than the projects.

Day 4 and 5 and 6

Whoops, getting caught up in things already so I haven't sent emails.  On Monday Stevie had to go check in to the hospital so the kids and I made another trek to the Starbucks (by request of the kids! They have a really good lemon green tea frappaccino) and then to what we were told is the place most like Walmart.  That wouldn't be my description.  More like a department store full of little individual stores.  There was a whole aisle of rice cookers!  That afternoon we all settled in for a nice long nap so I can now say we have adjusted to the time.

Tuesday we were told we all had to attend a "housing class" and then would be able to look at potential houses.  Well, we got there at 7:30 am and then were told there wasn't room for the kids.  So I ended up in the lobbying entertaining the kids for an hour and a half!  And then we were told to call back on Thursday for the houses.  Oh well...  the kids and I spent the afternoon baking at the pool and talking to some other folks about to leave.  I was drilling them for all the good info and recommendations they could give.  That night we tried a Korean barbeque restaurant (home of the previously sent "dancing family" sign).  We had a great time cooking our food and then figuring out what we were eating!  A bit risky taking a 2 year old to a restaurant with an open flame in the middle of the table, but it was fun.  I have to say that the kids have been really adventurous and accepting of all the new things we're throwing at them.  Right down to the seaweed soup.

Today's adventure took us to the mandatory "newcomer's class".  The bus picked us up at 6:10 (yes that is AM!)  I was prepared to be in a day long class with all three kids, but was relieved to find out that there was room for child care for Cannon and London.  Emmy had to stay with us, but she was perfect.  Nine hours of grueling lectures by all kinds of agencies and such and she never made a peep.  We learned all about what not to do, what to do, how to drive, what not to touch (snakes, centipedes, spiders), and especially, don't drink and drive.  Apparently they take drinking and driving really seriously here.  The day was capped by a speech by the General.  He was definitely a don't-mess-with-me-hard-core-Marine.  I'll try to steer clear of him!

Must sign off now so that I can study for my driver's license test!  Feel like I'm 16 again!

Oh yeah, I promised you the toilet picture.  The attached picture is of our toilet in our "Japanese-style" flat.  Note the efficiency of the toilet and sink all in one.  Does make you wonder how clean your hands are getting knowing that you're washing them in toilet water!

 

Day 3

Day 3 we spent with a family (Ryan and Rebecca and their kids) that we knew from Virginia that have been here for 3 years.  They have been a really big help already in answering questions through email and today we met with them for brunch - a swanky deal at the Officer's Club on one of the bases.  They then showed us their house - a quadplex that was, quite honestly, not as bad as I thought it would be.  But I thought it was going to be really bad.  It definitely is a far cry from our Newport News house, but it had a distant view of the ocean! (I'm trying to find positives here...)

Afterward we went to a park to expend some of the pent up energy of the kids.  They haven't been outside much.  You see, it is bloody hot here.  I thought it couldn't be hotter than Houston in the summer, but I think it is.  So we lasted about 20 minutes before melting back into the car.  They had these pretty cool slides which, as Rebecca said, would require a helmet in the States.

They also took us car shopping and to the commisary.  Most food prices look about the same, just the fresh fruit that was a shocker.  Being that we're in a tropical location, I assumed that fruit would be plentiful and cheap.  Not so much.  One mango was $5.62.  And a watermellon was $20.00.  Each.  I guess I won't be eating mango or watermellon for the next 2 years!

My big accomplishment of the day included figuring out the washing machine.  See picture for the directions I had to work with.  But enough button pushing and persistence netted clean (at least smelling!) clothes.

Unfortunately for my arachnaphobia, we also discovered the biggest spider in the wild I've ever seen.  Apparently it's a banana spider and it's "harmless".  I don't think the same would be said about me if I came in contact with it in the house.  I remember seeing these on Hilton Head, but they grow them bigger over here.  We have named it "Muffin" (after banana nut muffin) and say hi to it everytime we pass.  My plan is to make friends with it so it won't attack.

I think that's all for now.  I'll leave the nifty toilet picture for tomorrow! (A teaser, just to keep you coming back...)

Day 2

Well, I recind what I said about the kids adjusting to Okinawa time.  It was a long night when from 2:30 on Emmy and Cannon were convinced that it was time to get up.  Stevie and London thankfully slept well.  Mommy, not so much.
 
You would have laughed to see us all traipsing down the street at 6:50 AM, though, in search of finding coffee and breakfast! (See attached photo - note Steve's intense look for coffee!)  Seems like most Japanese stores and restaurants are not open at that time...  We had to revert to our American ego and go to Starbucks!  We will eat Japanese food today!!!!  (Dinner last night was a PB&J or cereal - it was all we had in the house and we were too tired to go out.)

My dad always spoke of the funny signs in Japan and already we have had some good laughs.  The Japanese use pictures to depict what warning signs are saying, I suppose for those not understanding the characters of their language.  So, say they want to warn you not to put your fingers in between the elevator doors as they close, they show a picture of a man with a crab hanging off of his finger superimposed with a big red circle with a line through it!  I unfortunately did not have my camera available to take a picture of it!
 
They also have signs that just call out for funny bi-lines because you have no idea what they mean.  Like these attached... Cannon thinks the family are wearing their pajamas on one side of the sign and their clothes on the other!  I tried to explain that the "pajamas" are kimono.

And then the trailer that adverstised "kids" and "used", hmmm...

 By the way, the Hamagawa Lodge is where we are staying.