2 weeks in Japan!

Yup, its been two weeks already. Can you believe it? I can't!

So what have we been up to? Well Friday was a sad day for Dereck's squadron, as they had a memorial service for a young man to had passed away. This tragedy happened right when we first got here so we had not met this man yet, but we still felt the sadness as we saw our new friends mourn his loss. I attended the squadron gathering after the memorial and met a few more people in Dereck's squadron, then we just spent the night in having some drinks at a friend's apartment. We didn't really feel like exploring Japan that evening.

Saturday was pretty relaxing, though that night we did go out for dinner at a Japanese Viking, which is a buffet style restaurant. Our friend Russ drove us the 10-15 minutes to the place and after a bit of a wait we ended up with a table. The table has a little grill in the middle of it, where we can cook our own meat and veggie choices. Notice the squid to the right... that was Dereck's! haha

The buffet also had sushi (I only had one eel roll...it looked sketchy to me), some fried foods and noodles, and desserts.

All in all, it was pretty good, but not my favorite of the places we have been so far. Dereck and our friend Russ really enjoyed it though! I did like the selection of Japanese desserts though. They are less sweet than American desserts so you feel like you can eat more of them! Uh oh... that might be bad... haha

Sunday marked the first day of a week long exercise on base where they prepare for certain emergency situations. Dereck has had very random duties during the past few days, since he is not yet able to fly here, he can't do any of the flight drills. So he's had very random hours which have kept us from doing too much the last few days.

A big thing for me has been that on Monday I had a meeting with the coordinator/liaison for a Japanese Military English School called Camp Kodaira. It looks like I will be a substitute for a while, and then at the end of August, I will have my own weekly class. I am very excited and will learn more about it tomorrow during another meeting. I'll keep you all updated as I know more! But it looks like I'll have a job (even if it's only once a week) so that makes me pretty happy!

Also, sorry to those who have been asking about our car. I have not gotten around to taking pictures of it yet, but I hope to do so soon and have a whole post about our car and driving in Japan!

Sayonara!

New House: Part 1

We have moved into our new house here in Japan! I labeled this post as "Part 1" because the pictures I will have on here are NOT what our house will look like after we get our stuff delivered and I decide on a paint scheme. But since so many people are curious and want to know, I decided to do a post so you can all get the gist of what our new home is like.
This is the outside of our house.

Its actually more like a southern style apartment complex, where there are two floors and outside entrances into the home. There are a total of 8 homes in our building, that are all labeled as 1A, 2A etc. We are 1C, so we are on the first floor. This was HUGE for us because it means we have a yard. (More on the yard later... its the best part of the house!). We have met our neighbors across from us, Jose and Silvia, in house 1D and they are very nice. Silvia is 7 months pregnant so that means there will be a baby close by soon. That's fun! Our neighbors who we share a wall with, in 1B- Gabe and Melinda, are very nice as well. They brought over some fresh baked cookies and homemade beer as a housewarming gift. They have a yellow lab that always gets excited whenever Marty goes outside. Can't wait to get them together to play soon! Gabe is also in the squadron with Dereck.

The door of our home enters directly into the living room, and we have an outdoor storage room as well. Eventually our name will be on the nameplate and I can't wait for that! It might seem small, but for me it screams "permanent home"... and after the moves we've had in the last year, that is HUGE for us.

Like I mentioned, the living room is directly when you enter into the home. The furniture you see in the picture is all loaner furniture that we are allowed to have until TMO delivers all our belongings. These pictures were all taken right after our small shipment came, so there is still some stuff laying around in a mess, but at least now we have a TV, some pots and pans, and our own bedding and towels to use! Here is a picture series that shows the living room area:

The doors at the end of the living room go to the two bedrooms (one on the left, one on the right) and the bathroom (in the middle). Turning to the left will bring you into the dining room and kitchen. We chose to use the smaller bedroom on the right as our master for two reasons. Number one is that it does not get morning sun, which is great for sleeping in! Number two is that we have more furniture we want to fit in the extra bedroom over what we have in the master (at least for a while) so we'd rather use the larger room to fit everything. Here are some photos of the rooms... first, the Spare Bedroom.

Its nice because the house has a total of 4 large storage closets... one huge wall unit in each bedroom, a hall closet leading to the dining room, and a "pantry" closet.
Now the Bathroom:

Master bedroom- See the fence out the window? That's the backyard... another reason we used the smaller room as the master, we see the yard and not the parking lot when we have an open window. Much nicer!

Now here is the small hallway into the dining room and our dining room/kitchen area. 

We are loving our new kitchen so far, there are SO many cabinets that we don't even need to use the pantry (which is why I now view it as another closet). The only downside is that the kitchen is completely closed off to the living area, so entertaining will be a little different than what we are used to, but that's okay. Here is the kitchen area (and laundry).

And now onto our favorite part of the house, our backyard. We have a sliding glass door that opens onto our patio. We do not have an awning like some of the yards do, but we realized that even the evening sun only comes about 1/2 way up the patio, so we won't need the sun shade so much. What we do have, that a lot of homes do not, is a huge fence. I'd say about 1/3 of the yards have fences so having a fence at all is great. But ours is about twice as large as most. Notice where the neighbors back fence line cuts off, that's typical. So we have a HUGE yard with two gorgeous trees in it. We love it! We can't wait to start a garden later this spring.

As you can see, we already picked up some planters (only $15 for all of it!) from some people moving so we have a little head start on the planting. Can't wait to really make it "ours".

That goes for the whole house too. We have so much wedding stuff that we have yet to be able to use, I can't wait to see it! Our furniture and all our things will start to really make this feel like home, but for now we are grateful to have a place to live and some loaner furniture to use. I will update you all when we do some painting, and for sure when we get it all set up later this spring!

Ome Plum Blossoms

This past Sunday, Dereck and I were able to go to a Plum Blossom viewing in the nearby city of Ome (said like "Oh-may"). Our friend Chelsea who we have been staying with set up the trip and a few of her friends came along as well. We got to use the train system to get there, and it was fun to have another experience doing that. It only took about 30 minutes to get to Ome and then we had to figure out where to go from there. Its a big local tourist attraction so there were some police officers that were at corners and helped to kinda point us in the right direction. We followed these signs that had a blossom on them with a little red arrow (even though we couldn't read the writing) and came to a little garden. It was cute, and there were some blossoms, but it definitely was not a "tourist attraction". We doubled back on the street we went on and came across a Japanese tour group marching along the road. We stepped in with the back of the group and were successfully lead to the blossom garden. All the streets in Japan twist and turn all the time, and with the buildings built up to at a minimum of 2 levels, you can't see where you want to go at all. So we were happy to find the tour group to follow!

Once we turned a corner and the blossoms came into view we knew we were in the right place! They smelled so good from a distance so we knew that up close they would be amazing. The trees grew up this hill and down in a little valley and the park had a bunch of trails that would weave all over. The valley was surrounded by these huge pine trees that reminded me a lot of home in northern Minnesota. It was 200 yen to get into the park (around $2) and totally worth a lot more than that! The trails were wet from a big rain the night before but they are well kept so it wasn't too bad (or dangerous). We all got a good working walking up and down so many steps that day! My favorites were the trees that looking like they were spilling over, almost like a waterfall, and the ones that had bright pink blossoms.

See the mountains and the city in the background? And the plum blossoms are in the middle of the forest? how cool is that?

These "waterfall" trees were some of my favorites!

On our way back to the train station a bunch of vendors were open and selling their goods and food. Dereck got a mochi ball, which is a rice paste with some sweet bean paste and his happened to have some sort of fruit in the middle as well. He really liked it! I bought a rice past pancake that also had sweet bean in it and it was also very good. Dereck bought what he thought was chicken friend on a stick, and when he bit into it, it turned out to be hard boiled eggs (and not chicken eggs, because they were tiny!). He actually liked that too!

On our way back to base we stopped at lunch at a place that served "american" food...but with their Japanese twist. I ordered some "Tex-Mex Teriyaki Tacos" that came with teriyaki chicken, avacado, cabbage, and mayo on them. Very NOT "Tex-Mex" but actually quite good! Dereck's shrimp sandwhich had salsa on it though- kinda funny.

So that was our day at the Plum Blossoms! Here are few more pictures for you.

Sensory Overload!

So the last few days in Japan have been crazy. I have enjoyed myself but have described it as being in "Sensory Overload". One of the major differences that affects me daily is that in Japan you drive on the left side of the road. This makes a simple trip from one side of the base to another an experience! We did not get our drivers licenses until today (and have yet to actually drive) but even just riding around with friends it makes your heart skip a beat to turn out in what should be in front of oncoming traffic, to realize that we are actually okay. Its so strange. I'm sure to have a "driving in Japan" post once I actually get behind the wheel of a car.

Another difference is feeling so foreign. As soon as we step off base I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb. Of course, my bewildered expression probably doesn't help that much either. All around me is another language, which I have yet to understand (and probably wont even after trying to learn it in the 3 years I am here). And even on base you hear Japanese all the time. A lot of Japanese Nationals are employed in base; from the housing office to the BX, there will be Japanese Nationals working there. I have already gotten accustomed to using "Arigato Gozaimasu" for my "thank you very much" when ordering/paying/etc. Thank you will probably start to sound strange after a while.

One thing that is different, but FANTASTIC, is how clean and nice the city has been so far. We have only ventured out in the immediate area, but for it being so crowded and with so many buildings, its so surprising to see the streets so clean. The trains are immaculate and the stores I have been in so far are very well taken care of, clean, and open. Its great! I would have thought a big crowded city with something in your view every direction you turn would look sloppy, but it really doesn't. Its actually quite nice!

I will try to post a blog about both driving and the train system once I am more familiar with the two. So far my experiences have been good, but it still feels so new and strange that I don't think I could write a good blog about it right now!

So for now its, Sayonara!

Japan or Bust!

We are safe in sound in Japan and really enjoying things! It was a long trip and we are so excited that its finally over. I outlined our general travel plan in my last post “Moving Out” but I figured I’d write about how things went. Sorry it’s taken so long to update! Its been a very busy couple of days here at Yokota and I just haven’t found the time to sit down, upload pictures, and get everything together. But hopefully I’ll catch up over the next few nights! And as I mentioned, it was a long trip, so it’s gonna be a long blog.  Sorry but there is no way to make it short and adequately describe our trip. So… anyways, here it is, the travel blog!

Travel Day 1: Corpus Christi to Seattle
Dereck and I, along with his parents, were up bright and early to get everything loaded up and the apartment cleaned out. We made two trips to the airport in order to fit all our stuff in the car, then a second trip for the dog and to load the folks’ stuff in for their roadtrip back home. The kink came when we were waiting by the American Airlines check-in counter and they said that the dog would have to be moved onto a different flight. I immediately was upset because we had confirmed a few days prior that the dog had a reservation on the flight. But apparently two cats were dropped off to fly cargo (meaning their owners were NOT on the plane with them) and they arrived before us, therefore bumping Marty off the flight due to their 2 pet rule on the small planes. I was fuming! Dereck managed to get our flights changed to match the flights the dog would be on, but that meant another 4 hours waiting in the airport. I was pretty upset, but happy at least we could be on the same flights as the dog. Below is a picture of all our luggage waiting in Corpus to be checked in:

We said goodbye to Dereck’s parents and sent them on their way. Finally it was time to head to the security… and to put the dog into his crate for the flight. I was doing okay until we walked away towards security and Marty started yelping and barking so loudly the whole airport could here him. It broke my heart and I broke down crying. I was a bit embarrassed but I couldn’t help it! Every bark sounded like “please don’t leave me!” and “why don’t you love me?”. I calmed down after we no longer heard him, and felt a lot better once I saw his crate get loaded onto our plane. Then I knew he was coming with. Yes, I even took pictures of this! His kennel is on the ground (you can see the tan top of it) and that's our suitcase going up the belt:

We got to Dallas with no issues, ate some food on our layover, and I stressed about Marty’s crate getting lost in the abyss of the airport. Again, the stress level went down after I saw his crate loaded onto the plane, so then it was smooth sailing to Seattle. Marty was so excited to see us and in a very happy mood when we took him out of his crate. I loved how seeing us made him so happy, it made me feel good. I didn’t completely traumatize him by making this trip, and that was a relief.
My friend Geatano picked us up and we went to his place to stay the night. Marty met his dog Jasper and they had fun running around and playing together. We grabbed a late dinner at a great micro-brewery in Mukilteo and called it a night.

Travel Day 2: Seattle

Since our flight to Japan did not require us to be at the airport until Saturday night, we were able to spend a very fun day in the city with my friend Gaetano. He brought us to Pike Place Market that morning and we spent most of the morning and early afternoon exploring downtown.

We headed to his favorite micro-brewery for a late lunch and were joined by our friends Matt and Orly who recently moved to the area as well. It was fun to see them and to introduce my friends to each other as well.

After that we headed back up to Gaetano’s place to exercise the dog before the long flight. We took Marty (and Gaetaon brought his dog Jasper as well) to a beach park on the sound that was very beautiful. The dogs had a lot of fun running around and playing and we were surprised how we had to keep Marty out of the water!

We checked in at Sea-Tac around 7:30pm that night  (the chartered Military flight requires very early check-in) and they allowed us to  let the dog hang out for a few more hours. It was boring but I’m happy we didn’t have to get him into the crate til 9:30pm. He started barking again, same as in Corpus Christi, but stopped after just a few minutes. I was confident he would get on this flight (due to the small amount of people at the airport at this late hour, and that every person at the terminal was on the same flight).

Travel Day 3: Seattle to Japan 
Our flight left around 1am Pacific time so it was actually Sunday morning. The first leg brought us to Anchorage, Alaska, Our seats were in the last section of the plane, which was a 757, and we had a window seat and a middle seat, which we switched off and on during the trip to Japan. The flight to Alaska was about 2.5 hours and we got to watch The Blindside and eat a dinner, so we didn’t sleep at all.  Once we got there where we had a 2 hour layover, but we decided to stay on the plane and sleep. The plane was refueled and re-catered during this time and soon we were back in the air and headed to Japan.

The next leg of our trip was from Anchorage to Misawa AB in northern Japan.  It was about a 7.5 hour flight, and we traded off eating (they fed us twice…), watching movies, and sleeping.  It was dark most of the way until the last 1.5 hours of the trip, so sleeping was a lot easier. Plus since it was about 4am pacific time when we took off, all the kids were exhausted and passed out. Dereck watched the movie State of Play while I slept, then he woke me up when G-Force came on the screen. It was actually quite funny because I have wanted to see this movie about guinea pigs FBI agents for months and Dereck, obviously, will not watch it with me. He shook me awake and was like “Jane, you have to get up now…“ and scared me half to death. I thought something bad was happening. It was funny. I watched that movie (all the kids were still asleep, so I think I was the only person watching this movie…) while Dereck slept. Then after that was Harry Potter, which we both slept through most of.  It started becoming daylight and soon we started to descend into Japan. I think it was about 3pm pacific time but it was around 6:30 am in Misawa. It was cool to see the ocean moving and land approaching. Perhaps the coolest thing was that I noticed a dark shadow in the water, then suddenly there was a white splash, and then the shadow was there again. It was a whale!! I saw a whale out of the plane! I knew I wasn’t seeing things to because the guy in front of me saw it too.  It was amazing.

We all had to deboard the plane and hang out in the passenger terminal at Misawa for over 3 hours while they serviced the plane. For some passengers this was their final stop, and then we were going to be taking some new passengers on. The great surprise on this stop was that they unloaded the pets and brought them into the terminal (it might have had something to do with it being about 25 degrees outside!)  and they allowed the owners to take them out for a while. I went to go see Marty and was surprised to see that all the other pets were cats. Poor guy didn’t even have one of his own to hang out with on the flight! I was also surprised, and this time pleasantly surprised, to see that after approximately 16 hours in his crate, Marty’s bedding was dry and clean. What a good dog! I took him out and ran him around in the snowy area outside the terminal. He was so happy to be out of his kennel and playing with me. I didn’t want to put him back in, but I knew he only had about 5 more hours until he was out for good. Plus this time he didn’t bark when I left so that was a relief.

After what seemed like forever, we finally boarded the plane again to head to Yokota. The flight was only about an hour and we were flying over mountains almost the whole time. Once the mountains stopped we passed about 20 golf courses which I found so strange, since they were all so close together! Who needs that many golf courses?

We landed at Yokota and it took about an hour to get our passports checked in (I have my 1st stamp!) and to get the dog registered with the vet. Finally we wheeled our luggage out of the restricted area and into the terminal. Waiting for us was our sponsor, Rob, and our new friend Chelsea, who we will be staying with until we get into our house. Also there were our friends Beth and Tyler who had arrived a few months before us, so it was good to see them. We got all our stuff loaded into cars and headed across base to Chelsea’s to get all settled in.

I’ll put the rest into another post, since this one is long enough already! Sayonara!

movin' out!

So we are down to our last day here in Corpus Christi. Tomorrow starts our move to Japan, with a trip to Seattle, WA. Right now Dereck's parents are in town and they will help send us off at the airport tomorrow, then drive our car up to Minnesota and keep it for us while we are in Japan. In the last few days we have cleaned the apartment, had some fun around town with the folks (including yummy seafood and antique shopping!) and we even managed to pack all our last belongings into our 4 suitcases, 2 backpacks, a laptop case, and my purse... I'm impressed.

Tomorrow will include and early rise, around 6:00 am, following by two trips to the airport (yes, we don't have a big enough car to fit all our luggage, 4 adults, and a dog in it at once...), and two flights. Our first flight is from Corpus Christi to Dallas/Ft. Worth. We are there about 1.5 hours then we depart for Seattle. Assuming no delays *knock on wood!* the dog will be in the kennel less than 10 hours for the whole trip. Hopefully he handles it well!

In Seattle my good friend Geatano will be picking us up at the airport and letting us stay with him that evening. Geatano and I were interns together a few years ago with Boeing and have kept in touch, so it will be fun to see him again! We have most of the day on Saturday free so we plan to go to Pike Place Market and maybe see the Space Needle. Then we are going to head to a brewery for lunch (Seattle is known for its many local micro-brews!) and hopefully meet up with our friends Matt and Orly sometime that day as well.

We will be back to the airport on Saturday night to check in for our flight to Japan. We are taking "the Rotator" as the AF calls it, which is a chartered commercial flight that will fly directly onto the base in Japan. This will save us another 3+ hour journey from if we had to fly into Narita International, plus who knows how much trouble getting the dog through customs (even though he has ALL required paperwork!). However, the flight is not non-stop, as we will be picking up people in Alaska and northern Japan as well. This will make it about a 19 hour flight. I'm cringing thinking about it... but what can we do?

Meeting us at the airport will be our new friend Chelsea (this makes Air Force spouse #3 named Chelsea...), who we will be staying with for a while. She is awesome and is offering us (including Marty!) a place to stay while we get settled into housing. We are sooooooo grateful to her! Also we might have our friend Beth, who was in training with Dereck in Little Rock, and possibly a few other people we know there depending on their flight schedules. Its crazy to think that I know more people in Japan than I knew when moving to college in Florida, or even when I moved to San Antonio. It'll be good to see them all again (and meet some of them for the first time in person!)
So that's the agenda for the next few days! I'll make sure to post a blog about the trip (and photos too hopefully) depending on when we can get internet connection. Who knows, if the airport has it for free then there might be an 'en-route' post as well!!

Sayonara!