Nomads No More

Finally we're home!! The last couple of weeks have been challenging living out of suitcases, and the last few days even more difficult with no phones, no car and no real place that we belonged, but finally, we are home.  It was somewhat of a feat getting into the house as we had to get all of our luggage from the temporary house we were staying in and our home which was all the way on the other side of the base.  Our sponsor, Robo, would not be able to take all of our luggage without taking several trips (I should have taken a picture of all of our luggage) but luckily I had joined a group on Facebook and had the contact information for a guy on base who had a truck.  I sent an email to Scot and turns out he was able to come over at 7:30 in the morning and help transport our luggage to our house (we had to meet the housing people for the keys at 8).  It was truly fantastic that Scot had a flat bed type of truck (sure it was more of a miniature version then we are used to in the States but pretty much everything is here in Japan) the sides of the bed of the truck folded down and all of our luggage fit in the back....winning!  The only slight problem we ran into was that Scot could only take himself plus 2 people in his truck.  Trent and Marc rode over in the truck with Scot and Gabby, Maddie and I were going to take the base shuttle.  That was an easy choice we will find our way and leave the heavy lifting to the guys! :) 

Gabby loves our palm tree

It was another hot, humid 90+ degree day and although it was early in the morning, you could feel the stickiness from the humidity on your skin.  The shuttle started at 8AM but we had no idea where from so we waited for about 20 minutes at the stop before the shuttle arrived.  The air conditioning inside of the shuttle (which truly looks more like a van with about 4 rows of seats) was a welcomed relief from outside.  The next challenge for the girls and I was going to be to figure out where our house was and how to get there from the nearest bus stop, while never having actually even been to that side of the base yet.

View towards our house from adjacent lot

Luckily we were armed with a map and women with a map is a dangerous thing, because as you know, we're not afraid to use them.  ;)  As we wound around the base and closer to what appeared to be the nearest bus stop we said, "next stop" and said domo arigato to our Japanese driver.  It is funny how awkward it feels at first but the more you use simple phrases the less awkward you feel.  Once we got off the shuttle the air hit us like a brick wall.  By this time it was about 9AM and we now had to walk the rest of the way with no real point of reference.  We did know we would know we were at the right place when we came across the house with our name on it, so that was a minor consolation because we could not call anyone if we did end up getting lost. 

Back Patio

We found the street pretty easily and the neighborhood was considerably nicer than the temporary housing that we had been staying in so that was pretty exciting to us!  We walked past a little park and Gabby was already making plans to go down there to play and make new friends.  We came to a little split in the road and knew our house should be the next home.  Our house is on a lot that used to be the former Wing Commander's house.  The nice part of this lot having been the former Wing Commander's, is that directly adjacent to our house is a big grass area for the kids to play and we don't have to maintain the lawn there so that is a win-win situation!  There is also a plaque in the yard there that talks about the guests that used to be entertained here and one of them was Bob Hope, so that is pretty neat. 

As we walked up to the house the movers were just puling off and we saw the house sign and Marc, YAY, we finally were home.  To commemorate the moment Maddie took a picture of us in front of the house (sorry Dad no American flag yet as we had not been out to buy one and hang it yet... still no car and we just got here).  The house was just remodeled right before we moved in so everything is nice and new and spacious and there is air conditioning, we were all so happy!  The kitchen is bright and open with a good amount of counter space, under cabinet lighting and 2 refrigerators! I am not sure why there are 2 refrigerators but perhaps this was an example of communication lost in translation, I can just imagine the Japanese people installing them thinking crazy American's needing 'side by side' refrigerators!  Whatever the case, we are using one as a beverage fridge and with the heat everyone is needing to stay hydrated so it is a nice luxury. 

Living Room/Dining Room

 

Front Door

The front door opens to an entryway and then into the living room.  There is a half bath in the entry way along with a coat closet.  The living room and dining room are one big room on the backside of the kitchen.  One nice feature of the living room/dining room is there are 6 sliding glass doors.  There are 3 sets of windows on each side which can opened together or independently.  The kitchen also has doors to the entry way, the dining room and then one to the storage room, pantry and a separate mud room which has the washer/dryer and a door outside.  Down the hallway on the other side of the entryway are 3 bedrooms (one for each kid) and a shared bathroom for them.  At the end of the hall is our master bedroom which is very roomy with 2 large windows and a walk in closet.  There is also a master bath with a large soaking tub.

Our Side by Side Refrigerator...s

Our Kitchen

At the far end of adjacent lot is a basketball hoop

The yard care is for each residence to take care of, but in the case of our house no one has lived here for a little more than 9 months while it was being remodeled so we do have some yard work to do but that is exciting for us.  There are no garages but we do have a little car port, everything is certainly smaller than back in the states but there is plenty of room for us.  Our house is pretty spacious as far as Japanese homes are concerned, it's a little more than 1800 sq ft. 

Gabby sleeping in her temp bed and her dolls sleeping in the one she made for them <3

Our stuff should be here by August 19th, Maddie is looking forward to her birthday (which is Aug 19th) and getting her bed!  We are so grateful that while our stuff is not here yet they have given us some loaner furniture in the interim.  I just cannot express how great it is to finally be in a home again, everyone is so happy!!  Next on the agenda...... a car!