Baby Steps

Armed with a car and my Japanese driver's license, the kids were itching to get off base and explore Japan.  I too was excited but honestly a little nervous to leave the safety of the wider roads with fewer people for the crowded narrow streets of Japan.  Also, an important thing to know about me, if there is something to worry about, I'll worry about it!  Needless to say, I was worried if we got lost, if we broke down, if we were in an accident.... if any one of those things happened we would be at a great disadvantage as we had no phone and only about 20 Japanese words.  Not one to let anything hold me back, a little worry and uncertainty would not be any different so after we dropped Marc off at work we headed off base.

As we pulled out of the gate I cannot adequately express to you the knots in my stomach.  Not only do we not know where we are, we cannot read the signs, we are driving on the opposite side of the tiny narrow roads but how could I not be nervous my first time.  The first road we turned onto was pretty decent in size and our directions were to look for 7-11 and turn right..... then onto a very narrow road.  When we reached the intersection at the 7-11 where we needed to turn, it was a little daunting with the number of cars and the size of the road that instead of crossing the traffic I decided to go up, turn around and make an easier turn onto the road.

7-11 Parking lot

I find a spot to turn around and as I pull out and back onto the road, a fuse in the car blows and we not have no air conditioner, no lights to see our
speed and no turn signals.... see nothing to worry about! :P  Marc had told me this could be a possibility, an unlikely possibility, so you get where I am going with this don't you? The panic that was racing through my mind now affirming my worries and the realization, I didn't pay as close of attention to my sweet husbands instructions as I should have, did I even know which fuse it was!!... and remember no phone, so I could not even call Marc for help if we needed it!  We pulled into the 7-11 parking lot, in the 90 degree temperatures and choking humidity.  Maddie and Trent went to get me a stiff drink, a Coke, to calm my nerves but they had to go together since we were off base and they were both a little uncertain.  I looked under the fuse panel and luckily Marc's directions had been so good that even feeling like I had not paid close enough attention, I was easily able to change out the little fuse by myself.  Phew.  The kids returned with the Coke and we were off again.

$10 for a burger at Mcdonald's

Extra long winding rope line of people going to the movies

The nice thing about having had the little bit of time in the 7-11 parking lot, I had the opportunity to watch other cars navigate the narrow road we were about to drive down.  As I pulled up to turn down the road a car bigger than I was before for me (and remember my cars side mirrors fold in by the touch of a button if needed ;) so that made me more confident.  The road would be similar to what we call an alley in the States but it was crowded with cars, bikes, pedestrians on sidewalks and houses butted right up next to the road.  We drove down the road for about a mile and then we made it to the Aeon (Diamond City) Mall.  The mall opened at 10 so we arrived just a little after they opened and while there were a lot of cars we pretty easily found a parking spot.  We had arrived!!

The first shop we went into was a bike shop, the Japanese love their bikes.  They had some neat bikes so we made a mental note to come back later when we were ready to buy bikes.  Next to the bike store was a grocery store where we saw peaches, wrapped up like peaches but unlike what we were used to, the peaches were $4 each.  There was still so much to see, and we had to be back to pick up Marc, we continued into the main part of the mall.  The mall was filled with 3 full floors of shopping.  There are stores of every type, most stores we do not know but there were a couple we did, most notably The Gap and a 3 level H&M store.

Japanese Holiday celebrating the Sea, this was our prize discount out of the Lucky box at the Gap

Our first outing coincidentally was a Japanese holiday.  There were large numbers of people everywhere.  It was interesting to see some of the T-shirts that the people were wearing.  Back in America you can see people walking around with Japanese of Chinese sayings on their shirts, well in Japan they have American sayings on their shirts but they make no sense like, "So Gut" with a heart next to it.  Makes you wonder what those shirts people back home wear actually say!

The interesting thing about the mall was that you could literally buy anything there. They had groceries, kimonos, sports stores, photography shops, hair accessories, you name it, it was there.  There is also a movie theater and a VERY long line to get in to see the movie, which by the way was Monsters University.  We stopped in the Gap to see if it was similar to stores we had seen before but since it was the holiday they had a lucky box and you drew a percentage off out of it, so that was pretty fun!  At this point we were pretty  hungry so off to the food court we went.

Gabby & Trent wanted sandwiches so Maddie went off to get herself something and I took them to get sandwiches.  In Japan, they have a paper menu for you while you wait in line so that was helpful for me to be able to point to which sandwiches they were wanting.  The girl at the counter was so sweet but the kids just had to take the extra things put on their sandwich because it just seemed easier to pick them off then to try and stop her.  When I got to the cashier to pay, again they had a lucky box for me to draw out of... I picked out a triangle piece of paper and as it's all in Japanese the lady took it to the back and brought me back a pack of sparklers!! How cool to win a pack of sparklers on our first outing!  The next interesting thing is that they have smoking room/sections for people to smoke and eat their lunch.  There are also ashtrays kept on top of the trash cans where you put your tray.  Maddie ended up getting some pot-stickers and some fried rice and it was delicious.  They serve the food in actual dishes so when you are done you take the tray, dishes and chopsticks back up to the counter you bought the food from and they clean it up there.  It is actually a pretty neat idea!

Our lucky box prize of sparklers! The kids were VERY excited!

Directions even American's can understand

It was time for us to head back to the base and pick up Marc so we made our way back to the car.  This time when we got outside we could truly see it was a holiday and the parking lot was full and in fact we had a lady waiting for us to leave so she could take our spot!  We pretty easily made it back to the base and as soon as we made it back through the gate, it was like, "phew, we made it! Our first outing was a success!!  .... And Marc is taking the car in today to have the fuse issue fixed!

Some beautiful paper cards and envelopes we bought

Pet shop at the mall... Puppies sell for about 1800 Yen.. or $180

Who knew how much they loved R2D2 here in Japan?? We have yet to see 3CPO or Princess Leia!

    

Have Wheels Will Travel

Lots of room

Finally, we have wheels!!!  Marc was able to get us a car pretty quickly and what a blessing after not having one!  We bought a Toyota FunCargo and while it may seem small compared to what we are used to in the States, I have to tell you, it's pretty roomy on the inside!  .... Or as Maddie said, "Now I get how they put so many clowns in those cars!" :)

2 sunroofs

There are some cool features about this car, like, there are two sunroofs and that is pretty sweet!  There is indeed lots of room on the inside.  Each of the back seats can be taken out individually or all together to

Japanese GPS with tilt monitor

make more room in the back of the car.  Our car also has tinted windows and a Japanese GPS (sure we can't read it but we can see the street numbers).  Another cool feature of our car is that by one touch of a button the car's side mirrors fold flat into the car, which is probably a necessary feature with such narrow streets.   When I say narrow streets, I mean nar-row streets!

At this point, I'll just let the pictures do the talking, but how could you not love something named FunCargo?  I did mention our car has incredible gas mileage and was only $1495 right? :) 

door opens out and the seats are each removable

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!