Japan Here We Come!

Japan Here We Come!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Japan Beginning

We arrived in Japan on July 18th, 2013. We flew out on July 17th from San Diego to LA. Lucky for us we were able to drop of our car right at the San Diego airport b/c the next day Jordan (my brother) was going to fly in and take it for us. (Unfortunately for him we were not able to communicate to him that the key to start the car was inside the van, the key we left would only open the door--sorry Jordan!)

The kids did great on the flight. Every seat had a tv connected to it where you could  watch movies, play games etc. Kept the kids entertained for about 10 of the 12 hours. I'll have to post pics of the train ride later (the cord to the camera is MIA).

We arrived at the airport at 3:15pm Japan time, which was about 11:15 pm our time. We were met by our sponsor Doug Cragin and we will always be grateful to him. He had a van for our luggage and his own van for us to drive in. We tried to keep the kids awake, but we oursleves were having a tough time staying awake.
We arrived in to the Navy Lodge (our home for possibly the next month) around 5:30 or 6:00. Doug's wife Rose was there with some groceries and snacks for the kids for when they woke up at 2;00 in the morning. Also a whole basket full of activities, snacks and useful Japan items from the Oakleaf club (medical spouse club). It was a welcome gift and we were very grateful for it when the kids woke up at 12:00 midnight. It got better, the next night was 2:00, then 4:00, now they wake up pretty regular around 7:00. We are adjusted! Yeah!!!

The day after we got here we went into the housing office to see what they had to offer us. It was a four bedroom townhouse in Ikego (20 min drive) a housing base. Tom put that we need a 5 bedroom b/c of the ages and sexes of our kids. Luckily the housing office agreed and so we got to look off base. We have decided on a house and are waiting for the inspection and housing papers to go through. Hopefully we will be in it in two weeks at the longest. It has a tatami room and no oven or dishwasher, but we are excited to live in a truly Japanese house. I have tried to add a link to the house and cant figure it out--sorry, but try to map Japan, Kanagawa prefecture, Yokosuka,  shioirichio, 3 We are next to a shrine (marked by a swastika) and a community center, across from a hospital (marked by cross).  

The first week in Japan you take a class everyday on base rules, traffic safety, japanese culture etc. The kids go to child care and had their own adventures. They went to the Nissan factory, swimming and movies. It was nice to spend a week with Tom all day every day, I didn't even get tired of him. Part of our Japanese culture class was to take a train ride up to Kamakura (the old capital of Japan during the Shogun era). We took Emma and Mattie with us. This is them at the first gate. We have more pics, that we will post later, but we had a great time.
 The other most amazing thing here in Japan is the food. We love it! Even our picky kids are finding great things. We have the video of the go around sushi, the kids love that. Below is a picture of Mattie eating yakiniku. It is Korean bbq and you really do cook it right in front of you. We all enjoyed it, even vegetarian Tom who had the sauce with rice. We had some excellent indian food with nan bread bigger than  the plate, Ramen is also excellent here. There is still a lot we want to try and are looking forward to our time here and all the great stuff we get to try.


One of our other favorite finds is the 100 Yen store. It is awesome! It is much like the dollar store except the stuff is actually good quality. We are excited to get a house to set it up with some of the 100 yen stuff. 
We are quite a sight walking around with the six of us. We stick out A LOT! Not only b/c of our size, but because we are loud foreigners. The Japanese people continue to be so nice and polite.

We have met so many great people here. Church has been super! So many great people who have reached out to us and helped us get around (we have no car, just the base shuttle which is a huge pain) and fed us. Emma and Mattie already went to a birthday party! It is so multicultural here too. People have moved here from Bahrain, Spain all over, and are moving to those locations as well. It truly has been so fun and eye opening.

That is all I have for now. I really will post soon once we find the camera cord. There are some great pics. IF you want to call or contact us, your afternoons are our mornings, also iphones can facetime and text for free, Awesome!!!!