Our New Place

So, I'm having trouble uploading pics right now, so a slide show will show off the new place today. We are in a "multi-plex" that is two floors and has 6 apartments. We on on the top in the middle. We have two bedrooms, one bath, and the floor plan is pretty good!

I have more cabinets in my kitchen than I know what to do with, and no room in the bathroom to store anything. We should get the rest of our stuff in a week or so, and then I can really get crackin' on the organization of everything. I'm hoping that the whole "nesting" thing kicks in about that time...I can hope right?

I'll post more pics when I have all my stuff and everything is in place.

One Month Down

If you had asked me in the first few days if I was going to like it here I probably would have started crying and said "I have no idea." One month can make a huge difference! We are in our apartment now, we have met old and new friends, we are established in our church here, we can drive, we have ventured out more, we have mastered the words good afternoon and thank you in Japanese, and we are very much settling in here.

This place is beautiful! It's not as hot as Virginia has been! It's humid, but beautiful, and people are very friendly. We have been able to talk to people at home, and that has also helped with the home sickness (we have a U.S. phone number that works through the internet, so people can call us and we can call them).

We still have a long way to go but things are MUCH better than they were 4 weeks ago. We are still waiting on out big shipment of stuff and figuring out all the stuff we need to make this our home for the next three years, but all in all I'm sure we made a great choice in coming here!

On the Move...

So now that we've mostly gotten past the absolute fear of driving on the left I thought I'd show off our new cars! Although the island is only 64 miles long, you really need a car because our housing is not on the same base as Mike's work, so we have to be able to drive.

Cars here are CHEAP!!! The turnover rate is so fast that people are just glad to be able to sell them before they move back to the states, so it makes for good deals when you move here:)

Here is our car. It's a Toyota very similar to the one I left at home, just a good bit older.
Here is our other car...really it's a minivan. It's really nice, and it allows us to both be on the move at the same time. We got the van because then we can go do and see things with friends and all be able to go in one car. Here's a pic of the inside. One of the hardest things to get used to while driving is not that we are on the left, it's that the turn indicator is on the right and the wipers are on the left side of the steering wheel (everyone told me this would be the hardest thing and I didn't believe them...now I just have a really clean windshield).
Lots of the minivans here don't have sliding doors because of the high salt content in the air...it messes up the sliding stuff, so they have regular doors. This van came complete with GPS...but it's all in Japanese, so I'm not really sure how helpful it is.

Days at the Beach

So last Friday Mike's work had a beach party. I didn't go, but he took some pictures of the festivities. The Marines rode out in style...

I think the highlight of the day was that Mike found a hermit crab and many people hadn't seen them before, so they had a good time tormenting the little guy!

Because I missed all the fun on Friday, we ventured back out to Torii Beach on Saturday. Not too crowded, and a nice breeze! The water is very warm, but calm too.

We started walking down the beach looking for shells, but I got tired, so I found a bench and enjoyed the scenery.

Mike came back with pockets full of shells from the East China Sea. Some are very cool and different than I have ever seen. There is lots of coral at the beaches here too, so you have to wear shoes when you are shell hunting.

We had a great time, and I'm sure we'll be back soon!

Laying Low for the 4th

So our Forth of July celebrations were pretty low key. We went to church and hung out with some friends for the afternoon. Then we came home and played a rousing game of Battleship (which Mike totally cheated on). About 8:30 we heard the fireworks start and we opened up the hotel room door and watched whole fireworks show done on Kadena Air Base. Then we watched a movie and slept in on Monday.

Mike had both Monday and Tuesday off of work, so we hung out and just had fun being together. We played cards with friends Monday and I got to watch the Capitol Fourth concert, and then did some shopping on Tuesday. All in all it was a low key kind of holiday.

Most people are expecting a huge patriotic celebration because we are around so much military, but we took it easy, and I think a lot of other people did as well. I'm sure in years to come we'll try to liven things up a bit, but this year it was just what we needed.

A New Dining Experience

So last night we got brave and went out to experience the local fare. There is a place almost across the street from our hotel called the Colonial Stake House. We figured that at least we'd be able to find something familiar and eat a good dinner.

When we got there this is what we saw!
It was a steak house, but Japanese style! We had a lot of fun! I got chicken and Mike got steak and everything was cooked right in front of us. We let them cook with everything they offered us, except we did opt out of the horseradish. It was a fun experience and the food was GREAT!!