Random Ramblings & House Pics!

I am a little weirded out by how normal I feel here (aside from the couple of days of feeling BLEH from travel or jet lag or whatever the crap it was)...we walk down the street in Fussa and it just feels normal. I know we have the base and there are many concessions here that are like home, but there are also tons of things that are completely different. Perhaps I am just well-suited to international living? Seems at odds with my high level of patriotism. However, it could be argued that what J does is about as patriotic as it gets...still I hope no one thinks less of me or calls me a commie because I love living here so much (hehe...that's a joke, I think). Anyway, I am feeling much better after resting for a couple days (or trying to). We are still getting settled into our house, so lots to do there as far as re-buying things we had to leave behind (trashcan, broom, mop, etc). The pets are absolutely loving the new place, which is so cute. Pepe ran around all hyper when we first brought him in, he was acting like a puppy! We are using the loaner furniture because our shipment still isn't here...but it is much better than living out of a hotel and them living in cages! Hopefully our stuff will be here soon.

Forgot to tell everyone about visiting Japanese Wal Mart the other day! It's called Seiyu, and it actually is owned by Wal Mart (of course...what isn't?) We just CANNOT escape Wal Mart, apparently. Anyway, it's a 5 story shopping experience that was actually quite awesome...or at least will be when we go back once we aren't completely exhausted. The top floor is what the kids are gonna go nuts about because it's just food and video games. Like, imagine an entire row of slot machines in Vegas winning the jackpot at the same time...that is probably half the noise of this area. So, like I said, the kids can have at it cause I'll be downstairs checking out awesome Engrish on items that I recognize from home. More on this to come, as I have recently sent a late birthday present to my sis back home and I don't want to ruin any items that she hasn't seen yet. Oh, and while there are food bargains to be had, the fresh fruit is NOT one of them so far as we can tell...we bought an apple and paid I think $1.77. Apparently it costs a ton to eat well in any country. On the plus side it was a damn good apple (as it well should have been).

I am still in awe of the amout of English signs there are in this country. When is the last time YOU saw a sign in the US written in English AND Japanese?! It is quite a testament to what is means to speak English. We are fortunate as foreigners that the Japanese are more accomodating in that respect, otherwise we would be so lost. Luckily for me J is very "boy-scoutish" and is awesome with direction, but if I ever venture out on my own, I am VERY glad I will have English signs to help me!

One more thing...last night we went back to our new favorite Chinese place for dinner and when the waiter brought our food I said "ohayo gozaimasu" instead of "domo arigato"....which means I said "Good Morning" instead of "Thank you." Juuuuuust when I think I'm getting the hang of it. **slaps hand to forehead** Oh well, the food was OISHII (delicious) and so was the getting CRUNKY on our way home (see below). We have a tradition (can doing something 3 times make it technically a tradition? discuss!) of getting new kinds of ice cream at the 7-11 before heading back to base. So far my fav has been this little latte flavored icee thing...like a frapuccino! Amazing!! And the portions in this country are fabulous, I hardly have to feel guilty about something that is literally like 4 sips.

Gotta get going and get ready to take the pets to the vet (poor lil babies)...gotta check up on their quarantine status. Honestly I have no idea why we have to take them, but since they said we gotta then I guess we do. **spoiler alert** Saturday we are heading to the Great Kamakura Budda Shrine on our first ITT tour (the touring company on base)! I hope it doesn't rain!! More to come soon. :)

PS. Sorry if these pics are repeats of ones we put on FB. When things are settled, I plan on taking "blog-only" pics, but for now you can just scroll past them. :)