Week 1

If you are reading this, you know who we are and you know why we're in Japan. We want to get a small disclaimer out of the way...we want this blog to be about our adventures, not necessarily about what we are "doing" here. You should all understand what we mean. For security reasons, we will not discuss details of J's mission on this forum...if you want to know about any of that stuff, email us directly and we'll be happy to share it in a more private manner. We also ask that if you comment (and please do!!) that it not be at all related to J's career. Thank you!!

Ok, now for the fun stuff!

Day 1
We arrived on May 2nd at about 2pm...it was rainy, so my coveted "plane views" were very obscured and I was a tad bummed about that, but it is the tail end of the rainy season here. The pilot could have told us that because I was looking backward (because of our seats) pretty much the entire descent, straining my neck trying to get my first glimpse of the new landscape. We were both completely exhausted, J having slept about 2 hours total during the 10 hour flight, myself having slept about 30 minutes. I felt like a little kid, unable to sleep the night before a field trip...which is, incidently, much easier to recover from when you are actually a little kid. We went through the customs area and I received the very first stamp on my passport! We met all of J's co-workers in the terminal area and they were kind enough to drive us around the base all afternoon so we could get our pets settled in at the boarding place and also get housing rolling ASAP. It was an extremely long day, but we were offered a house within minutes of arriving at the Housing office...which, after talking to many people, is a true miracle and we are SO blessed. Many thanks for everyone's prayers! We got settled into the hotel and I believe I passed out at about 530pm and J just about an hour later.

Day 2
We arrived in time for Day 2 of a newcomer's orientation, so we attended this pretty much all day. We learned a bit about what the base has to offer; the base seems super active and we have tons of classes (fitness and non) to choose from to stay busy and have fun. We also received the driving instruction for our base driver's license, which seemed incredibly overwhelming at first but hasn't been too hard to adjust to. The biggest thing to remember after getting used to "thinking left" is that in Japan there are a TON of pedestrians to watch out for. So, just being alert is half the battle.

*Culture Note*: We learned that one of the basic concepts of Japanese society is to maintain a harmonious society by respecting how others would feel. Quite an amazing concept if you really stop and think about it. It's what we as Americans are taught as children...to "do unto others," however it's rarely the mindset we have as adults. For instance, a Japanese person will postpone what he or she is doing in order to help someone who is asking for it. We have experienced this already! We were on our way to the pet boarding facility and we got completely turned around. We saw a Japanese man crossing the street right near the bus stop, so we asked if he spoke English. He replied "chotto matte kudasai" which J knew meant "just a minute please" and he literally RAN back toward his building to get a better English-speaking person to help us out. Before that, when J was doing some paperwork in his building, it was very stuffy and I was fanning myself with some of his random papers...the next thing I knew, the Japanese gentleman that was helping us was pulling out his personal fan and he began to fan me. In America, I don't think a random stranger would fan you unless you were paying him. And the only payment this man received was my humble and sincere thanks.

Day 3-4
These days were full of running errands around base. Pretty boring, but necessary. The fun stuff was venturing out just a tiny bit off base and enjoying our first meal in Japan! We had heard rave reviews about a Chinese restaurant very close by and we had an amazing meal. J ordered garlic pork and I got the sweet & sour chicken (yes, I know but I wanted to know if it was the same as in the states)...and honestly, it was AWESOME. The breading on the chicken was very light and extremely crispy. It made us both incredibly excited for the rest of our culinary adventure! The waiter spoke English well and the menu had English also (no pictures) so no real mishaps at all. J enjoyed his tiny glass bottle Coke (no diet! gasp!!)...which was 300Yen or $3.74!

*Culture Note*: We were told that the Japanese do not show any form of PDA, so this was a challenge for us to not hold hands while off-base. We saw a couple of Americans totally disregarding this, however I refuse to be "those people." If they took the time to ASK US not to do this, I am going to try my best to respect the country that is hosting us, even if it is annoying to me and to us as a couple. So far, the Japanese people we have observed both close to base and in Ome do not even touch each other. During the orientation on day 2, the Japanese woman that was teaching us told us that she had never seen her parents kiss in her entire life. Just to give you an idea.  

Day 5
We were told about the Azalea Festival in Ome, a city only a short train-ride away from us so we decided that sounded like fun. I am chomping at the bit to get to Tokyo, but we decided we do have time to get there and we should perhaps start slow. Before that, we had to finalize the deal on our car & pay for the insurance...so we now own a 97 Toyota Estima van! It is pretty cute & in great shape, so we are thrilled. We are only going to be driving it on base for now because driving IN Japan looks tricky for our level of experience. We had to pay for what amounts to liability insurance in the states, for the whole year for both of us it was about 33,000Yen or $411. We also have to save up for what is known as Japanese Compulsary Insurance, which is usually paid every 2 years and the van's is due Jan 2013. We are told it should be about $400. The only other thing to worry about will be the Road Tax that we'll have to pay next April. The Japanese roadways are all privately owned, therefore the "toll" you pay is to that private owner. This sounds kind of insane, however the flip side is that the roads are very well maintained; almost all Americans can attest to how awesome that would be. The road tax is based on the size of your vehicle, so for us it should be about $200.

Enough boring car stuff! ;) We headed out to the Fussa Station to catch the train at around 2pm. We had some fun at the ticket machine, trying to figure out how to get the displays in English. We fumbled a bit actually going through the ticket gates because we hadn't read all the way through our little Japanese Customs & Courtesies guide we were given on day 2. We tried about 4 times to go through and then the oldest looking Japanese gentleman perhaps in the world (or at least all of Japan) simply walked over, took my ticket and put it in the correct way. He never smiled, never made eye contact, and didn't respond when I said thank you in Japanese. Part of that Japanese duty to help others I guess (lucky for us). As you can guess, we laughed our butts off at being dumb Americans. The train was pretty much like a very clean version of the Metro in San Fran, except of course the peppering of AWESOME Japanese advertising. And, for you claustrophobic readers (like myself), it was not crowded at all because it wasn't rush hour...so I was greatly relieved. Once we arrived in Ome, we got some further directions from an English-speaking Japanese woman who was handing out flyers for the Azalea Festival. We walked about 4 miles from the station to the Temple, but it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed soaking in the culture along the way. The temple was gorgeous (see pics below) and we took a zillion pictures. As I'm sure we will do countless times in the months ahead.

On our way home we stopped and had sushi at the place that said "sushi bar" on the map...I have no idea it's name, but sushi bar is apt. There was seating for probably 12 people around the bar, so it was very tiny. The waitress spoke English well and gave us a picture menu. We ordered scallops, Inari (bean curd & rice that was yummmmo), tekkamaki (tuna), yellowtail (it was like BUTTAH), fatty tuna (to.die.for.) and something else I cannot recall because it's all a blur of fabulousity. If you are a sushi fan, it is everything you'd imagine it being...fresh, vibrant, and amazing. If you are not a sushi fan, you are missing out. And if you are not eating sushi in Japan then you are definitely missing out. ;) Oh, and WAY freaking cheaper than in the states...our whole meal cost us about $14!

*Culture Note*: This was the most uncomfortable experience I have had so far in this country. There were 7 other Japanese speakers in the bar, and 2 people making sushi/serving...and NO KIDDING, they were almost constantly ALL talking at once. It was insane. They were smiling, laughing, joking (I guess?!), etc but it was non-stop noise and it was a bit overwhelming for me. I don't know if it was my inability to stop wondering if they were talking about us or if it was just sensory overload...but at one point I actually felt nauseated. I think also it could have been that we had walked about 10 miles and literally had not sat down in hours. But I will still continue to push my comfort zone because I don't want to miss one minute here.

Well, by now you are thoroughly bored and probably need to get on with your day (as do I). We just want to use this blog as a way to share our thoughts and experiences while we're here. I hope it can help us stay connected with everyone. We are blessed to have so many awesome people who miss us (and we miss you guys already!!) and want us to stay in touch, so we thought this would be an easy way to do it. J and I will be switching off the writing, so stay tuned. Sayonara for now!