Thursday, September 16, 2010
Our New Place
We have housing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing!!!!!!!!!! It took us about two weeks to go through the process which was uncharacteristically quick for the military. Brett had already done part of the work back in May when he first arrived and I was able to go in and complete the rest. I took a tour of housing last week and was highly unimpressed with the Negeshi housing. It was about an hour train ride away, which was going to but costly to do everyday and also it would take away from the small amount of time we are already spending apart. Therefore we took Negeshi out of the running. Next was Ikego and I loved it. Places to live here are pretty different from back at home. As I have said before, its A LOT of function and very little emphasis on form. So anything built in the last 50-60 years ago is nothing great to look at but besides that, the housing here is a major upgrade for us. We have decided to move into a 3 bedroom/2 bath apartment that has roughly 1500 square feet of space. THAT IS HUGE...especially for us. We started out in a 600 ft space then went to 800 so we have almost doubled our last place and are thrilled about the opportunity for everything it offers.
Brett has already made plans for his man cave and has been anxious to start his space up again. I have decided to use the third bedroom for a computer/sewing/craft/guest room. The video on top is similar to what we will be living in. I hope that gives you a better idea of what we have to look forward to. If you have any questions about things you would like to know about, please let me know.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Base Life
Welcome to small town living...at least small town for a girl that came from a city of 100,000+. There are about 20,000 on the base daily and many of them leave every night. There are about 20 housing towers that look like this...
and they are all over the base. Among those are the little community centers and schools and gyms and the commisary and Navy Exchange. There are also places to eat, like McDonalds, Taco Bell, Subway and few other American food eateries. The base is surrounded by hills and those are covered in trees and are impossible to walk through. The picture here obviously doesnt show much but you can see the ship yards and on the top right of the picture is where are the stuff to do is.
When I first got here I thought the base was huge because square mileage it is but when you get down to the things you can actually do on base, it starts to feel really small. Soooooo....thats why you leave the base!
This is what we call Blue Street. There is a vast amount of things to see, eat and do here. There is a shopping center down the way called Mikasa and it has everything from a 100 yen store (like a 99cent store) to a grocery store to a beef bowl resturant. One thing that is different about Japan is that every floor is often different from what is on the ground level. On the first level they may have a cell phone store, on the next level a resturant and on the next could be an apartment, and they are all owned by different people.
When I first got here I thought the base was huge because square mileage it is but when you get down to the things you can actually do on base, it starts to feel really small. Soooooo....thats why you leave the base!
This is what we call Blue Street. There is a vast amount of things to see, eat and do here. There is a shopping center down the way called Mikasa and it has everything from a 100 yen store (like a 99cent store) to a grocery store to a beef bowl resturant. One thing that is different about Japan is that every floor is often different from what is on the ground level. On the first level they may have a cell phone store, on the next level a resturant and on the next could be an apartment, and they are all owned by different people.
One thing about the Japanese people is that they do not waste space. Much of the time you walk into a store front and it looks like it wont go back for more than a couple of feet but once you get inside you notice that the store is huge and that it twists and turns and makes use of every nook and craney.
I love it here. It is very different but thats what makes it wonderful.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Japan Tastes like MMMMMMMMMM
The food in Japan is Amazing, and yes that is with a capital A. I love it because everything tastes how it should. Unless you have had fresh food before that is prepared well, you have no idea what I am talking about. I have never loved a green bean like I do now.
Brett took me out on our second day together here to a place that is called Pepper Lunch (even though it is served all day and night). You order your meal from a vending machine that spits out tickets that have your orders placed on them. You then hand them to the worker that gives you food faster than McDonald's would and what you get is a little taste of heaven. You get a beautifully cut piece of beef that is placed on a extremely hot cast iron grill in front of you with a garnish of pepper corn and garlic. You then cook it to your desired doneness and voila! You have a meal better than anything steak you have had at home...all for about 1000 yen (10 dollars) per person. We also ordered garlic green beans and those so far are my favorite things that we have had. They are crisp and taste sweet while soaking up the garlic flavor. It was awesome. I could eat those all day. I will post pictures once we get our own camera.
We have also enjoyed the delights of yakiniku, which is Japanese BBQ. Anyone that comes to visit, this is where I am taking you first. You order your choices from a point and pick menu that consists of an array of meats and vegetables but the best is there beef. You have a little charcoal grill sunken into the middle of your table that you cook your items on. The smell of the food cooking is intoxicating makes you look forward to the food that much more. You can eat all you want for 75 minutes but after about two rounds Brett and I were done.
Yesterday Brett took me for my first taste of real Ramen...not the kind out of a package. No, this was so much more. Every piece of this dish was prepared with care and portioned to properly balance the meal. Everything from the broth to the noodle to the hard boiled egg was scrumptious.
Another little delight from the land of the rising sun is all the vending machine goodies you can find here. Most machines here on base consist of drinks (hardly any soda in there) and some have a few snacks. Off base though anything that you could ever want you can find in a machine. Want a new MP3 players, easy you can find that anywhere. In that same machine you can buy a shirt and a drink. The technology here is amazing. One drink that I came across so far that I am strangely in love with is a drink that comes in a can and has a pancake with syrup and butter pictured. When I first saw it I wanted to gag but when I tried it I drank the whole thing right then. If any of my fellow children of the 80's remember this cereal, and who knows they may still have it, Waffle Crisp, that is exactly what it tastes like. Well it tastes like the milk that is left in the bowl after the cereal is gone. Heaven.
My food adventures will continue along with the rest of my journey. Until then, farewell from the other side of the world.
Brett took me out on our second day together here to a place that is called Pepper Lunch (even though it is served all day and night). You order your meal from a vending machine that spits out tickets that have your orders placed on them. You then hand them to the worker that gives you food faster than McDonald's would and what you get is a little taste of heaven. You get a beautifully cut piece of beef that is placed on a extremely hot cast iron grill in front of you with a garnish of pepper corn and garlic. You then cook it to your desired doneness and voila! You have a meal better than anything steak you have had at home...all for about 1000 yen (10 dollars) per person. We also ordered garlic green beans and those so far are my favorite things that we have had. They are crisp and taste sweet while soaking up the garlic flavor. It was awesome. I could eat those all day. I will post pictures once we get our own camera.
We have also enjoyed the delights of yakiniku, which is Japanese BBQ. Anyone that comes to visit, this is where I am taking you first. You order your choices from a point and pick menu that consists of an array of meats and vegetables but the best is there beef. You have a little charcoal grill sunken into the middle of your table that you cook your items on. The smell of the food cooking is intoxicating makes you look forward to the food that much more. You can eat all you want for 75 minutes but after about two rounds Brett and I were done.
Yesterday Brett took me for my first taste of real Ramen...not the kind out of a package. No, this was so much more. Every piece of this dish was prepared with care and portioned to properly balance the meal. Everything from the broth to the noodle to the hard boiled egg was scrumptious.
Another little delight from the land of the rising sun is all the vending machine goodies you can find here. Most machines here on base consist of drinks (hardly any soda in there) and some have a few snacks. Off base though anything that you could ever want you can find in a machine. Want a new MP3 players, easy you can find that anywhere. In that same machine you can buy a shirt and a drink. The technology here is amazing. One drink that I came across so far that I am strangely in love with is a drink that comes in a can and has a pancake with syrup and butter pictured. When I first saw it I wanted to gag but when I tried it I drank the whole thing right then. If any of my fellow children of the 80's remember this cereal, and who knows they may still have it, Waffle Crisp, that is exactly what it tastes like. Well it tastes like the milk that is left in the bowl after the cereal is gone. Heaven.
My food adventures will continue along with the rest of my journey. Until then, farewell from the other side of the world.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
I am here!
I arrived in the beautiful country of Japan yesterday evening at 5:45pm Japan time, that would be 1:45am for all my friends back at home. My flight was wonderful and was a lot easier than I anticipated. It ended up only being 10 and a half hours instead of 11 1/2 which was a very happy surprise. I had the whole row to myself and the flight was comprised of about half Americans and half Japanese. We were served lunch and dinner and were each given a blanket, pillow and socks so that we would be more comfortable. Anyone who flies knows how cold planes normally are but this flight was at room temperature the whole time so the sweats that I had worn on the flight were definite over kill. I slept for about two hours and watched a couple of movies on my own private screen set up in the head rest. I got up and walked around every couple of hours and stretched out.
As we were approaching Japan I was able to see the beautiful landscape of this country. There were a lot of farms and beautiful forests that I was not expecting. Everything is very grouped together and not mixed at all. If it is housing, that is all there is. If it is a forest, there are only trees. I didn't get to see Tokyo for my view but what I did see I loved.
As I walked off of the plane I felt the heat and humidity immediately. Everything feels like someone left a hot shower on. I walked through the massive airport and headed to customs. Luckily many of the signs we also in English and I found my way pretty easily. One thing that is hugely different is how quiet things are. Never will you hear a child screaming or a loud group of people making a ruckus. All conversations are kept low so that you are not imposing on anyone else. Let me tell you, the politeness of this country has already won me over. Customs was quick and easy and I walked down the hallway to find my wonderful husband waiting for me. I almost cried when I saw him again. At four months, this has been our longest time apart and defiantly the hardest because we never knew when we would see each other again. We had an hour before the bus was to pick us up so was bought a drink (a lemon flavored soda) and headed outside to wait. If I thought it was hot in the airport, outside was far worse. Brett had told me it cooled down over the past week and I was expecting something more like a warm day in CA. No this was more like the hottest day in CA with the humidity of the east coast. He told me that I will get used to it and not notice it after a while.
We took the bus back to base and I was able to see some of the sights. It was dark so much of what there was to see would have to wait for another day. One great thing I did see though was Tokyo tower. It looks a lot like what the Eiffel tower looks like except red and white.
Back on base we went to our room and I turned on the air to full blast....ummmmm, I thought it was broken, but no, that was it. Hahaha the air here is not what is back at home but by morning I was able to appreciate it for what it is. It helps and takes the edge of the heat and humidity.
I signed up for my orientation that I will attend next week. Tonight we are going to get real Ramon...not the stuff that comes out of a plastic package. I am so excited. Brett also has a baseball game planned to take me to on Sunday. I cannot wait. I wish I could post pictures but until we get our computer back I probably wont be able to.
I hope all is well back at home and I already miss everyone. I am so happy to be here though and I am excited to make this my home. I send my love and happiness to all my friends and loved ones. Until next time, stay well and happy.
As we were approaching Japan I was able to see the beautiful landscape of this country. There were a lot of farms and beautiful forests that I was not expecting. Everything is very grouped together and not mixed at all. If it is housing, that is all there is. If it is a forest, there are only trees. I didn't get to see Tokyo for my view but what I did see I loved.
As I walked off of the plane I felt the heat and humidity immediately. Everything feels like someone left a hot shower on. I walked through the massive airport and headed to customs. Luckily many of the signs we also in English and I found my way pretty easily. One thing that is hugely different is how quiet things are. Never will you hear a child screaming or a loud group of people making a ruckus. All conversations are kept low so that you are not imposing on anyone else. Let me tell you, the politeness of this country has already won me over. Customs was quick and easy and I walked down the hallway to find my wonderful husband waiting for me. I almost cried when I saw him again. At four months, this has been our longest time apart and defiantly the hardest because we never knew when we would see each other again. We had an hour before the bus was to pick us up so was bought a drink (a lemon flavored soda) and headed outside to wait. If I thought it was hot in the airport, outside was far worse. Brett had told me it cooled down over the past week and I was expecting something more like a warm day in CA. No this was more like the hottest day in CA with the humidity of the east coast. He told me that I will get used to it and not notice it after a while.
We took the bus back to base and I was able to see some of the sights. It was dark so much of what there was to see would have to wait for another day. One great thing I did see though was Tokyo tower. It looks a lot like what the Eiffel tower looks like except red and white.
Back on base we went to our room and I turned on the air to full blast....ummmmm, I thought it was broken, but no, that was it. Hahaha the air here is not what is back at home but by morning I was able to appreciate it for what it is. It helps and takes the edge of the heat and humidity.
I signed up for my orientation that I will attend next week. Tonight we are going to get real Ramon...not the stuff that comes out of a plastic package. I am so excited. Brett also has a baseball game planned to take me to on Sunday. I cannot wait. I wish I could post pictures but until we get our computer back I probably wont be able to.
I hope all is well back at home and I already miss everyone. I am so happy to be here though and I am excited to make this my home. I send my love and happiness to all my friends and loved ones. Until next time, stay well and happy.
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