Thoughts on loneliness or lack there of.

I admit that I do miss my friends and family and somehow even though back home I would easily go longer than this between visiting them, it seems longer now because I know I can't just hop in the car and see them within the hour.

Wonderfully though, I have not felt 'lonely' since I've been here.  I attribute this to a few things.  One possible reason is that I can hear the family in the next room over quite frequently, because there is a door between our kitchens.  Sure the door is shut but it doesn't do much to block the sound.  Another reason is that this Military base supports over $28,000 personnel, and is only about 1.25 miles across, so there are always other people around.  They don't all live here on base, but at any given moment during the day there are probably 15,000 - 20,000 people on base.  And finally, even when I step out in town, it is pretty impossible to feel lonely in a city with 6,858 people per square mile, which is 4,034 more people per sq mile than my home town.

I recently learned that the country of Japan has a population equal to 1/2 of the United States population.  However, the area of Japan is a little smaller than the area of the State of California and then to top it off, only 20 % of the country is populated, so basically it would be like taking half the people in the United States and putting them all into Rhode Island... lol!  

Just for fun I've added some links to some videos on YouTube that I found demonstrating how crowded some places in Tokyo are.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=inA-36YRV0Y&feature=related

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=QXtOdSgf6Ic&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKOEQVgONh0&NR=1

Remember though, these videos are from Tokyo, and not where I am, so if you are supposed to come here on Orders, or want to come here to visit, don't be afraid that it's like that everywhere, cause it's not.  These are extreme examples.

Wanting a cause...

So, through hopping down the rabbit hole of the blog world, I have come across some blogs with amazing causes and it really makes me want to start a 'cause'.  While I fully intend to participate in the great causes I have found, I am inspired by these people to create a cause and help change the world for better.  In the mean time, please check out these causes that have given me inspiration.

The Dulaan Project

mama to mama

Goods 4 Girls

dinning out...

DH reminded me today that I had forgotten to mention that when we went to the Italian restaurant out in town, we had to request our garlic bread sans syrup.  Yes indeed, the garlic bread would have come covered with maple syrup, had we not told them that we prefered it without.  Also his Chief said that had we ordered spaghetti, it would also come with maple syrup if not specifically ordered without...   A very strange idea if you ask me.  Perhaps they have watched the movie "Elf" and decided that's how to eat spaghetti.

Coffee girl

DH took DD down to the vending machines to buy sodas for he and I.  She is very much interested in doing everything we do, so he let her put the money in the machine.  As soon as she put the coins in, she reached out and pushed the closest button, dispensing one of the hot coffees.  

DH then bought the sodas we intended and headed back up here with the it all.  We tried to drink the coffee, but found this can less than palatable.  DD watched interestedly and reached out her little hand for the can.  We then, figuring she would dislike it as much as we did, decided to let her have a tiny sip, so she'd not ask anymore.  Unfortunatly, she LOVED it!!  

Of course we didn't let her have anymore.  What a surprise it was though...

Some Success with the new Language

You might be thinking I'm talking about myself or my Husband having the success with the new language, but I'm not.  We are having a little bit of success at learning some of the words and how to use them and it's going actually pretty good.

What surprised me though was today after nap, we opened the lodge door to take down the 'do not disturb' sign.  In the hall were 3 Japanese workmen who are replacing the door handles and locks.  DD, who will hardly speak English, ran out there, always excited to see new people and said "Konnichiwa".  Of course it was not perfectly pronounced, since she's only 17 mos old, and I, not listening for her to speak Japanese, wouldn't have noticed it, had all the men not stopped what they were doing in shock, to turn to her, say Konnichiwa back, give her a little bow of greeting and chuckle with surprise at such a little girl speaking to them in their own language.  

Ha, maybe the reason she's not really been talking yet is that she's deciding which language she wants to learn first...  And she sure does insist on carrying our English to Japanese dictionary around whenever she gets a chance.

A day of adventures (lots of pictures)

Monday, being a holiday, we decided to take the day and go exploring.  DH had done some exploring last week as part of the AOB/ICR class, and wanted to show me some of the things he had seen as well as pass along what he had learned about navigating the train system.  While I will also be going through the class next week, I was excited for the opportunity to get out and see some of the local sights.  

Our first necessity was to hop the base bus to the main gate and head north to the train station, where we purchased our tickets from the automated ticketing system and headed through the turnstyles and out onto the platform.  This being my first time ever riding a train, I wasn't sure what to expect.  The platform was rather bleak and grey with a few wooden benches.  Trains pulled up and left every few minutes and the trick was to figure out which train you wanted to be on before it left.  We found our train and headed off in search of some sights.  I plan to give you train thoughts and insights at a later point, as this blog has just way too much to cover otherwise.

Following are quite a few pictures that tell the story of our day.  

 

This picture is from the park just to the north of the main gate.  On the left side of the little harbor, you can see some large dark grey ships and on the right side of the harbor are a bunch of lighter grey ships and some submarines.  The interesting thing is that the darker grey ships and the subs are Japanese Navy, while the lighter grey ships are US Navy.  I found it quite interesting to see both navies' ships in such close proximity.  Good thing we are allies!!

Here is a beautiful fountain in the park, if you click on it, you'll get a better look.  There are probably hundreds of rose bushes in this park, though at this time of year, they aren't much to look at.  I'll try to remember to snap some shots later on, when they are in bloom.

Here is where you buy your train tickets.  You select how much you want to pay for your ticket based on how far you are going, and press the button for that amount of Yen.  The machine spits out your tickets and you are good to go.  When you exit the train station, you put your ticket in a little slot and the turnstyles open to let you out.  Well, that is unless you underestimated how much you needed to pay, in which case, it will tell you how much you owe, you drop in a few coins and you are on your way.  This is also a great system in that if you accidentally stay on a stop too far, you can simply get off the train and catch one back the other way, as you only put your ticket stub in on your way out of the station.  In theory, you could ride the train all day long as long as you never left a station during a stop, for 190 Yen.

Our first stop in Kamakura.  I don't know the name of the temple we headed off to, but this is the walking road to it.  The vehicle road is on either side of this walkway which extends for probably a quarter mile or more, with these orange and white paper lanterns lineing the whole way.  Proof that it can't possibly rain as much here as it does in Seattle.

A side view of the original bridge that led to the temple.  This bridge is no longer used, and I'm a little glad, cause it is very steep.  I tried to get a picture of the giant Koi (24+ inches long) that were in the ponds, but the water was too murky.  

The view of the temple from the street

The area for cleansing oneself before entering the holy area.  One is to fill a dipper with water from the fountain, holding the dipper with their right hand, and use the water to rinse their left, then they pass the dipper to the left and rinse the right, then the dipper is again placed in the right hand and the left hand is filled with water which is sucked into the mouth and then spit into the ditch, finally, the dipper is filled once more and raised in such a way to cause the water to rinse the handle, then is placed back on the rack.  I didn't get any pictures of people doing this, as I still don't know how to ask people if I may take their photo and am timid at attempting it in a sign language fashion.

This is one of the small buildings down below the temple.  I kinda forgot to take a picture of the temple during the long hike up the stairs to get to it.  No photos were permitted inside, which was a dissappointment, but had to be respected. (sorry, I guess if you want to see inside it, you'll have to come to Japan)

Sake, anyone??

These are barrels of rice wine (or representations, I'm not sure)

A wall covered with prayer boards.

On our walk back to the train, I happened to see this crystal in the window which you could buy for 1,500,000 Yen (around $16,600 give or take).

I don't even want to guess how much this one would cost.  It was about 2 ft tall.  Also it was flanked by two 6 ft tall amethyst geodes.  I didn't get a picture of those though, as the lady inside didn't seem to keen on my taking photos of this.

Back at the train station to head to another point of interest in Kamakura.  This is the bicycle, and moped parking lot for the station.

A short ride and a super short walk later and we found ourselves at the foot of the Giant Buddha.  It turns out that this guy is only about 11 miles from base by car.  A very interesting sight for sure.  I have seen it's image many times over the years, in books and magazines, but it really was something to actually see it.

For 20 Yen, you may go inside the Giant Buddha and see how he was contructed.  It's pretty amazing, and certainly well worth the minimal cost!

Some windows in Buddha's back.  I at first presumed they were put there to let light in for those who wanted to go in, however, I later learned that initially this statue was built inside a huge temple.  The temple was washed away by a tidal wave about 750 years ago or so, and Buddha has been outside since then.  Which still leaves me wondering, 'what were those windows built in his back for, way back then?'

For those who have been interested by my toileting adventure.

While at the Buddha, I decided that it was as good a time as any to use the facilities, since I knew where they were and might not have such ease of finding them again somewhere else.  I braced myself, for the typical tourist area/parks and recreation restrooms I've become accustomed to back in the states and walked into the restroom.  To my amazement, the restroom was entirely fitted with tile (clean grout too), and granite stalls and walls with clean metal doors (not one word of graffiti did I see).  What I also noticed was that on one side, there were squat toilets and on the other were the western toilets, which I chose.  As I was exiting my stall, 4 Japanese women entered the restroom and I watched out of the corner of eye to see which they would choose, and every single one of them chose the squat toilets, which sort of surprised me, until I thought about how germ concious they are, and the fact that toilet seat covers are not offered in any public restrooms that I have yet seen.  Lucky for me, I am comfortable with the 'hover' with a western toilet, so I'm safe without having to squat down to 2 inches off the floor to use the facilities.

 

After we left the Buddha, we started heading back to the train station and I saw these interesting girl and boy yarn dolls in a window and couldn't help myself, I had to take their pictures. Strangely, I swear I've seen pictures of them before.

As we continued our walk, I kept looking in shop windows and then we took a little side street, in my hopes of finding a fabric store (a promise to my sis and mom).  We did finally find a little fabric/Kimono store (sorry, no photos, cameras and cell phones were prohibited in the store).  The fabrics were beautiful mostly, and very pricey!  One could buy a meter of fabric 1/2 meter wide for 1500 - 3600 Yen.  So, sorry, I didn't purchase anything there either.  DH and DD had wondered on while I went into the store, and I'm so glad they did, because as I left the store and looked up the street for them, I noticed that at the end of the road, there was the enterance to another temple area.  So busy I had been looking for a fabric store that I hadn't even noticed.

This temple had much bigger grounds than the first one we saw.  From the enterance, you couldn't even see the temple, it is way up the hill of stairs.  The stairs you see in this picture make up about a third of the stairs to get to the temple.

Before we headed up to the temple, we noticed this cave and decided to go exploring

The initial cave is tall enough to stand up in, however this tunnel leading off from the main entrance is probably about 4 ft tall, and leads into another smaller cave that is also tall enough to stand in (unless you are 6 ft or taller).  From there another tunnel leads off with a small cave off the side of it and then it takes you back outside.  I'm definitely glad we went through the cave, I loved it!

One of the statues in the second cave.

Some super cute little statues.  These were my favorites.

An army of statues!  These little guys were everywhere!  Here and there, some of them had little knitted hats and shawls that people had brought for them to keep them warm.

Some of the gifts that people had left for one of the statues in a shrine.  

The adjoining cemetary

For 100 Yen you could buy your fortune.  Then you were to take it, and tie it around a cord nearby, say your prayer and hope it came true (or hope it didn't I suppose, depending on the outcome).

One of the beautiful gardens at this temple.

I was naughty and snuck this picture.  In the main part of the temple, where I could not be sneaky, there was a probably 20 ft tall gold statue, with a very ornate background.  I really wanted to get a picture, but there was just no way to do so without interupting people's prayers and worship, which is why I presume pictures are not allowed.

A small bamboo forest, where the bamboo was easily 20 ft tall and 5 in across.

Just part of the hike up the stairs to 'prospect road'.  There were alot of stairs at this temple.  DH is my hero though, as he carried DD in her stroller, up all of the stairs and again back down!!

The hike may have been long, but the view was incredible!!!

When we got back to town we decided to go out for dinner.  On the way to dinner I decided to snap a shot of an allway crosswalk.  Basically the way it works is that the intersection lets cars go lets say north and south (no pedestrians), then it lets the cars go east and west (again, no pedestrians), and then all the cars stop and the people are allowed to cross the intersection in any direction they choose, including diagonal.  When you think about it, it probably actually reduces the number of pedestrians who get hit by cars that are taking a corner.
 

And my final picture of the day.  The view from the Italian restaurant we ate at, which was on the 9th floor of the mall.  Had the best margharita pizza I've ever had!  The only difficulty was making ourselves walk out the doors without leaving a tip.  The service was fantastic, DD made a big mess, I really wanted to tip, but in Japan (unless you're on the base), tipping is not expected, nor accepted.  They will follow you out and bring you the money you 'forgot'.  It is actually considered an insult if they understand that you were trying to tip them, because it implies that they are the kind of person who must be bribed in order to do the job they were hired to do.

Car pictures...

Pictures of our sweet sweet ride!!!

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Can't really see it, but the steering wheel is on the right side of the car instead of the left...  Should be interesting getting used to that as well as getting used to driving on the left side of the road.  DH takes his driven test on Thursday to get his Japanese license.  I will be taking mine some time during the week after next, once I go through the AOB/ICR (area orientation briefing/inter cultural relations) class. 

Used cars here on base are amazingly inexpensive!

shopping trip

I went out on a shopping trip a few days ago to try to find some clothes for DD, as she has recently decided to outgrow nearly everything she owns that's not somewhere in the middle of the pacific on a big barge headed this way.  I had tried to find clothes for her here on base, but they only had 4 styles of jeans her size and they were all 'skinny' jeans and when we tried them on her, she flipped out and screamed until I took them off.  All the rest of the clothes in her size are already the spring and summer clothes (all the whopping 4 racks of clothes).  So I had decided to head out and go to the nearest mall.  Unfortunately, I didn't know how many cm she is tall, so it made it pretty nearly impossible to find clothes in her size, plus, most of the local clothes I found were shorts, or were built to accommodate much bulkier diapers than our American versions which we are lucky enough to buy at the local exchange.  I didn't feel comfortable taking any pictures of anything they sell, since I don't yet know how to ask for permission, but here are a few pictures I took during my evening out.

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It's kinda hard to see, but this is a police station right off base.   An easy way to locate a Police Station at night is to look for a flashing red light.  Some of them are manned and some are not.  When they aren't manned, they are still open and have a phone accessible for you to use.  

I snuck a picture of this lady and her son.  She was a great example of the difference in the culture as far as women's attire is concerned.  It was around 7 C degrees out (40 F) and there were women and girls all over the place in mini skirts or short shorts, with high heeled boots, scarves and parkas on.  You'd think if it was cold enough to know to wear a warm coat and scarf, you might want to wear something on your legs too.  I guess maybe that's why the tall boots.

Most of us at some time or another have heard of pop tabs being collected to buy someone time on life support, kidney dialysis etc...  Recently, I've been hearing that there's no such program and so forth.  Apparently here in Japan though, they are collecting them to help purchase wheelchairs.  So, who knows, maybe there is something to it after all.  I sure have always wondered what the intrinsic value of those things could be though for them to be valuable enough to do any of those things that they are said to do.

I have mentioned the hot beverages that can be purchased from the vending machines.  Here's a picture of one of the machines at the mall.  Everything with a blue label under it is served cold and everything with re is served hot and I do mean HOT!  There are also Ice Cream vending machines that serve Ice Cream at -26 C (-14.8 F).  No worries about it melting all over your hands, that's for sure, or onto your bare legs while you sit outside at the train station in your mini skirt in 7 C (40 F) weather, with your scarf up around your ears and your arms tight across your chest...

a car!!!

Yesterday DH put money down on a car for us, so that we'll have something to drive while we're here.   We will soon be the proud owners of a....

Station wagon!!!   LOL!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it?!  DH even picked it out and practically wouldn't take 'no' as an answer from me on if we should get it or not.   It's such a different style from what he typically would want to drive.  His truck back in the states is big, red, lifted, big ol' tires, etc.  This car is white, it's lowered (yes someone lowered a station wagon) and while both this car and his truck have very tinted windows, and they both are vehicles, the similarities pretty much stop there.  

As far as station wagon's go, this one is pretty okay by my standards.  I would have perfered a little SUV or something, however they tend to cost more and we only intend to own this car for 3 years, so don't want to spend more than we need to and want a car that's easy to sell later and hopefully for a similar price to what we pay for it.  

So, we will soon be the proud owners of a 1998 Subaru Legacy, somewhat similar to the one below.  I will post pic's once I am well enough (DD and I have been super sick for a few days) to leave this rotten room and get out to where the car is.  

hard to imagine that this car could be lowered huh?

Just some things around base...

I think we should have these in the states. Basically if there's a fire, you push the grey button and it turns on vents that vent out the smoke so you don't die from it before ever getting out of the building. What a concept, huh?!

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Here's what you'll be doing in the case of a fire!

This is what nearly all of the exit signs look like here on base.

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Stop sign & a speed limit sign. 25 is the standard speed here on base.

25 'klicks' (kilometers) is just over 15 miles per hour.

Grab hold of yer hat!! It's gonn' be a wild ride!!

School zones on base are 15 'klicks' (about 9mph)

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The Navy Lodge makes attempts at helping us learn the language...

The room numbers are spelled out in Roman (Romaji) after each room number.

If they were to write it phonetically it might look something like this

knee-yaw-coo knee-jew-na-na

in Kanji 二百二十七 = 227

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LED licence plates are not the 'norm' here, but also not abnormal. In Japan it is also totally legal to have neon lighting on the outside of your car. We saw a very short lived trend in the underbody neon in the states a few years ago before it was quickly outlawed there. Just the other day though, I saw a vehicle on base here with underbody neon that every 10 seconds or so faded from one color to the next in a series of 6 colors.

House hunt #2

After our somewhat disastrous first house hunt, we were dropped off back at the hotel by our first house agent who was more than happy to get rid of us by that point. Perhaps hoping to be done with us before we decided that we did indeed want money from him. He drove the wrong way down one way streets even in his hurry to off-load this liability and as soon as we were all out of the car, quickly said good bye and took off like he was being chased.

We headed into the hotel lobby and sat down to wait for housing agent #2. DH asked if I wanted to just go back to base and reschedule this second visit to which I said that I would have a hurt leg on base or off, so lets see if there's maybe a nicer house out there than what we just saw. We didn't have any Tylenol handy and there was a bar in the lobby, so I sipped on the strongest screwdriver I've ever touched, to dull the pain while I waited for our next ride.

A short time later, a mini van pulled up in front of the hotel and DH went outside to see if it was our guy and it was, so we all hopped into the van and headed off to see another house.

We rode along, without a clue where we were going, or even the price point for the monthly rent of this house, or if they would allow our dog. All we knew is that it was considered a big house with a big yard, and that the price was above our maximum allowance but that the agent would negotiate with the owner to see if they would go for our price.

We wound our way out of town and into the country side and found ourselves back in a town in a quiet neighborhood. All within 15 minutes. We looked around at the houses and they all looked nice well maintained in this little suburbia. Then the agent pointed out the house we were going to see and I thought sure he must be joking. Ahead of us stood a 2 story white stucco house with tile roof, a decoratively carved hardwood front door, a nice rock wall and a gated parking spot, and it looked bigger than the other houses on the block.

As we walked in, the agent's assistant (a very sweet lady), handed us house slippers as we took off our shoes. The entry way was again dark wood paneling, but the air in the house was pretty dry and though a little chilly, was still tolerable (they don't keep any heat on in vacant homes, it's just too expensive). To the left just after the traditional knee high step up from the ground level, was a steep staircase with a hand rail that was about shin high (perfect for our 16 month old), ahead was a long hallway and to the right was a closed door.

We followed the assistant down the hall, where she showed us the bathroom (again on the ground floor), which included a traditional Japanese soaking tub (you shower prior to getting in the tub) that is basically a small indoor version of a hot tub. The crazy thing about it was that you went into the laundry room and then open a shower door and there inside, was a 6ft by 6ft 'bathroom' with a shower head on the wall and the soaking tub against the far wall and the whole thing was tiled. On the other side of the laundry room was another door, which was the toilet room. A tiny little room with only a toilet in it. Just beside the door to the toilet room was a sink. So far, this place was stomping all over the house we'd just seen.

We then took a walk through the dining room and living room which were empty square rooms that were sort of dark and sliding doors that opened into what I thought was a dark hallway. At least that's what I thought it was, until the housing agent started opening the huge floor to ceiling shutters and windows that closed off this long porch from the out of doors. As my eyes adjusted, I has handed a new pair of slippers (yard slippers) and I slipped them on and turned around to a gorgeous traditional Japanese garden! There is no pond, but I don't need DD going fishing for $1000 koi anyway, so it's really probably for the best.

We took a walk through the garden and then re-entered the house and were shown the kitchen. It had an amazing amount of cupboard space and the stove even had an oven. The counter space was limited and would be perfect for teaching little ones how to make cookies, even if I would have to do so on my knees to not have to lean over all day. I think the counters and stove top were somewhere between knee and waist level on me. The stove was really quite a novelty, as it only had 2 burners, a fish grill (a tiny toaster oven of sorts just above the oven) and then the smallest oven I have ever seen. I think my old easy bake oven could have rivaled this one for interior space. I'm pretty sure the oven measured no bigger than 1ft x 1ft!

We were then taken to see the 'guest room' an 8 tatami (approx 12 x 12) room that was through that door just to the right of the entrance. It too had a wall of windows that opened up completely to the outdoors, but to a small pebble garden with a bamboo fountain and a low bamboo fence.

Finally we headed upstairs and were shown the upstairs toilet room which held only a toilet and a tiny little hand sink that was about chest high. If the same people were using the downstairs kitchen as were using this hand sink, where was the step ladder they would want to use to reach this sink?? Again just outside the toilet room door, there was a small sink and a counter space. By this point, I had already been won over by the fantastic huge windows and the beautiful yard, and all this was just merely details.

We were then shown a great storage room and then a smallish (by our standards) bedroom which had tall windows that opened out onto the balcony, interestingly the windows and balcony were about 2 1/2 ft higher than the floor. We were then shown a 4 1/2 tatami room (about 6ft x 6ft) which also had the tall raised windows leading out to the balcony. A bonus of those tall windows was that a small child would have to have a stool to climb on in order to get out onto the balcony.

Then we were shown the "master bedroom" at which point I caught my breath. The room was probably 15ft x 15ft!! I was floored!! While I was still reeling at the shock of how big the room was, the agent's assistant decided to further knock my socks off by declaring that she needed to show me what they call the 'hidden room'. Excited by the prospect of a small little sort of secret room, I followed her to what looked like a closet door and when she opened it, I'm pretty sure the neighbors heard my jaw hit the floor. Through that door was another 8 tatami room!!! The floor of the room was 2 - 3 ft lower than where I stood and there was a bit of a ledge that led through the doorway, and then you would have to hop down into the room from there. Apparently, had I not been so distracted by the garden, I could have noticed a stairway from the sun porch that led up to this exact room.

At this point I was certain that there was no way on earth we could afford this house with out housing allowance and was bracing myself for disappointment. We then asked what the monthly rent was and we responded to with, 'do you want to live here?' We said that we did, but only if it was within our allowance, because we cannot afford to pay above that. The lady then had me fill out a paper with our contact information and handed me a paper with a diagram of the layout of the house and which also listed the sq ft, age of the house, pet policy and monthly rent for the house. I cringed and said, 'It says here that there are no pets allowed, and the rent is listed at 280,000 Yen ($3146), our max OHA* allowance is 230,000 Yen ($2584)'. The housing agent just nodded and said 'negotiate', 'negotiate'. His assistant then said she would call us the next day and let us know if the owner was willing to negotiate down to the price we were allowed and if they would allow our small dog.

The wait the next day seemed eternal, but we finally received the call stating that the owner had indeed approved the terms and we could go to the housing office to begin the paperwork process of getting the house. We must now wait for an inspector from the military housing dept to go inspect the house to ensure it is safe for living and then we can schedule a 'start paperwork appointment' where we will ask the military for a 931,500 Yen ($10,466) interest free loan for the move in costs. 1st month's rent of 230,000 Yen, Owner's fee of 230,000 Yen, Security deposit of 230,000 Yen and housing agent's fee of 230,000 Yen + 5% tax (yep, we pay his tax). As soon as we are moved in, we will be reimbursed from our OHA for the 1st month's rent, the security deposit will be reimbursed to us when we move out of the house, less any damages, and at some point down the road, the owner's fee and agent's fee will be reimbursed to us through an entitlement called MIHA (Move In Housing Allowance), though no one seems to know for sure when that will be. Also at that appointment, we will arrange to borrow a washer/dryer and a refrigerator for the house from the military.

It's sounding like we may be able to move in to the house as early as the beginning of next month!! I am so ready to be out of this lodge!!! We all are!


*OHA = Overseas Housing Allowance is an allowance that is up to a certain amount depending on your rank. Ours is up to 230,000 Yen for DH's rank here in Japan. This does not mean that we get 230,000 Yen and can then get something for 165,000 Yen and keep the difference. It means that if we get a house for 165,000 Yen, then they will cover our rent or if we get something for 230,000 Yen, they will cover our rent, or if we get something for 300,000 Yen, they will cover 230,000 Yen and we have to find the rest within our budget.

living off base. House hunt #1

So because we have a little tiny dog and only one child we don't qualify for any of the military housing that's within an hour of this base. If DH was one rank higher, we would automatically qualify for a 3 bedroom town house right here on base and we'd have a little fenced back yard and everything would be copacetic. Or if we had another baby, we could have the town house, but since we only have one child and DH is an E-6 not an E-7, we only qualify for an apartment in one of the towers, however, they don't allow pets, so our nearest option is 45 minutes away at 1 am on a Tuesday, and 1 1/2 - 2 hours away anytime during daylight/weekday hours. For the pleasure of shortening the trip by up to 45 minutes, a person can take the toll roads for only $20+ a day. Whew, what a relief!!

Supposedly everyone who lives in that section of military housing swears they wouldn't live down here if they were paid to do so, but that kind of commute just isn't our cup of tea, so we have chosen to live off base.

For many, the idea of living off base is scary and absurd, and I guess if you are a person who has always been content living one way of life and have little interest in learning about how the rest of the world lives, then on base is surely the way to go. I can to a degree understand that it could be scary to some to move into an area where you are a minority and where none of your neighbors understand what you are saying or why you act the way you do. The differences really aren't that big, sure the stop signs will only say stop in Japanese, but hey, they all look like red upside down caution signs, so you don't really need to read it anyway. And at least you'll know what kind of money is accepted at the place you intend to do business, not like here where some places will take your debit card, some places only take US dollars and some only take US dollars or Yen, but even if you pay in Yen you might get US dollars back as change or maybe you pay with US dollars and will get Yen back as change. Half the soda machines take Yen and the other half take US dollars. Plus if you live close enough, it is quite simple to just come on base and do your shopping here so everything will still be in english.

Seriously, I don't think it would be any more confusing living out in town. It may be tough to make sure I'm not doing things that are offensive to my Japanese neighbors, but other than that, I really can't think of any reason that living out in town would be bad. I mean Japan is one of the safest societies there is. It's not like I'm opting to live off base in a middle eastern country where I'd have to cover everything except my eyes and walk 10 paces behind my husband and worry about being shot or raped because I'm not pious enough for thier culture.

Anyway, all that said, we began our search for off base housing on Monday. We went to the housing office, conveniently attached to the Navy Lodge, and filled out some paperwork and got down to business looking through one of 23 binders full of listings of local houses and apartments available for rental by military personnel. We found 3 and took them up to the translator desk (it works kinda like a fitting room, you are only allowed 3 at a time). The first one was already rented and the housing agencies for the other two were closed for the New Year holiday which is celebrated for upto one week, and would be open again on Thursday. Having done all we could for the time being, we headed off to take care of some other important tasks.

Thursday arrived and we headed back to the housing office and they again attempted to call about the other 2 houses we had selected. The one house was already scheduled to be shown to someone that day, so they wouldn't schedule anyone else to see it until they got a yes or no answer from the person. The other one we scheduled to go see that afternoon. The translator we were speaking to (they call the housing agencies for us because many agents don't speak much English) said she knew of an agent who did really good at finding big houses with big yards for military families, so we asked her to give him a call and we were able to schedule an appointment with him for shortly after our first appointment (I think this may have been bad form in Japanese society, but I'm not sure).

The first agent we were to meet with does not have authorization to enter the Navy base, so we had to meet him a few blocks away at a local hotel. He arrived and off we went to look at a house with a yard and a monthly rent of 165,000 Yen ($1853.93).

The house was in an adorable neighborhood where the local school bus is shaped like a train locamotive. The neighboring houses looked nice as we drove by and the yards were surrounded by cute little rock walls with wraught iron gates. I was pretty excited by the prospect of this cute neighborhood. We pulled up in front of the house and stepped through a little gate and up a few stairs and aproached the front of the house. As we entered, we removed our shoes and were expected to walk through the house in our socks. The house was cold and damp inside and all the walls were that ugly 1970's dark wood paneling. The shower and bathtub were on the ground floor (typical of Japanese homes) and the tiling around the tub was badly chipped and broken. The sink and bathroom mirror were cheap plastic and the floor was mustard and olive green old chipped linoleum. The floors throughout were old and chipped and the windows were tough to open. Jon stepped out onto the balcony and we all held our breaths, half expecting him and the balcony to go crashing to the ground.

After our walk through we headed outside and started walking back to the car. I lost my footing on an uneven paver and rolled my ankle and skinned my knee. Our house agent just about lost his mind trying to make sure I was okay and rushed us to the car and took off driving before DH was even fully in the car with the baby. He careened around corners and pulled up to a stop in front of a house where a lady came running out with a first aid kit and cleaned my knee and bandaged me up. This all seemed very weird to me until later I was told that in Japan it is customary that if someone is hurt while in your care or in anyway that can be considered your fault, they can ask you for gift money, flowers and chocolates as your amends to them for their injury. Sure I have a sprained ankle, but I don't need to be paid for being a clutz, if that was the case, I'd have been rich long ago. And the last thing I need while I can't be up and around as much as usual is some nice fatty chocolate! Nope, a simple apology was plenty for me.

Anyway, since we hadn't seen what Japan had to offer as far as houses, other than this house, we told him thank you and that maybe we would want this house, but that we would get back to him later. We sure hoped our next house visit would go much better.

Picture time...

So I haven't been the best at snapping pictures of things around here, but I'm trying to get at least a few pictures posted on here for y'all to look at...

So here goes.














This is a picture of a fake bamboo fence here at the lodge. I had to take a picture of it to emphasise the military's attempts at fitting in with the culture, no matter how feeble the attempts... These little fences are here and there around the base and though cheesy in that they are fake, are novel anyway.
















This is our friend's orange tree that is growing in her back yard here on base. It grows those little 'Christmas oranges' otherwise known as mandarins. I learned through experience that eating an unripe orange is not an extremely pleasant experience. That is, unless you enjoy making a fish face and squinting your eyes super tight while tears shoot out of them. I guess I'll have to hold of on stealing people's oranges until they are actually orange...















This and the next few pics are examples of some of the things placed here and there in the lodge to give it a little bit less of a bomb shelter feel. I really wouldn't mind having either of the following pieces of furniture. I wonder if they'd notice me carrying them out of here on my back?!? LOL! Just kidding of course.



















While Toilets in some areas seem a bit primeval, Japanese have mastered the best bathing system ever!! These shower knobs look a bit confusing and at first are even a bit scary, especially since nothings in English, but once I figured them out, I will be so sad to use anything different. I only hope our house here will have the same system. When I get my house, I'll let you know.














I'll do my best to explain these 3 knobs as I have come to understand their purpose. We'll call the knob on the right (displaying the number 40) knob 1, the lowest knob (clear knob with orange and grey areas showing Japanese Kanji characters) will be knob 2 and the white knob will be knob 3. okay The purpose of knob 1 is to set the temperature you want your water to come out of the faucet every single time you turn it on, be it for the shower head or the spigot. The only trick is that knob 1 is in Celsius, so be careful!! Knob 2 when turned to the left turns on the shower head, the further you turn it the higher the water pressure, until it is blasting the skin right off your body. I did an experiment and filled a knee deep tub with water from the shower turned on high in less time than it took me to shave my legs, that's like 50+ gallons in probably less than 3 minutes. Talk about serious water pressure!! If you turn knob 2 to the right, then water will come out of the spigot to fill your tub. Now let's say you have used knob 2 to fill your tub with the perfect temperature of water as set by knob 1, and you are relaxing in a tub that's actually big enough to truly submerge your whole self except of course for your head, when you discover that you have not become adequately pruney yet, but your water is no longer sufficiently hot. That's where wonderful knob number 3 comes into play, just reach up and turn knob 3 to the desired temperature of scalding water to top off your tub. You see, knob 3 only sends water out of the spigot and can be set for anywhere from 100 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 250. The numbers on the knob go to 300, but it doesn't turn past 250. I imagine that past 250, you'd really only be getting straight steam anyway, so what's the point right??

(The following is an unofficial public service announcement from my pediatrician back home) Don't let the baby play with the knobs in the tub!!!! (since she didn't want my water turned any hotter than 120 from my water heater and proceeded to ask me about it every single time I saw her.)














The toilet's here in the lodge are pretty cool too. You'll notice the knob here has an arrow pointing up and one pointing down, each with a Japanese character assigned to each direction.

The character associated with the up arrow means big, giving you a big flush and using the whole 5 gallon tank of water. This flush is intended for large waste, call it what you will.

The character associated with the down arrow means small, and gives you a small flush, that lasts only as long as you hold the lever that direction. This flush is intended for small waste.















Worlds smallest, most baffling fire extinguisher. This is above my stove top here in the lodge, and is less than 3 inches across and doesn't have any levers or knobs or anything, it's just a little can suspended from the hood vent. I haven't the slightest idea how to work it, or if it somehow just works itself. By now it's probably a moot point, since the thing looks like it might be older than I am and my experience with extinguishers in the states is that from time to time they need recharged or they are worthless.















Here's a pic of a dry dock that was built in the 1880's (sorry, I forgot the exact date) which means it was here before the US ever even came to Japan for any reason, let alone took over their navy base and called it home. On the side of the base where this is, the scenery is much different than what I see from the lodge. It is very industrial and actually quite ugly. There are big conduits running along the sides of the roads and big buildings everywhere. It is strange though to see that mixed in with the cinder block construction (to stand up to the constant winds and typhoons), there are huge warehouses made of corrugated fiberglass and corrugated aluminum and steel. They look older than the hills around them, yet despite the winds and all they are still there, obviously patched, re patched and re patched, but still there.














Here's an example of one of the afore mentioned hills and an example of the hills that cover this base and this area of Japan. The ground can be completely level, and then suddenly a huge hill will be there, super steep and tall. The next photo is a picture of one out in town when we went on a house hunting trip. In the 20 minutes it took us to get to the house we went to see, we went through about 8 tunnels I think and each one was through a hill that was super super steep. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures on our way back from that house, because on the north side of a few of the hills were beautiful cemeteries built up the sides of the hills. They were fantastic.














A nasty grey sky picture from yesterday. The day was dull and grey throughout, but by nightfall, it was very windy and quite cold and as I walked with DD half way across base, the winds were too strong for her to walk against it and I had to carry her and lean into the wind to make any headway. It reminded me of Alaska.














This is the only shrine I've seen so far. It's small and dirty and abandoned. It's actually on top of a hill here on base, another throw back from when this was a Japanese Navy base. Next to it is a murky, mucky, fish less pond.

In a way I want to get in there and clean it up, it looks so sad, but I don't really know what I would do with it once it was clean since I am not Buddhist and would not be putting a Buddha in it. It just looks so sad and forgotten.