Still Waiting

So we are all moved in to our "new home"...sorta. All of our belongings are still somewhere between Wildomar, CA and Iwakuni, Japan. That is only a span of 6,000 nautical miles. We go online and look every few days to see if there are any updates on when we may get a delivery....and it is still set for June 10th and July 12th. Bummer Deal.
To pass the time, Jon has gone back to work...Lucky him. Tracy is already going stir crazy...we knew that would not take long. Finding a job here in Japan is not easy. She has signed up to volunteer with the Red Cross to help pass the time. In the meantime, she has been finding little things to do, like taking a bus/train trip up to Hiroshima for the day. She & Jon are now trying to figure out how to design a garden, and what grows in Japan. Lots of Internet research!
Looks like we won't have to worry about watering our garden, as we have entered the rainy season. From May 26 to November 30, we are in Typhoon Season. We did have a typhoon over the weekend, but by the time it reached us, it was down-graded to a tropical storm...although we did have over 7 inches of rain in 3 days!
Sorry there are no pictures to post...the battery on the camera is dead, and the charger is in a box...waiting to be delivered. Thank goodness Amazon delivers...we will see which package gets here faster!!

Base Housing

Living room from the Front Door
We think it will fit our furniture!



View from opposite side of the room
Thank goodness for screen doors, there are gnats here





View of the kitchen from the hallway, large closet
Yes, that is an island, and it is movable




Another view of the kitchen. The large closet on the left is the Washer & Dryer
The smaller closet is a huge pantry




Another kitchen view. Full size fridge and dishwasher



Guest bedroom/Office



Master bedroom with floor to ceiling closets. They are in both bedrooms!

Yea!! We finally moved into our base housing. So far, we have loaner furniture, as we have no idea where ours is at. As of know, we think it is still in CA, waiting for the boat! In the mean time, we can at least unpack our bags, and know that we don't have to pack it up for at least 3 years...unless we decide to move to a bigger house once Jon picks up rank (don't think we will move).
We are keeping busy over here, as much as we can. Today was Jon's first official day back to work, which Tracy had to drive him to. Since Jon was not completely checked in on base, they would not allow him to get his SOFA license, so Tracy is the only driver...did we tell you they drive on the wrong side of the car as well as the road...Scary!! We have 2 cars now, one we bought, and one we were given for free. The free van has literally been passed through everyone at Jon's shop. So we get it, and will then pass it on to the next guy that comes along needing a car.
We can now get into a routine, now that we are finally done with the pack/move/unpack routine. We can finally get settled into our home, and count back the days til we get to come home!
With Jon working, Tracy has been keeping busy running around the base getting little things done. It took 3 days to license/register, insure and transfer titles on cars. In between all the little errands, Tracy has been applying for several different jobs. One nursing position is available on base, but unfortunately the application period goes until August. In the mean time, Tracy is going to start volunteering at the Red Cross, using that as way to get her feet in the door for a nursing job. First up, Tracy is going to become a certified CPR instructor, and start teaching the CPR classes on the base....fun fun!
Other than that, we are going day by day, and still getting adjusted to life in Japan.
Once our furniture gets here, we will start taking reservations for the guest room...start saving your money!!





Still waiting!!



Pics of Iwakuni, just off base

    On Saturday, we got up early (everyday is early here), and literally walked through every parking lot and hit up every bulletin board in the mid-rises looking for cars for sale. Tracy got her SOFA (status of forces agreement) license on Friday so she is legal to drive on and off base. Jon still has to wait to be completely signed in before he can get his.
We (Tracy) did test drive 3 cars and we have narrowed it to one. We can not get the car until Monday as we have to go off base to get secondary insurance, then go to PMO (police station) on base and register the car in our names, then back off base to transfer the title....a lot of back and forth!
Once we have the car, we will post pictures of it....so not like an american car!
We putzed around town for a bit and hit up a local produce stand....prices are just as high there as they are on base! We also had lunch out in town....thinking Japanese...wrong, we had Thai! Can you say YUMM-O!
This next week should be a busy week too! Monday is Jon's final check in...he has to officially check in with the Sgt Major, after that, he should be good to go, and able to start working again. I will be running around all morning getting things done so we can buy the car and get it in our names. Tuesday is moving day...yeah. We are both tired of living in temporary housing. We have a walk through @ 0930, and get the keys after that. Too bad we will be using loaner furniture...as far as we know, all of our things are still in CA waiting to be shipped here.
Wednesday & Thursday are still up in the air. On Friday, Tracy is going on a guided tour with a friend. The tour starts on base, and goes to town to catch the city bus (learn how to use japanese transportation) to the Shin station (bullet train). We will catch the Shin to Hiroshima, and have about 4 hours to shop, sight-see, etc. We will then do the exact opposite, catch the Shin back to Iwakuni, and the bus back to the base. Should be a fun & busy week!!

Jet-Lag & House Hunting

The first couple of days have been very exhausting. Trying to adjust to a 16 hour time difference is not easy. We have literally been going to bed at 7:00pm, and waking up at 3:30am. Thank goodness for the internet to keep us occupied in the early mornings. JET-LAG SUCKS!!! On Thursday, Jon had to be out the door at 8:30am to check in. That afternoon we walked around the middle of "town" and hit up the base exchange as well as the commissary for some groceries. The prices of food are similar to those at home, until it comes to produce. Most produce is shipped in from the states, so it is not cheap. A bag of apples (5 apples) was $6, and bananas were $1.20 a pound. Luckily, there is a produce stand just outside of base that is cheaper....gonna have to go there.
On Friday, we had an appointment with base housing. We were very surprised to be scheduled so soon, as we had heard it could take months to get housing. Since this is PCS season, there are openings right now. We were literally given three sets of keys, and told to go look and choose....much better than just being given whatever was available.
House #1: In Monzen (across the Monzen River) is an upstairs 2bd/1ba unit. The unit has be recently renovated and new carpet has been placed. The Kitchen is HUGE with a moveable island. It has a full stove/oven and even a dishwasher. The unit has hookups for washer/dryer, and we were told that those would be placed in the unit. The rooms were good sized and this unit comes with a front-yard/side yard that includes a storage shed.
House #2: The Mid-rise apartment was on the 6th floor (penthouse). It was an open concept 2bd/1ba unit with a huge patio off the living room, as well as another patio off the master bedroom. There was no shortage of storage spac in this unit. The building felt like a dorm....but had great river views, only down side was the elemenatry and high school were literally across the street...noisy.
House #3: North side ground floor townhome with a HUGE yard! This unit was not renovated, and had funky linoleum/tile floors throughout, making it kind of loud. The layout was very similar to house #1, but the kitchen was not as big, nor did it have an island. This house was the closest to Jon's work, but the downside was the flight line was about a 2 minute walk away. It can get vey loud when fighter jets go screaming down the runway.
In the end, we chose house #1, and we will sign the paperwork on wednesday @ 1300. We don't know how soon we can move in, but it should be fairly soon, hopefully by next weekend.
This is our new home...the upper unit!
Our front yard.... we can plant a garden too!!
Our side yard...lots of plans for this space!

Moving Day to Japan

Tuesday May 10, 2011 was moving day. We woke up at 4:30AM (MS time) to get ready to go to the airport. We had to be at the airport a little early as we had two sea bags, and two large suitcases to check. We also wanted to see about upgrading seats on our "long" flight. We left Gulfport airport at 7am, and landed in Dallas/Ft. Worth at 8:30. We only had 90 minutes in Dallas to change planes (go to the international terminal), and convert out money to yen.

10000Y is approx $120

The coins are 100Y = $1 and 500Y =$5

2000Y and 5000Y

In Dallas we boarded an American Airlines flight that would take us directly to Tokyo, Narita. This flight was twelve and a half hours long. Luckily for Jon & I, we were able to get "bulkhead" seats, so we had extra leg room. The flight was not as bad as we thought it would be. We got up several times just to move around, and use the bathrooms. Each seat had its own TV so we were able to watch TV shows, movies and play video games to pass the time. We each brought a book, and never opened them.

The flight path was very interesting, as we left Dallas, and headed northwest for Washington, and flew over Vancouver, British Columbia, to Alaska, and then covered the Aleutian Islands, and the Bering Sea. During this time, we crossed the International Date line, changing the day from Tuesday to Wednesday, May 11. This just happened to be Jon's 30th birthday!

Eventually we started to head south and came right into Tokyo, Narita.

We were very happy to be on the ground again! Once off the plane, we had to go through immigration, (very easy), claim our bags, go through customs, (easy) and then transfer to another airport. For 6000Y (approx $45) we bought bus passes that transferred us to Tokyo, Haneda for our last flight. It was pouring down rain, and very foggy so it was hard to see the country, but we did see Disney Tokyo (looks nothing like Disneyland). The transfer took about an hour, and we were dropped off at our terminal.

Checking in to a Japanese airport is very different than the US...I guess you could say EASY!! Jon literally walked up to the ticket counter, showed our itinerary, and got 2 boarding passes, no ID was shown. We then walked to another desk, and checked our bags....Japan Airlines DO NOT CHARGE FOR BAGS!! From there, we walked to security....simple. Shoes stay on, sweaters stay on, heck I brought 2 bottles of water with me...no questions asked.

Our last flight was from Tokyo, Haneda to Hiroshima. The weather was still bad, and the airline gave us a heads up that depending on the weather, we may have to turn around, but we managed to get to Hirsohima. We were met by Jon's GySgt, who brought us to base, and got us checked in to the base as well as to TLF.

In all, we traveled 21 hours, and we were awake for about 27 hours straight. We both crashed once in the room, only to wake up at 5:30am the next day! 

Last of Mississippi

 The Tyer House....our third place to stay while in Biloxi...yep that's right, we moved three times in 17 days! We are pro's at moving.

 The SHED....the best food in Mississippi. If it sounds familiar, it was featured on Diner's, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network!!

 The Gator Gulch out back behind The SHED! We have no idea if there are any gators in there, but hey, it's Mississippi....they are everywhere.

The band "Major Bacon" (I can't make that up)!

Little duck family that started to follow us

WE HAVE ORDERS!!!

The day has come, we got official orders to go to Iwakuni. We are scheduled to leave on Tuesday May 10 at 7am (thats 5am CA time) from Gulfport, MS. We will fly from GPT to Dallas-Ft. Worth, where we will connect to a direct flight to Tokyo. This flight is about 15 hours long...during this flight we will cross the internantional date line, and be a day ahead. Once in Tokyo, we connnect to yet another flight to Hiroshima, where we will be picked up and taken to Iwakuni. In all, we have about 21 hours of travel ahead of us.

Long Weekend of Golf & Shopping!!

Since Jon had Friday off, we had a long weekend! Friday we putzed around base, and then headed over to Pascagoula MS, (Tracy renewed her CPR and had to pick up the card). After that, we drove back along the coast, and then hit up the TopChef Tour in the park.

On Saturday, we got up early and hit the Bay Breeze Golf Course on base. It was fun, but the high winds made it difficult.

We came across a turtle while tee-ing off!

 Talk about a water hazard....tee-ing off over a gulf channel!

 This goose was threatening to steal my ball!

Little goose family!!

On Sunday, we got up and went for coffee. Again we putzed around the base exchange, and then it the town for shopping. Since we don't know what kind of shopping we will have in Japan, we bought a little bit of everything....literally. Now we just have to find room to pack all of this new stuff!

This next week will hopefully bring us our orders, along with airline tickets and an official date of departure to Japan!!