More Esmerelda!

More pictures of my little weird car!

Ah the little things

A few pictures from our drive around the island.

One of my favorite things about Japan is that there are vending machines everywhere. And it is perfectly acceptable to pullover put your hazards on and grab a drink.

Hooray for a house

Well we were offered housing today. It kind of sucked because we were told  only towers were available and originally they showed us two houses on the same floor.

We went with one of the houses on level two which is a level that also allows dogs so we will be able to pet sit for family. But more importantly the bases often lose power during typhoons so atleast we won't be entirely stranded on level 2.

It is a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment. With a huge storage friendly kitchen, quite different from Miramar. The rooms aren't overly big and the ac units are annoying but we will figure it out. Overall it should be done and dandy for us and the fat cat.

Kitchen

Living room from dining room

Dining room and balcony from living room

Laundry room

Bedroom 1

Bedroom 2

Master bedroom

Hallway bathroom

Hallway

A little bit of laziness in my life

Today we did not have to get up until whenever we wanted! The past few says of constant briefs have has us waking up at ungodly hours. We also don't have any plans until afternoon.

Aj and his sponsor are headed up to Hanson to do aw more check in nonsense. And I am piggybacking on Alison's hair appt. She has the best hairstylist on the island but the lady is booked absolutely solid and doesn't take on new clientele. But they are friends so Alison convinced her to see me too. Which is good because I definitely have some split ends and damage to cut off. And my bangs are rather unfashionably long. So it will be a welcome cut!

A picture to prove our laziness.

Watch out world

Aj and I attended our newcomers brief today, which was honestly rather painful. Painfully boring except the okinawan culture brief which was awesome. The civilian magistrate who was hilarious and NCIS who tried to make a rated R brief, PG. And in between all the briefs we went to the Enlisted lounge at the Ocean Breeze for lunch and had burgers and bahn mi. Both of which were awesome. But at the end we had to take our Japanese driving exams and somehow we managed to pass despite being completely certain we had both utterly bombed it. So as of Friday, when we pick up our vehicles, we will be licensed to drive here. Nerve wracking! I'm not worried about the actual driving so much as I am worried about getting just crazy amounts of lost.

Rain rain stay forever!

Today we had some silly errands to run to deal with housing and our cars. Nothing of note there except the glorious weather. Torrential downpours. We have arrived in the middle of the okinawan rainy season and we are stoked. After 3 years of very little rain we are just stuck in it and it is wonderful. We were sprinting from between buildings and getting soaked.

Let me just say, I love love love rain!!

So we bought cars

So today we went for sushi which was delicious. Had some fabulous Tuna sashimi and strawberry rolls. Then we thought we would stop by the car dealership and just look. An hour later we had decided on two and have them on hold. My car is a hilarious looking okinawan car that looks crazy on the outside but a 1930s car on the inside, and it's amazing. My lovely 2001 Toyota Will VI. Named Esmerelda.

Aj went with a more normal car, but it will be better when we have guests as it has a hidden row of seats and more trunk space. He got a 2004 Nissan cube. Named Dave.

We are now going to explore the island and then get some apparently amazing ice cream.

Jet lag

I thought for sure i had beaten jet lag but it caught up with me. We spent yesterday just relaxing instead of going to a waterfall as planned. Turns out it is good we did because we got an email from our bank and our cards were blocked because of fraudulent foreign charges. Except they were us! Thankfully we were able to get ahold of the bank and figure out the problem. One form had not been filled out correctly, so we are now good to go!

 we then had dinner with aj's sponsor and his wife. We were able to get a lot of questions answered and a pretty good idea on our next three years.

 I'm calling it an eventful lazy day.

Our first full day in Okinawa

After waking up we decided to go get phones so we wouldn't be completely isolated here on the island. On our way back we saw some pretty awesome trees and took our first iPhone pictures.

After settling in mark and Alison took us for our first off base adventure. We had some delicious Japanese food and saw a few sights. And aj freaked out every time we turned, thinking we are going into oncoming traffic. It might be a long few years for him.

American village!

We sat at a traditional Japanese table and cooked our own food.

Aj approved! Try Viking is a good restaurant!

Pictures

The first pictures are from the move and cleaning out our house. Second set are from our stay in the hotel. The third are from our flight.

Jenner and Aj made themselves right at home in the hotel.

And on the flight we took pictures to prove how much space there would have been for Jenner.

Oh the web we weave, when we attempt to smuggle geckos onto a plane??

Getting to okinawa was certainly eventful! There was the usual and expected, dropping Jenner off for his vacation at Ruth's and saying goodbye to our lovely highlander which I will certainly miss. Getting to the airport to try and get seats next to one another for the first leg to Seattle, and then having 4 hours to kill. So going to extraordinary desserts with Ruth to gorge ourselves on sweets. Then returning to the airport and getting on the flight to find outlets at our seats, score no losing charge on this flight. Then showing up in Seattle for our ten hour layover only to find the USO closed and suddenly run into someone that Aj went to advanced flight school with who is also moving to okinawa, crazy! Then finally getting the bags checked in so we can go to the gate and wait for another 4 hours. Making the painful decision to become a tacky person traveling in yoga pants. But oh the comfort! Getting on the chartered airline only to find out that we were put in first class!! Suckers, everyone suckers!! It wasn't true first class of course the only difference was seat and leg space. But dear god the seat and leg space, oh my oh my! Who knows how many hours later, landing in Yokota, on the mainland, and waiting for like 4 hours when it is supposed to be 45 minutes because someone is trying to smuggle geckos into japan and they were on the plane the entire flight from Seattle!! At first we heard it was snakes and I almost lost my shit and I started talking like Samuel l Jackson. Point is, breaking the law, breaking the law! It is illegal to bring reptiles into japan and it is illegal to have them on military flights. Then landing in iwakuni, to find out that three people got off the flight in Yokota by accident, and their bags have to be evacuated....and that taking 4 hours. Oh and did I mention that the family of one of the missing passengers was on the plane?? Who continues on with a foreign pcs without their husband! Kind of essential to the process, dumbass. Have fun waiting in customs for him to be found because you won't be allowed entry into japan without your military member. Finally here, in the hotel, humidity is having it's way with me and gonna get a free I phone. Mic drop!