Realty Bites

A moment of freedom from the kennel. See how much Finchy needs her own place?

We are still in the Navy Lodge and hotel living is quickly getting old. The woman next door has a loud hacking cough, that at first just annoyed us by keeping us awake, but when Dave and I both developed similar coughs a few days ago, it was all the more irritating. So, we haven't been up to anything particularly exciting lately. Just trying to take care of the necessities: primarily, shelter.

The housing process here is complicated. When we checked in to the housing office we received an entire folder outlining the procedure, complete with a flowchart. Basically, there is limited military housing. There are the houses on base here which are highly coveted, and require getting on a waiting list. There are two other military housing areas further from the base. Housing is assigned on the basis of arrival date, your rank and number of people in your family. That part is the same at every base. What we have come to realize over the past few years, however, is that without kids you're screwed. Military housing is designed for large families, and if you don't fit that mold, you're out of luck. Having Seamus and Finchy make it all that much harder. (Sorry if I sound bitter, but this is the one part of navy life that never fails to irritate me.) In military housing here in Japan, there are some units which don't allow cats, some don't allow dogs and some don't allow child-free families.

All of this means that, most likely we'll be living out in town, which is a little intimidating, but I admit probably better in the long run. We will be so much more immersed in the culture this way. There are rental agents all over town-you have to go through one of them to see anything. They receive a fee for their service which is equal to about one months' rent. There is also a key fee, an owner's fee and a security deposit. All total, it takes about 10-12K to rent a place here. Sifting through the listings was daunting. Of course there are the usual considerations, how close is the house to the base? to a train station? what's the neighborhood like? But there are other things to think about here, like how many tatami mat rooms there are(I am having nightmares about Seamus and his claws let loose in a tatami room) and if there is an American oven or only a "fish oven". There was other information offered which made me hesitate, like the location of the closest natural disaster evacuation site. Also, there is a section on every listing indicating if there are snakes, centipedes or insects in the house and the level of the infestation: minor, moderate, major. We rejected anything listed as having "major snakes".

So anyway, we picked out several properties to view. We can't see anything until next week, because the New Year is a major national holiday here, and everything is closed for the next week. We'll be twiddling our thumbs for the next few days, not getting much done. Wish us luck on our continuing search!

Local Flavor

During the War of 1812 when Oliver Hazard Perry was battling the British on Lake Erie coining his famous line, "We have met the enemy and they are ours" the younger Perry, Matthew Calbraith, was opening shipping lanes to Japan. Along with it brought the relationships between nations' world travelers; sailors. The Japanese navy began to interact with navies such as the British, and brought back spoils of their exploits. One of them being curry. The Japanese adapted it to accommodate their rice. The result was something now known as a Japanese Navy delight. It is a dish specific to Yokosuka (Yah-Koh-Ska) and the duck sailor shown represents all forms of the dish. The leading restaurant in the area is Coco Curry.

We went to Coco Curry today and now we want it all the time. It was amazing and the menu is in five languages. The combination of the spicy curry flavor, which once could choose from 1-6 heat levels, with the Japanese rice was a perfect match. You are really missing out in the States. In hindsight, it becomes one of the reasons that fulfills our desire to seek the overseas adventure. I never want to be the American that never leaves the confines of the base and reports how much Japan sucked because all I ever did was go to the base club; where there is nothing but a lot of, what Jennifer would call, "frontin'".

Happy Merry Christmas

If you lived in Japan you would have gotten to celebrate Christmas already. We were surprised to see so much Christmas cheer; the national religion being Shinto, but I guess being so close to the Navy base (or on it) it was inevitable. Daie, the Moomin themed mall down the street was bustling. We were able to see the local Japanese version of Girl Scouts perform O Tannenbaum in Japanese. It was adorable. We have come to realize, no matter what part of the world in which one is, children, and parents reactions to them, are the same. We found, and bought, the traditional Japanese Christmas Cake. A white cake with strawberries; lovely. It was from a bakery called Ducky Duck. We remembered it from an episode of Iron Chef Japan that we had seen back in the states. I think we were just so happy to finally have recognized some part of local culture.

Christmas spirit was all around, but we felt a certain sense of time travel when we dined at the Arliegh Burke Commissioned Officers' Club for Christmas Eve dinner. It was as if we had stepped back to 1943; I guess in reality this would have been impossible since in 1943 we were still at war with Japan, but you get the idea. In the dining room the faint sound of Christmas carols could be heard issuing from the piano over the tink-clinking of silverware on plates. A team of Japanese waitresses were on hand in the dining room as if every seat was filled when in reality it was us and the guy at the table next to us nursing a bottle of red wine, alone. There actually was one other family and they seemed very excited, but the atmosphere said old fashioned style dining. The menu's main attraction was lamb chops and roast of beef. Small crusty dinner rolls came just prior to the entree with a single butter pat. The waitress expected us to receive coffee immediately after the meal, and I half expected to have to retire to the drawing room with the other gentlemen. It was wonderful! Yes, we know we were born about four decades late. Christmas eve was wonderful!

Christmas morning, He came! Santa did not forge us in the Navy Lodge, Yokosuka. The picture posted shows out "tree", a small floral arrangement with a pine cone. Jennifer got a Casio keyboard, but all she wants to play is movie soundtrack-esque songs. They are all slow tempo-ed but she seems to have a scene in mind of a bad Lifetime movie where the husband is realizing the error of his ways and is walking alone down a dark city street trying to collect the shattered remains of his pathetic marriage. When I realize how long she has been striking the keyboard in these monotones she looks back at me an giggles. Some times Jennifer's sense of humor scares because I can't tell if she's joking or not.

Christmas in Japan was great, we had wonderful friends here from the USS Connecticut who had us over, it was wonderful.

Thanks for all of your comments and messages so far! We really love being able to keep up everyone this way. We hope every one else has a very Happy Christmas too!

Me Talk Japanese One Day

Okay, we're starting to really feel like foreigners. The sensation of just being on vacation is wearing off, and we're becoming aware of just how much we will need to learn to get by.

We need to learn some Japanese, pronto...I mean, sousou.

Yesterday in the market a Japanese man bumped into me. He looked over at me, and said "excuse me" in English. Dave and I looked at each other, each wondering if we had heard correctly. We are in this man's country, and he excused himself to us in our language. I can't imagine going out of my way to do this in the aisles of Super Wal-Mart at home. Despite my years of book learned French and Spanish, honestly I just wouldn't bother.

Our language skills might be embarrassing, but we're taking pride in the small victories. Like successfully showering.

We're staying in the hotel on base until we find housing. The navy base is a little American oasis in Yokosuka. There is even a Dunkin' Donuts here. (Yokosuka is already more like home than Bremerton in that respect) The hotel is pretty much like any standard American mid-grade hotel, EXCEPT for the shower. We still are not completely sure how to use it. Dave has turned it off twice all by himself, to great applause from me. I have made it as far as turning the shower-head off, but I have to call Dave to turn off the faucet. I posted a picture above. You may think it looks easy, but don't judge.

Also there is a photo of the cell phones from last post; notice the choices on the bottom of the screen, I am not sure what "Options" I have or what I am supposed to "Select" here. Still working on figuring those out...

Day Ichi (Day One)

We woke early on the first day, mostly from the Jet lag (or lead, I am not sure which), but probably could have used a little more sleep. We opened the windows from our hotel and caught an amazing view of a Japanese frigate and submarine cruising in from Tokyo Bay.

Our priorities were to check on the pets, get cell phones and explore.

The woman who runs the Kennel is amazing. She really gave us piece of mind the night we arrived and dropped off the pets, she took care of everything. The first morning we went to the kennel she opened the door to the kennels and let us visit at our leisure. Seamus was next to a beautiful Himalayan who continually darted his paw in and out of his cage tapping us on the shoulder as we tried to visit with Seamus. Seamus did not agree with the other cat's behavior and hissed at us, his food, the litter box and everything around him until Jennifer was able to calm him down enough the come and say hello. Finchy was oblivious. She has adapted like a champ. She was a little freaked out by all the other animals and noise at first, but we went to take her for a walk and she made some other beagle friends. There are four other beagles at the kennel, I think they are going to start a gang.

Our first Japanese adventure was acquiring cell phones. I got an inside tip on what mobile phone companies to use here. There is a large shopping street close to the base (Blue Street) where these companies could be found. We went with "au" since reports sat they have the best service. The other big company has cooler phones, but since the iPhone is relatively new here it is still more than $600 per phone. The negotiations went on for more than an hour deliberating what we wanted in phones and plans with the saleswoman who spoke more broken English than we spoke Japanese (bless her heart). We finally ended up with an English phone that we still have no idea how to use. The only thing we have consistently been able to do is navigate to a menu from which we cannot return.

After the cell phone store, we wandered around some of the local shops and department stores. There are a lot of Christmas decorations and displays, which I did not expect. The best was in the nearby mall. At the top of a large staircase there was a big archway decorated for Christmas. Children were milling around-it looked like a mall Santa Claus setup. When we got closer though, it was a huge blue blob with a snow hat that all of the children were waiting in line to see. Unfortunately, we missed the photo op with the blob, but we scored a picture of his lair.

Hurry Up and Wait

The Navy scheduled us on an AMC (Air Mobility Command) flight. These flights are managed by the US Air Force, but contracted out to commercial airlines (leave it to the USAF to take an easy job and delegate even that). I didn't realize this at first; I originally thought that they would hand us out parachutes and we'd be sitting with our backs against the sides of a C-130 - but the flight wasn't bad at all. The frustrating part was actually getting on and off of the plane.

In true military fashion, Dave was given reams of paperwork several weeks ago with strict instructions on where to go, how to check in for the flight, and when. A Northwest flight was contracted, so we were to check in at Seattle-Tacoma International. Although the flight was not scheduled until 10:30am, we were required to show at 4:25am. This meant we had to get up at 2am, to get ready and make the hour plus drive to the airport; this is not a complaint just an observation .

Following the instructions, we tried to find the AMC counter "on the mezzanine above ticketing, between the USO and Cinnabon". It was non existant. We inquired at the USO, and they sent us directly to the Northwest ticket counter. The Northwest ticket counter sent us to a long serpentine line of sea bag-toting young men. The last man in line shook his head as we tried to take our place and pointed to yet another line on the other side of the ticketing atrium. Dave, I guess, is accustomed to this modus operandi by now. I was a little less patient.

We finally made our way through the line and checked in. We seriously could have showed up a couple hours later and it wouldn't have made a damn bit of difference.

The bright spot in all of this is that the seat assignments were according to rank. The majority of the passengers were very young, junior guys, so we were assigned to first class. I am guessing that the military would not have paid for us to fly in such luxury on a non-AMC flight!

We arrived at Yokota Air Force Base around 3pm local time. They marched us single file into a cinder block room and had us sit in small plastic chairs and wait. That was a little weird. However, after that, the customs process was very fast, much faster than if we had flown into Narita airport.

Trash of the Titans

We have officially made closure on our lease for the last American house we will see for two years. The biggest obstacle we faced was de-trashing the premises. As Americans we generally produce more garbage than any other people; and we definitely made our contribution to the landfill this week. In keeping with the recent "green" movement we tried very hard to donate and recycle as much as we could. There were just a few bulky items that we found there was no way around it, they had to be tossed. One of them being an old mattress. I am not sure if it is all over, or just here in The Peoples' Republic of Washington, but one is apparently not supposed to discard items like a mattress without being heavily fined and forced to hemorrhage excessive amounts of money to make up for the terrible act of throwing away trash.

Last night under the cover of darkness, bungee cords and light flurries we were able to "take care" of things. God Bless America!

Moving Out

So, this is our last week in the United States. We have been busy with moving, cleaning, getting the pets okay'ed by the vet to fly. We are exhausted, but happy to be done with it, and getting more excited by the day to get to Japan.

Although it is a lot of work, I personally love to move. I love the excitement and anticipation of going to a new place. I think like Pa from the Little House on the Prairie books, I have "the wanderin' foot". When I have been in one place for too long it gets to itchin'.

Dave and I saw a commercial the other night about how difficult it is to move, and nothing in the world is scarier than seeing all of your posessions pull away from your house in a moving truck. Amateurs! We laughed and laughed. We love to see the back end of that truck because we know it means something new ahead.

Despite our bravado, we are completely unsure of what to expect at the other end this time. I still can't believe we're going to Japan! The reality probably won't truly set in until we arrive next week. We both feel so lucky that we get to have this experience. We hope everyone will keep in touch, and check back here with us!