Our first few days in Japan...

Our first few days in Japan...

Some cherry blossoms or sakura, on the Naval Base.

After four hours waiting in the airport, a two hour delayed flight and ten hours in the air we finally arrived to Japan around two o'clock in the afternoon. By the time we made it through customs, and loaded up the bus it was after three. The twenty-eight mile drive to our base, Naval Air Facility (NAF) Atsugi was over two hours long. Traffic moves relatively slow, and there are a lot of stoplights. Here are some photos taken from the bus ride, our first glances of our new home.

                                  

                                                                             

We were luckily greeted by sunshine and a clear day. This a view of some mountains off the road. There were a lot of car dealerships, McDonalds,  7/11 minimarts, and this KFC.

                                                                                                                                                                     

 

Generally everything is very condensed. When we were landing, we could see Tokyo and the surrounding areas out each side of the plane. I have NEVER seen so much super condensed city in my life. The buildings stretch from the mountains to the sea...in 3 directions, and there are many seperate area of skyscrapers. Houses are about as close to eachother as possible, small and large yards are a luxury. People have gardens shoved anywhere they can.

 Once we arrived on base, it was around 5 p.m. Exhaustion and delerium (a.k.a. Super-bitchiness, a.k.a. my inner pitbull) had set in for me, since I hadn't slept at all the night before we left. When we were unexpectedly met by Marcus's division officers, I proceeded to make an ass of myself. They wanted to make pleasantries, and talk business in the Lobby. I was in no mood for political pleansantries, I just wanted to get my family settled in our private room and find caffeine. The airplane had only served crappy instant coffee granules- which I wanted no part of at the time...after grabbing some food on base, we managed to stay up until just after dark.

After a good night's rest, we were all wide awake up at 2:30 am. Yay...jetlag is fun. For a few days you feel like you can function after waking up at 2:30, but by 2 p.m....you just want to crash. So we made sure to take an afternoon nap each day (at least the boys did, I couldn't nap for anything). I tried to write my blog during these times, which was very slow-going and just not productive in any way as I could hardly focus.

Marcus had run into a friend from highschool (it's a small world afterall), the very first night as we were walking to the base food court. So he invited us to dinner out in town the next day. We were fully expecting some sushi, or ramen noodles to chow down on. When he picked us up in his car, he asked if we liked pasta, and well of course- doesn't everyone? It turns out he's no so keen on the whole sushi thing, so he took us to a place he likes called Spagetti Goemon.

Outside view of Spagetti Goemon

Though it wasn't what we expected our first real meal in Japan to be, it was really amazing. My pasta was probably the BEST pasta, I've ever had. It was simple and amazing, spagetti (cooked perfectly al dente), broccoli, shrimp, and sundried tomatoes topped with olive oil, garlic and seasoned to perfection.

These fun plastic food displays greet you in many restaurants in Japan. This is initially how we chose our food.

The menu, they didn't have an English menu, but it has great detailed pictures.

The Kid's meal was a rice dish with pasta sauce and cheese, some OJ (oranji juzu),
also a small cake, and some custard. Quite tasty.

Ben "using" his chopsticks, or hashi.



          It was a great way to finish our first 24 hours in Japan. The next few days were somewhat low-key. We stayed on base checking in to different departments, and trying to coax our bodies into functioning through the temporal change. We got a house assignment right away, and will be able to move into it on Thursday ( 3/22). For now, we have decided not to buy a car to save money. Though cars are very inexpensive (avg. $2000), insurance can cost up to $1000 per month. Everything we need is within walking (or biking) distance whether on, or off base so we see no need to have a car. The train station is only about 2 km from our home.

New apartment, 8th floor on the right.
(Earthquakes are gonna be fun up there!)

         Unfortunately we won't be allowed to have a dog in this housing, so Frankie will be staying in Chicago for the next three years. I can't even explain how sad this makes me, my main goal as a wife and mother is to do whatever I can to keep my entire family together, pets included, splitting it up in any way is weight I don't like to bear. I'm not much for crying, but just thinking about not seeing my "first born" really hurts. I know he is being well loved and cared for by my wonderful Big Sister, but it's still very hard on us. I guess, this is what we do for our Country though...this year really feels like a year of sacrifices. Hopefully the gods will be apeased...

I mean, look at that face!!