Free Zone at Huis Ten Bosch

So far we have only gone to the free zone at Huis Ten Bosch once since being here. It's a pretty small area of the whole park. Huis Ten Bosch is a replica Dutch village and it's located right next to Hario. There is still a very strong dutch influence in this part of Japan from when they used to only import and export with Holland and no one else.There are TONS of things to see in this park not the least of which are the beautiful gardens that are all hand planted each year, but also include the Hotels (yep you can stay there just like Disney Land), largest mirror maze in Japan, an M.C. Escher 3D show and a Thriller Fantasy Museum which does Halloween shows. The Palace Huis Ten Bosch is a reproduction of the exterior of the residence of Her Majesty, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. It is one of the best walkways in the resort. They have spectacular light shows and parades during the winter. During the summer they host fireworks competitions which means we literally just have to step outside our front door or open a window to watch the shows! But they also set off fireworks for special and major holidays like New Year's Eve and Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, there are no actual rides in this amusement park(aside from boat tours and carriage rides) but the shows and museums are still great to go and see. I recommend buying the Toku-Toku card if you plan on going to all the shows because otherwise you have to pay separately for each show.

Domtoren Tower. We can see it from all over Hario because it stands 344 feet tall. It recreates the tallest church tower in the Netherlands.

Pirate ship. :) The free zone is located by the docks.

A sand painting. This is a picture from One Piece, a popular anime here.

Very elaborate ship based on the anime, One Piece. It's called The Thousand Sunny and they give boat tours on it. 

Bio Park in Nagasaki

This is a really great zoo/botanical gardens to take the whole family to. The most popular exhibits are the capybara and the squirrel monkeys, but the entire park is really beautiful and fun. You are allowed to pet and/or feed just about everything in the park. Kids ages 3 and under are free and adults entry is 1200 yen. Parking is free. The first time we went we took the free shuttle that will pick you up from Huis Ten Bosch, it's an easy walk from Hario. It's also free to ride the shuttle back from Bio Park. You can't miss it, it's bright yellow, has animals painted on it and says "Bio Park." The second time we drove ourselves since by then we knew the way. It's a nice drive, not too long, and it was great getting to see other parts of Japan by ourselves.

Feeding a capybara, the largest rodent in the world!

Feeding squirrel monkeys!

They will jump right on you as soon as they see you with food for them. You can buy it right there for 100 yen.

Front of the park. :)

Some Useful Information

Well, I think one of the first things we observed, after getting over the jet lag, was just how quiet things seem to be in housing. You'll see people in the public areas like the gym and the NEX and post office of course, but we rarely see our own neighbors unless we happen to bump into them in the parking lot. Again, this may just be how things are for us and not the case for everyone. We are quiet and try not to disturb anyone anymore than is necessary. We have a two year old so I'm sure some shrieks are heard here and there lol... However, we noticed very quickly that there are kids everywhere. They seem to always be out on their own, playing with their friends of course. They will avoid you for the most part. They aren't rude or destructive or even very loud...they just go looking for hang-outs together and since the bases are pretty small the popular hang-outs tend to be the food courts and play grounds.

I was quick to find and add the ship's FRG page to my facebook page, and while doing that I stumbled upon the page for the FRC (Family Readiness Center) They provide toddler playgroups, preschool, scrapbooking meetings, bunco meetings, and are available to hold other meetings as well. They post a calendar of events on their page. It's also useful to find and add the CFAS page since that will help to keep you up to date on the goings-on for the base as well as provide tons of useful information. We were given a Welcome Packet when we got our housing unit that had a bunch of papers with numbers to call for info or if you have questions. We kept everything and still refer to it often so it's been more than helpful. Again, the people here all seem to be very nice and helpful when they can be so you don't have to be scared to just ask questions of others. I tend to let my husband do most of the asking since I'm painfully shy, but I am trying to get over that here lol.

The FFSC (Fleet and Family Support Center) is where you'll go for your indoc classes. It's a week long and will give you TONS of information. Lots of power point presentations. They take you on a brief tour of the bases and part of the city of Sasebo. I think the best part was when they took us to the Hachiman Shrine and demonstrated to us how to make an offering. Definitely bring a camera with you lol.. On the last day of indoc class they will teach you the basics of driving here, test you and then you will, hopefully, receive your drivers license. :) Don't feel bad if you don't make it the first time, not many do lol...

I've also heard from several people that they had a kind of welcome party come to them and take them around the bases and town and show them where to go for things. That was not the case for us when we got here, but I hope that it will be for others. Having that kindness provided to us would have meant the world to us. I still haven't gone out and just explored many parts of the city here but I really would have loved to have gone around with a translator to help and guide me. Somehow we just slipped through the cracks I guess. To avoid this happening I strongly urge newcomers to get in contact with their sponsers or FRG for info about how to get shown around.

Map of Hario Village

Map of Hario Village. Hario has a small NEX that has a small garden center, Barber/Beauty Shop and video rentals. There is a small movie theatre located next to a small food court, which is right near the post office and NEX.Above the NEX is a small bar in the evenings and a small teen center during the day. Right across the parking lot from these buildings is the gym and pool. There is also the larger of the two Commissaries in Hario. I forgot to mention that both housing areas have schools. Main base has an elementary-middle school and Hario has an elementary school. Hario Village is where the bulk of housing units are located.

Map of Main Base Housing

These are pictures of the map of main base housing. They are older maps and do not show the new tower and townhouses that are currently being built there.

Map of Main Base

 The top picture is the left side of the map of main base and the surrounding area.

 The above picture is the right side of the map of main base and the surrounding area.

 Map of main base.

Straight on shot of the map of main base.

Our home in Japan

I flew to Japan and the very next day was able to "move in" to our new home in Hario. This may not be, and is most likely not, the case for most people. We were loaned furniture from housing to use while we waited for our household to arrive. It was just basic needs like beds, a small couch, dining set, a lamp for the living room... This is a really great, and free, service that I kinda wish they had in the states as well. :) We were also able to get a dishpack from the FFSC (Fleet & Family Support Center) it included a microwave, some dishes, kitchen utensils, kitchen towels, oven mitts, etc. These services probably saved us a few hundred dollars so we were really grateful to the base for providing them. :D We got our household about a month after we got to Sasebo.

On the website, we were told not to bring heavy furniture, our washer and dryer (because there's a set in the unit already and even out in town our sets are the wrong amperage to work in Japan) or big dining room sets because they will not fit in the units here. This led us to believe that the housing was really tiny. For some people they probably really are in comparison to what they're used to. As for us, this house is the largest housing unit we have ever lived in. Our two bedroom garden style townhouse is about 1200 sqft. Whereas our bedrooms are a bit smaller than most people would like, and there's only one bathroom, and a walk-in closet is an unheard of thing here.. our livingroom, kitchen and diningroom are all pretty well sized in my opinion. :) The livingroom is big and open and square so setting up furniture was easy here.:) We also have a decent (again my opinion) sized backyard. It's large enough that we have a play structure for our son, a small patio set for us and still have plenty of room for a grill and more people to come and have small get-togethers.

After getting here and unpacking, which I did right away, I allowed my husband to walk me through how to use the ac/heaters (the controllers are in Japanese so he showed me what he was told and then I found the manuals for them :)) I did notice small differences between the unit here and our unit in CA. The light switches and fan switch for the bathroom aren't in the bathroom...it's right outside of it. The closets, cabinets and bathroom door all have slats in them to allow for ventilation because it gets quite damp in the rainy season here. We plan on buying a dehumidifier soon. We have a screen door on the front door...but the screen is on the inside not the outside. I believe that this is to better protect it against wind storms or typhoons, but I'm not 100% on that. But the first thing we noticed was that we have absolutely no carpeting here. I am again figuring that this is because it's just too damp and gets too muddy here to bother with carpeting. I actually like not having it though. It's so much easier to clean up after a toddler lol... We also have an outside storage closet. It's pretty decent sized. There are no garages or carports here. Just parking spaces, which is fine. We used our garage for our car, not storage, so we didn't have much to store when we got here. :)

Speaking of cars...we didn't bring ours with us. It's far too much hassle to convert an American standard car to a Japanese standard car and it's expensive. We were able to buy a car from a friend of our neighbor for a fairly decent price. I've heard of, but not seen for myself, cars being sold for as low as $600 and seen them for as much as $5,000. These were all used cars that were being sold by other military members because they were leaving. There are car dealerships here, of course, but I'm unclear on how to buy a car from them. I would recommend having a translator go with you. :) The insurance is kind of pricey here, and it's paid all at once for the year instead of monthly. There is also a road tax, due in April. And a JCI which is a two year car insurance in Japan. So you are really really covered as far as insurance goes...but we were warned several times to not have to use it here. Things get...difficult lol. That is something I would go into, but it gets explained much better in the Indoc classes so I'd rather not misinform people. :) Driving here is kinda daunting at first because they drive on the left, not the right like we're used to. There is a driving class/test that you take at the end on Indoc though and they prepare you pretty well.

View of the front of our house.

The Plane Ride

Let me back waaayyy up and start at the beginning. :)

We came to Japan from Lemoore, CA. It's right smack, dab in the middle of the state. I'm originally from CA, born and raised my whole life even though I'm a military brat. We just stayed pretty much in SoCal. My husband, also a military brat, is from all over. But this is the first time in his career that we are NOT stationed in CA.

My husband left before me and my son to come here because we knew he had to for work. We assumed that housing would be an issue and therefore thought we were smarter to stay behind while he caught up to the ship. We have never gotten straight into housing...until we got here. Andy got us a place within two days once he went to the housing office. Two weeks after he arrived here, my son and I arrived. We figured it would be months. Anyhow, that means I had the pleasure of enjoying an overseas flight with my son, who was 1 1/2, ALONE. I know what I told my family/friends...and it was a complete lie. I told them he was fine on the trip across. When he wasn't screaming (top of the lungs, makes you want to cry or beat your head against something hard and probably dangerous, screaming.) he was trying to climb over me, the seat, the seat in front of him, or trying to slide down and under his seat. Anything to get away from me, who was, for some unknown reason, the enemy. He slept, but not much. Since our flight was booked at the last possible second, thank you military, we were in the exact middle of the plane. Maybe if we had had a window or aisle seat it would have been much easier. Or if we hadn't been experiencing so much turbulence that the fasten seat belt sign could have been turned off so I could have let him walk/run up and down the aisles...

I was told how lucky I was because he was so young, he wouldn't be bothered by the move or remember it. That may be true. But first we had that plane ride. I brought along juice cups and candy. Let him eat or have anything he wanted in the hopes that he would settle down and act human. But once we were on that plane he completely broke down and flipped out on me. So, yeah, it was stressful lol. The first flight was only an hr long, from Fresno down to LAX. Then we flew for about 10 hours straight across the Pacific to Tokyo. Once in Tokyo I was smacked in the face with the fact that I was no longer, and wouldn't be for quite some time, "home". The signs have English, but not much. I had gotten a description of the airport from my husband beforehand, otherwise I'd probably still be there now lol. The airport workers are also very nice and they do speak English which was a huge relief to me. Once I got through customs I had to figure out where to go to get to the right terminal and re-check our baggage...this was a bit of a problem. I couldn't remember what I had been told about where to go. I was already exhausted, pushing a luggage cart piled high with our suitcases and had poor Devyn either walking next to me or on my hip. After two laps up and down the airport I gave in and pushed past my shyness to speak to the women at the information desk. They informed me where to go and to look for the yellow bus sign because the bus is yellow. They are very into color coding here. It's useful and actually makes sense.

Thank goodness for long layovers (sometimes). I got to the bus, rode it to the correct terminal, checked us in, was given a stroller to use for Devyn and then got to the gate and only had about 30 minutes left to wait on our plane. The flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka was about 2 hrs and Devyn and I slept the entire flight. Devyn was actually asleep before we took off. I do appologize to my fellow flyers since I'm fairly certain I was snoring for part of the trip. :P Once we got to Fuk (short for Fukuoka) I made a mad dash for the restroom to change a very soggy Devyn. I couldn't during the flight since he was sleeping. But as soon as I came back out I saw my husband waiting for us over by baggage claim. I literally wanted to cry. I didn't though. Instead I walked right up to him and without saying a word handed him our son and then walked away to get our bags. In retrospect, no, it wasn't THAT bad. He was just a little guy and honestly he was just expressing what everyone else was feeling. No one enjoys a 10 hr flight across the ocean while having to sit in the middle of the plane. It sucks.

From Fuk, it's a 2 hr bus ride to the main base in Sasebo. That part was actually fairly pleasant since Devyn was awake and happy to be with his daddy. The bus dropped us off right in front of the Navy Lodge and we were already checked in since Andy had done so earlier in the day, so we were able to go right into the room and get Devyn to bed. To total all that up: Got up around 5am Sept. 24th PST, drove to Fresno, flight left around 8am, got to LAX an hr later and had a longish layover...and then a delayed flight, flew 10 hrs or so, arrived in Tokyo-Narita 5pm Sept. 25, had 3 hr layover most of which I used :), Left Tokyo around 8pm Japan time, got to Fuk at 10pm, got on bus, arrived at the base at midnight. That's something like 20 hrs of traveling!!! And I woke up and had lost a day because of the time difference lol...It was Sept. 26th. :) I hope that people at least get a chuckle out of this blog. Looking back I still cringe a bit, and I definitely hope that I'm not alone for the return flight to the states in a few years, but yes, I laugh too. :)

-Robyn

Better Late Than Never...

Hey everyone!

I meant to try and figure out how to start a blog when we first arrived here in Japan and am only just now getting around to it. I noticed several times while searching for places here online that I would come across blogs by other military families that either are here already, or have been here before us and always found the information very useful. :) It's scary to move to a completely different country but it is some times comforting to find others who are in the same boat that you are. Especially when it's someone who is semi-established already. Everything moves very quickly when you're in the military. Not just for the active duty member but for the families as well. I hope that this becomes a fun and informative blog not just for our friends and family members but also for anyone who happens across it. :)

So to start with, my husband, son and I moved here last September 2010. My husband is in the US Navy and is currently stationed at the Naval base in Sasebo. We live in off-base housing in Hario Village, about 30 minutes away from the base. This is old news to people that know us lol... I wouldn't exactly say that we have "friends" here but we know a few people either because Andy, my husband, works with them or from FRG (Family Readiness Group) meetings, or they live near us and we see them almost daily. :) I assure you this is not because the people here are awful, they are actually incredibly generous and kind. I'm just incredibly shy lol...

Well, we are in the beginnings of the rainy season here...and let me tell you..they're not kidding around here when they say to always have an umbrella, or several. Everytime I try to time things so that I can dart out with Devyn (son) to check our mail when the rain seems to have stopped, I come back outside the post office to find that it's now pouring. This is especially annoying when you've chosen to wear a very light weight, white, button-down shirt :P It's okay. I like the rain. I just need to better plan my outfits and never again forget our umbrella lol... We are hoping that the weather clears up enough for us to maybe take a family outing this weekend. :) If it does, and we do, I will post some pictures and detail our trip for everyone.  TTYL!

-Robyn