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