Kannonzaki

Today (March 8th) we went with some friends to Kannonzaki park.  It has one of the longest roller slides in Japan!  A roller slide is like an old assembly line conveyor.  You sit on foam mats or "butt shovels" and you go cruising down!  We all loved it and The Baby wouldn't stay off of it!!  He just wanted to keep going.  Enginerd really wanted to go by himself, but The Baby was always too fast and plopped on his lap before he could get going.  :) 

While walking back up from the roller slide, each level of stairs had a fun climber made out of wood.  The kids had such a great time.  At the top of the slide area, there was a pirate ship.  It was GORGEOUS out, we didn't want to leave.  Eventually the kids got hungry and cranky....ready for nap, so we left.   I hope we can figure out how to get there again.  We followed our friends and didn't pay attention very well.  It was just too pretty of a drive...too much to see!!

the Enginerd on the roller slide

Lady Loo on the roller slide 

one level of the climbing toys while walking back up the hill

My turn!

Moving day!!!

March 5th, 2014

Today we moved in to our house!! One month and one day after getting to Japan. It's pretty tiny, but anything looks like a mansion after living in a hotel room.  I think it's about 1300 square feet.  Our last house was over 2400 square feet, so this will take some getting used to.  At this point we just hope that all of our stuff we had shipped over...fits into this tiny house!!!

cute house

We got our first shipment which had most of the kids' toys and all of our clothes.  For some reason we forgot to pack our kitchen stuff and linens.  I believe I mentioned that we should have our kitchen stuff sent over in the first shipment, but the Enginerd says he never heard that statement.  Weird.

We tried to make dinner, but we couldn't figure out the stove.  So we decided it was a pb&j night and try again tomorrow.  One of our American neighbors came over and brought us some pots and pans to use while we wait for our big shipment to come in.  She was stumped for a bit as well, but finally figured out that it's an induction stove and we needed the stainless steal pans. 

stove top

We got our Japanese fridge, but they won't let us have an oven because we don't have a hood/vent for the oven.  :(  We were pretty bummed.  We do have this microwave/oven/toaster though!  It should work fine for anything other than a big turkey. 

micro/oven/toaster

Japanese fridge

We have a tatami room.  That just means the type of flooring.  Google it.  I did!  I thought it meant that it was the dining room where they sit on the floor, but I guess it's just the flooring.  We're using it for our playroom.

tatami room

All of the electronics are in Japanese so we are trying to learn it all.  The garbage is just a nightmare.  There are 3 separate bins, burnable (food/paper), cans/bottles/PET, and plastic packaging.  BUT there are also non-burnable items (hard, non-recyclable materials), paper/cardboard recycle.  M & TH we put the burnable out, T we put the plastic packaging out, F is cans/bottles/PET and 1st and 3rd W is paper/cardboard recycle, non-burnable is every other W.  IF YOU MESS IT UP, THEY BRING IT UP TO YOUR DOORSTEP AND MAKE YOU DO IT AGAIN. They're not messing around folks.  This was the basics.  There is so much more like clothes and large metal items, etc.  SO MUCH INFO!!!!

3 main garbages

these go in 3 separate garbages

We are very thankful to live in an area that has both Japanese and Americans.  The Americans have been so helpful to us.  They are letting us borrow household goods and taking us places and making us feel right at home.  We live about 2 blocks from the water/boardwalk.  There are palm trees!!  It's stunning here. We love it.  Now come visit us!  :)

Our new cars!

March 4th, 2014

I haven't written for a while because not much was going on.  We mostly did a bunch of paperwork and took Lady Loo to and from school and put the boys down for nap.  Not much you can do when your day is taken up with school schedules and nap schedules. 

Today we have some fun news!!!  We FINALLY have a new car!

 It's another minivan...boo...but we wanted to have enough seats for company when they come to visit.  The nice thing about base is that they check the car for you for $25 to make sure nothing is wrong with it.  We are trying to avoid another lemon.  I haven't told that story on the blog...but I assure you...it's a doozy.  We ended up buying 2 cars from the same couple.  They actually buy cars from Japanese auctions after the cars didn't pass the emission standards, and then they sell them on base.  We have a much less restrictive emissions standard than the Japanese do.  So we got a Mazda MPV and a Nissan March . 

In our new ride!

Enginerd driving on the other side

The March needed a new heater system so we won't get to have it for a while.  We are SO thankful that they saw that in the base inspection!  Some more good news....we move into our house tomorrow!!!!  I CAN'T WAIT!!!  The Naval Lodge is closing in on us all and we are about to freak the freak out!!!!

the March

Food poisoning

February 18th, 2014

We have food poisoning.  The Enginerd and I both ate the same salad at dinner last night and we.are.sick.  We had to go look at a house today...but we could barely move.  Ugh.  We were late taking Lady Loo to school.  We just couldn't make it to the bus in time.  If I never throw up again it will be too soon.

We REALLY want a house.  So, we rallied and pretended we weren't going to hurl in the Real Estate Agent's car.  We made small talk and swallowed our saliva and held it in.  BUT thank goodness there was toilet paper in the house...that's all I'm saying...and no it wasn't for me...  ;)

Kitchen

Tatami room

The house was adorable.  Small but so efficient!  We loved it.  We're taking it.  We looked around for 10 minutes and then barely made it back to our hotel before we fell asleep.  Thank goodness it was nap time for the boys.  After we picked up Lady Loo from school we just let the kids run wild in the room and watch a ton of TV so we could rest.

We made a vow to NEVER ever ever eat at that restaurant next to the hotel.  BLEH!  Someone didn't wash their hands and then made our food!!  GROSS!!!!  And we made another vow to never eat the same food at a restaurant.  Ugh.  We were miserable!