Falling into Place

We are FINALLY moving in and settling into a routine here. I say finally although we've only been on Okinawa a little over a week. It seems it's been longer because of adjusting to the new time and being so busy. We're starting to feel more comfortable here knowing how to get around, not being lost as often, and knowing who to go to for questions. We had one last housing appointment this morning and set up our move in day. WE PICK UP THE KEYS ON FRIDAY!!! If you can't tell I am very excited about this. No more living out of a suitcase!!! No more turning in our housing receipts and re-checking every few days!!! The only downside to this is that since we don't yet have cell phones and won't be able to set up a home phone until we move in, it will be very hard to contact anyone. We will also not have Internet access so you will all have to wait for updates.

We've also made progress on the car and will be picking it up tomorrow afternoon. For those who have been asking, it's a '97 Nissan Primera. It's not fancy, but it will do. We will no longer have to rely on people from Dayne's office to take us places. It made me feel bad knowing they could be getting stuff done but were being our chauffeur instead. With a car we will also be able to explore the city and get the pictures everyone has been asking for. We will try to get phones and Internet up as soon as possible.

Okinawa Culture: Shishi

Pictured above is an Okinawa Shishi pair. Shishi dogs are a big part of the culture here on Okinawa both on and off base. It actually comes more from Chinese tradition than Japanese. The word Shishi derives from the Chinese word Shisa meaning lion-dog. Anywhere on the island of Okinawa when you walk into a building you will see on each side of the door or awning a shishi dog. One will always have it's mouth shut and the other's mouth is open. Their purpose is to protect all those coming and going from that building. They are said to hold your warrior spirit at the door when you go home and you can pick it up when you leave so you can have a peaceful time with your family. It eventually changed to being used on all building, not just the home.

Although we obviously don't believe in these little statues holding our spirits, I still thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with you all. As I learn new things about the culture here, I hope that you can learn a little with me.

Our first few days in Okinawa

Our first week here has been busy and we have learned alot in a short amount of time. Monday we had a housing appointment where they explained how that process was going to work. We also met everyone in the office and got a tour of where Dayne will be working. In the evening we were able to walk down to the BX for food and things we would need for the week, getting to soak in a little more of our surroundings. Here are pictures from our walk:




Tuesday, Dayne had briefings all day and we both had to go to the one on Wednesday where they told us a little more about the island, some of the customs here on Okinawa, what we still had to do for in-processing, and we took our drivers' tests. Luckily, Dayne and I both passed our tests and have licenses to drive in Japan.

Yesterday(Friday) we finally heard from housing and they had two options for us. One was on Kadena where Dayne works and it was more of a house. It had the larger area of the two and had a small yard. The downside was that with it being older and on the ground floor, we would have a major bug and lizard problem. There was also a pretty bad mold problem on the bathroom ceiling. When we saw the second options we instantly knew it was ours. Although it is a longer drive to work because it's on Foster(about 10 minutes from Kadena), it has hardwood floors, a large kitchen with alot of cabinet space, it new and clean, it has two balconies(one off the living room and one off the master bedroom), has central AC, and a ton of storage space(so the lack of organization won't drive me nuts like our last place). We are very excited to move in hopefully by the end of this coming week. Our furniture won't be here for a while but they have stuff for us to use until ours arrives.

Everything is starting to come together :D

Go!!!!

Sorry it's taken me so long to update everyone. This last week has been crazy busy trying to settle in to our new life in Okinawa, Japan. I haven't been able to take many pictures as we don't have transportation yet, but we should get our car by the end of this week and we can explore the island and get pictures for everyone.

Last Friday we both flew out of Kansas/Mississippi on time and were able to meet up at the Dallas airport for our long flight to Tokyo. The 13 hour flight wasn't actually as bad as we thought it was going to be. We arrived in Tokyo at 10p.m Kansas time but 1p.m Saturday afternoon Japan time. We went through customs and instantly had some culture shock. We were both exhausted at this point, couldn't understand anyone, and already in trouble because we couldn't read the Japanese signs that apparently said "no pictures" (too late):
Dayne in the Tokyo Airport

We waited at the airport for 6 hours and then flew to the beautiful island of Okinawa. It was a little disappointing because we came in at 10p.m and couldn't see anything from the air and very little from the airport to the base. Finally after being up for 26 hours we checked in to temporary housing and went to bed. A few hours later we were up again, still used to Kansas time. The next several days were full of sleeping at odd hours and middle-of-the-night snacks.

It took about 3 days but we finally got used to the new time and started the process of making this our new home. I'll fill you in on more later.