Our New Home!

Here are some pictures of our new house! It's furnished with temporary furniture that we've borrowed from the base as our stuff probably won't be here until sometime in November. Enjoy the pictures.

We need to have 5 trash cans in the kitchen to comply with the recycling system here in Iwakuni! The two large cans are for combustibles and plastics. The other three small bins are for aluminum cans, glass bottles and plastic bottles. We have a 20 page document explaining how it all works!

View of our kitchen and refrigerator.

Our mini-dishwasher!

Our glass top oven is really great. It comes complete with a touch screen to adjust the temperature of the burners. The only downside is that it only takes special pots/pans that have a magnetic bottom! Luckily we found some in a closet that we left behind! There is also an oven drawer that pulls out. It's not big enough to bake in, but we were able to cook two good sized steaks in it with no problem.

This is our storage cabinet for dishes, pots/pans etc. It is motorized so when you push the down button it lowers! The bottom of the shelf even has holes in it so the dishes can be put away wet and it will catch the water.

Living Room with temporary couch and kitchen table. We've got our laptop and Wii setup to our new TV, but we're stuck with only DVD's right now as our internet won't be connected until Oct. 19th.

This is our formal dining room. It is designed in the traditional Japanese manner with Tatami mats, sliding rice paper walls and large closets.

This is the front door and foyer area. The floor is lower when you walk in so you can take off your shoes and store them in the closet. They are serious about the new shoes policy, it's written into our lease!

Shoe closet: I brought three pairs of shoes and Kirk brought 15!

Shower room.

Shower door.

Fancy toilet with many buttons. It even warms the seat for you in the winter and flushes for you if you're not quick enough!

Remote controls to work the heater/AC wall units in each room. Thanks to the housing department we have instructions in English on how to use them.

This is a video intercom system that looks out of our front door. It comes on when someone rings our door bell.

Stairs.

Upper stairs bedroom. This will probably be a guest room.

Walk in closet with temporary dressers.

Master bedroom.

This is our view out of our bedroom window.

Our neighbors that live behind us. If you look closely you can see a graveyard in the distance.

A nice view of the mountains in the distance.

Day Trip to Hiroshima

So how do you like this, two blog posts in two days! Today Kirk and I met up with her co-worker Jeff who lives in Hiroshima and graciously offered to show us around the city and take us to some of his favorite spots. Luckily we had a crash course on how to use the train system here during our cultural indoctrination, so today we had no problems finding the Iwakuni station and getting on the right train. The ride to Hiroshima took us along the coast and made multiple stops in the towns along the way, taking about 50 minutes total.

We met Jeff outside of the station and first we went to the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum was featuring the Yoko Ono 2011 exhibit, as she was given the Hiroshima Art Prize for using her art to inspire peace.

Next we walked over to Peace Park, which is a war memorial for the atomic bomb that was dropped in 1945. The building in the picture below is the only structure remaining in the original state after the bomb was dropped. The second picture is the memorial arch, which was built with line-of-sight to the building above.

Next we set off on our trek towards Jeff's favorite restaurant and on the way walked through Hondori St., which is a covered street with lots of shops and restaurants. There was a clothing store named "Womb", which Kirk had a negative reaction to and will thus not be shopping there :).

The restaurant we went to specializes in serving Okonomiyaki, which is a little hard to describe as I have never in my life had anything close to this before, but here it goes. It is basically a crepe with cabbage on top that is fried and topped with egg, prawns, squid, scallops, bacon and scallions and a Japanese BBQ sauce.

On our way back through the mall from the restaurant we came across a live rock band playing, made up of five young Japanese girls. I have to admit their music was pretty catchy despite not understanding any of the words.

So that concludes our first day trip to Hiroshima city. We were so lucky to have a great tour guide to show us around and help us learn the lay of the land. We will definitely be making more trips north like this in the future!

Oh, but wait! Kirk wants you to see this:

She successfully navigated the "squatting toilet" at the Art Museum. Good Job Honey.

New House, New Car, Yuu Beach, and More

Alrighty, so we picked a house! And it's NOT the one we posted pictures of! LOL! We will get better pics when we move in this Thursday and Friday, but until then, here's a couple of pictures of the outside of the house and the view from our driveway. We will be given temporary furniture from the base until our household shipment arrives, probably in November.

God is good. We decided not to take our chances and rather jump on a house that we really like now. Turns out, it's in a great area with close proximity to lots of stores, restaurants, and of course, work. We have a miniature yard, 2 toilets (rare!), and 2 driveways with space for at least 3 cars (super rare!). We LOVE IT!

We also bought our car! BIG RED as we like to call him. He is a 2003 Mitsubishi Colt. Drives like a champ and is easy to spot in parking lots.

Today, we were brave enough to venture out to town all by ourselves! Both Joel and I took turns driving and I think we did a fabulous job! We figured out how to get to Yuu Beach which is about 25 minutes away from base, and under 15 minutes away from our house. Beach season is over for the Japanese (meaning you're not allowed to swim in the water any more this season), despite the fact it was a GORGEOUS Saturday today, about 80 degrees (in October!) and sunny as can be. We were 2 of about 10 people on the beach. It was AWESOME. We will be making this a regular hang out during warm weather for sure.

On a random note, we went out to another fantastic sushi restaurant and had some salmon that was to die for. We will definitely be regulars at this establishment. :) There's also a French pastry shop right outside the base gates. Joel especially will be tempted constantly due to his love of sweets, LOL.

Also, Joel has a job interview on Monday! Be praying! It sounds like it would be a perfect match for him. Good thing he brought his suit over with us.

Oh, and I like my job a lot. I realize that I haven't talked much about it, but I am having fun with my coworkers and really enjoy the type of counseling work that I will be doing here (especially the 7:30-4:30 work hours - SO awesome!)  In fact, I have already successfully taught a 2 hour class to 45 brand new Marines on substance abuse and have to teach it again next week. I put together a program on the fly and I think it went really well! Hopefully the class will work as a preventative measure for these guys as my job is to basically keep people from being stupid when I can and to minimize the damage for those that already have. :-p

Finally, here is a picture of my favorite thing on base.

Sushi!

The best Salmon sushi ever! Even their soy sauce is yummier.

Joel ate three plates of this Salmon sushi alone! Not to mention some Octopus.

Cold egg soup. Delicious!

Sushi plates are put on a conveyor belt and you pull them off as you want them. Each plate is about a $1.25.

House Hunting in Iwakuni

Oh my gosh. Joel and I got into three separate cars today with three separate Japanese agents that did not speak English and saw six separate houses. Oh my gosh.

We are confused.

We've narrowed it down to one...or none.

Do we stay on base for another month or so and collect our amazing per diem and mooch off of the temporary housing and house keeping? Or do we live in a house for two months with borrowed furniture (until our shipment arrives) knowing that we got a darn good house that will last the next 3 years? Sure there are things about each house that we like and dislike, but one in particular rocks. The only complaint is that it's not within walking distance of town. But that isn't a deal-breaker.

While we deliberate and pray, here are some things we've learned about Japanese homes:

• They are small and two stories high
• One bathroom - however the toilet is by its lonesome and the shower gets its own room where you are supposed to hand hose yourself off then sit in the smaller than seems suitable tub
• Kitchen - where do we start? Instead of a nice baking oven you get a tiny convection oven drawer. If there's a dishwasher, it's the size of a bread box. Cabinet space? There ain't none. We will have to invest in organizational structures.
• There is no duct system or central air/heat system. Each room may have its own AC/heat/dehumidifier wall unit, but it's our job to check.
• How do these folks drive?!? It's insane! Going up a steep, basically one lane hill and trying to make room for the bus coming around the bend?? Oh, that's the drive we will have to take to get to any of the homes we looked at.
• CROWDED. Everything is SO practical. NO wasted space. That's why all of the homes are 2 stories. Ranch style homes would be considered inefficient. Thus, neighbors are close (closer than they were at Lyman!) and you're lucky to have more than one driveway space for your dinky car... and perhaps a mattress sized lawn if you're lucky.
• Flooring - in some rooms you get the traditional mat type floor. It's COOL. Otherwise, it's all hardwoods.
• Finally, TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!! First house, whoops! Got called out by the agent that didn't speak English. Thankfully, hand signals were enough to realize we had traipsed beyond our bounds in flip flops. When you folks come visit, bring slippers. :)

We are not complaining. We are SO SUPER PSYCHED! It will be a change from what we are accustomed to for sure, but it's really neat to challenge ourselves in this way. Please pray that we will be wise and wait if that is a better option or jump on the house that we really liked today.

Driving in Japan

After spending half a day in a driving class being indoctrinated on how to drive a motor vehicle in Japan, Kirk and I are both eligible to get our SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) driver's licenses! Kirk actually got her's today (look out Iwakuni!), but I am still waiting on an original copy of our Marriage License to come in the mail before I can get mine (see our previous post for more on that situation).

The class was very helpful to understand what all those signs with Japanese writing on them all mean - but we are by no means ready to start driving out in town! Not only will it be completely different driving on the left side of the road and driving from the right side of the car, but the roads and rules of the road are much different. We will definitely be practicing on base for a while before venturing out.

The penalties and fines in Japan are MUCH more severe than what we are used to in the United States. Basic traffic violations like getting a parking or speeding ticket will start around $500 and could result in jail time depending how fast you are going. If you cause an accident or get a DUI, well you might as well take out a loan and get a good lawyer because it is going to cost you and it will be a painful process. But one funny thing we found out is that you are forbidden from wearing "flip-flops" while driving, however driving barefoot is ok. Another difference is that in some areas it is implied that if you are driving on a side road and are approaching a main road that you need to stop - there may not be a stop sign at the intersection!

It should be interesting on how long it takes us to get used to driving over here - but I think we will use the bus and train system as much as possible when we need to go somewhere. We'll probably use the car for driving to and from the base (a future post will be coming on our search for a car!).

The Run Around

Dang, are we ever getting the run around! I wish the communication process was more clear for sure. You can't get this 'til you get that, but there's a long process to get that, so try this in the meantime, oh wait, you don't have the thingamajig yet which delays whatsit over there which in turn delays the this for longer. **sigh**

For example, we took the driving class and test today (on which I scored a 100%, woot!) but can't get our drivers licenses because we don't have our military ID's yet. We can't get our military ID's because I'm not in the system. I'm not in the system because the system is slow. Also, we have to have our official marriage license for Joel to get his spousal ID so he won't be able to get that or his driver's license until we get my dear mother in law to dig through out filing cabinet and send it to us before our house gets packed up on Monday. Phew!! Hopefully, by the end of next week, a lot of this will get figured out which will make everything SO MUCH EASIER!! For now, I guess we'll just be walking around everywhere for another week and burning lots of calories so there's a positive at least. :)

Overwhelmed

As any transition goes to a foreign country, we are beginning to feel quite overwhelmed! Not only are we adjusting to a completely new time zone, we are trying to learn the "military way", and the Japanese culture... and oh yeah, I start a new job tomorrow! :-p

So far, we've explored the base quite a bit, eaten curry rice at Coco's Curry, babysat my bosses' 5 year-old daughter, attempted to cook meals in our tiny kitchenette, tried some awesome new Japanese tea drinks, and
taken a bus trip to downtown Iwakuni. The bus trip was part of our cultural tour yesterday and it was so full of information, we felt like our brains would BURST! We have a lot of information to review and figure out and apparently a TON of Ramen Noodle joints to visit!!! The bus tour also allowed us to see a lot of the residential parts of the city, so we have some ideas now of where we may want to start looking for a home in town. :) Near some good restaurants is a MUST!

I will let Joel fill y'all in on his job search. Today I meet with HR. Miss everyone!

Our New Home!

It's pretty darn cool here, not going to lie! Our temporary lodging is the equivalent to a small hotel suite. It's tight but cozy. And even though it's on the Marine Base, they are trying to incorporate the Japanese style, so our flooring is actually a straw mat-type composite of some sort. Sweet. Also, our bed has memory foam and we have a cleaning service come in every day! We only have a couple of pots and pans to work with and very limited counter/cabinet space, so Joel's probably gonna be making daily trips to the Commissary just to get the food we need for the day.

Rewind to the trip over here: We left Akron-Canton around 10:30am Thursday morning (after only MAYBE 3 hours of sleep) and flew to Atlanta. From there, we had just enough time to grab a snack and board our flight to Tokyo-Narita. It was about a 13 hours flight... and it was rough. Joel and I nicknamed the flight the "vortex warphole of time and space" because it did and didn't seem like a long flight. Hmmmmm... It didn't help that we, especially Joel, were working on head colds which was uncomfortable and made it difficult to sleep. So, it was touch and go where naps were concerned. We were also majorly drugged up on Mucinex and Dramamine, thus we passed up on complimentary wine and beer on the flight so you know we were sick! :-p When we arrived, we had to go through customs and gather all our luggage, buy bus tickets and take an hour trip to the OTHER Tokyo airport in Haneda. Got there in time to grab a quick Japanese snack (the menu was all in Japanese!) and board our last flight to Hiroshima.

We arrived in Hiroshima last night (Friday) around 9pm Japanese time (8am on the East coast) and were picked up by my new boss and co-worker. They drove us the hour-ish back to Iwakuni and we talked about what to expect from our new home country for the entire ride. We stayed up to unpack and eat the cereal we were able to buy right before the convenience store on base closed down.We THOUGHT we were SO tired and SO ready to sleep for 15 hours straight. Alas, we fell asleep at 2am and have now been up and about since 6am. Today will likely have to consist of lots of naps. :)

The game plan today is to call my boss so she can have lunch with us and take us around base. We will have to stock up on some groceries 'cause you know us Dillers need lots of food to survive. :) Will post more when more happens. Thanks for all the prayers everyone! We are SUPER EXCITED to be here but definitely miss the folks back home. It's definitely real now how far away Japan is.

Saying Goodbye is HARD

Just a quick note to let everyone know just how much we care for all of you! We have had a WONDERFUL time here in Ohio for the last (almost) 3 years and with our friends in Pennsylvania before that. We're so tired of crying and being emotional CONSTANTLY (it's like never ending PMS, haha), but I think this just shows how deeply we care for everyone - trust that we cherish our memories.

Thank you to all our friends and family that always make sure that we feel supported and loved. We have such a powerful prayer base too, and I want y'all to know that we appreciate every bit of it. We will miss everyone and hope to keep in touch as much as possible! Our e-mail addresses will stay the same and we can still access facebook and this blog.

MUAH! WE WILL MISS YOU!