Stuck in limbo

A lot of people have been asking what our living situation is right now, and with all of my posts on Facebook about wanting to get into a house soon, I thought I would give a little update on the topic. We are still residing in a hotel here on Camp Foster that has been home to pretty much all the newbies like us that took the same flight over here last Friday. Today is Wednesday, so if I'm counting right, that means we've been living out of this hotel room for 5 days now. It feels much longer than that, but the days also merge together easily when you have no mode of transportation and no place to go even if you did!


The hotel we are at right now isn't the Ritz, but it's not bad at all - it even has a kitchenette area and full desktop computer and free internet. We've gotten some groceries to do some cooking of our own, but have also taken advantage of the Macaroni Grill that is right next door! I'm not sure if Macaroni Grills back in the States serve breakfast, but the one here does, and it is delicious! (and only about $20 for the both of us) One thing I will say for anyone planning to vacation in Japan - watch out for the bathtubs! They are much higher than American tubs, making them super easy to trip over when getting in and out - I almost knocked myself out the first time I tried getting in!

Matt and I haven't been doing much the past few days. What I look forward to most are the briefs, because this is where we learn all about the island and get a lot of questions we have answered. We had one on monday that covered housing, and we had another one today (Wednesday) that went ALL day and covered everything you can imagine for new-comers. Island rules, information on driving, how to get your licence, programs offered, things to do for fun, etc. So anyway, during this long brief today, we got the phone call I had been waiting to get since we arrived on the island - the housing office called to let us know that they have 2 house offers for us to go take a look at!! I was so excited I could barely pay attention to the rest of the brief.

The first option for us is an apartment in what they call one of "The Towers" on Camp Foster. Our Tower happened to be the one right next to the hotel we are currently staying at, which is fine with me - prime access to the gates, grocery store and on-base Exchange! We went to check this place out this afternoon. We kept our expectations low, based on what we'd heard about "The Towers", but were pleasantly surprised:) Workers were still doing some work on it, but it turned out to be more spacious that we expected.

Tomorrow morning we are going to take our driver's tests in order to get our licences, and then after that, we will most likely be venturing over to our second choice for a house, which is on Camp Kinser a little south of our current location. I'm not going to post pictures on here of either location until we accept one, but the picture above is the exterior of our "Tower" (if we should accept it:)

And now...

Things I Learned in Japan Today:

1. Something is with Okinawa's water - 115 babies born just on base each MONTH

2. The legal alcohol limit on the island is not .08, but .02!

3. A speeding ticket is about 100,000 yen (about $1,000)

4. There is no tipping here - for anything

5. The on-base emergency phone number is 911. The off-base emergency phone number is 0989111911.

6. The Japanese read from right to left

7. Typhoon Season is June - November

8. Hazardous Jellyfish Season is August - November



-C