Birthday Boy

 Someone had a birthday this week!  This kid is such a silly boy.  He won't let me take a serious picture, and he has to ham it up for everything.  He is growing into a delightful young man- when he isn't being a surly, grumpalump.  He requested a lemon cake for his birthday and it was yummy.  His sisters spoiled him.  Callie was bound and determined to get him a cool umbrella with the handle like a ninja sword.  So she used up all her allowance from most of the summer to buy it for him.  Marian was obsessed with getting him a waving kitty, and was busy looking for chores so she could earn money to buy it.

Joshua was well loved and I think he had an enjoyable birthday.

Life is good!

 I know, it has been a week, (a week!) since I last posted.  I am ashamed.  But I have been busy you know.  It isn't easy to unpack your entire household goods and get settled into a foreign country.  It has been going very well.  I did come to the conclusion that Dan is a jumper-inner, and I am a toe-dipper.  Dan wants to go out and do everything now-now-now.  I want to take it slow and get settled in, and then get comfortable before venturing out.  I want to start with small ventures and gradually work my way out.  Dan wants to get out and go now-now-now.  However, he has work to adjust to, and I have a home to make my own.

This is the good sized hall closet upstairs.  The movers stuffed a bunch of things in here. It was frustrating because I could not unpack things into this closet until I had taken out the stuff inside it and organized it.  See how full and crazy it is?!

Much better, after I spent an afternoon working on it.   

Last Saturday Dan took the older kids out and went here!  7-11!  They came back with fun goodies. 

Callie is wearing some of her treats, and showing her chips and"melon soda".   They found it to be quite the thrilling outing. 

The kids get out at 12:30 every other Wednesday.  So this Wednesday I took them back to 7-11 after school, because I hadn't been there yet!  The traffic is a little disorienting when it is on the opposite side of the road. 

This is the sign to the base.   

I let the kids all pick a treat from 7-11 and Callie chose this large ice cream cup. They only had these tiny little spoons and she certainly got a lot on her face. 

 The kids did bring home some more melon soda.  I thought it was a little weird.

Delaney wanted a picture of her drinking melon soda too.

Things I get to see.

 I went on a little stroll this evening.  Well, probably a 2 mile stroll.  We live less than half a mile from the seawall, which extends a mile down the base.  It goes further, but currently there is construction a mile down, so that's as far as you can go.

 This is the sea wall.  It is lovely for running, especially since there is no track and not sufficient sidewalks to safely run.

Check it out!!  I know all you can see is a grayish blob, but it was a Manta Ray!  Really!  Marian and i were so excited!  It was swimming right below us!  How cool is that?!

The view downriver from the bridge.

The view upriver from the bridge. 

The glorious sunset!

Hmmmm.... I should have zoomed or cropped.  I thought this was neat- kind of a little Zen Garden behind this building.  The little rock garden and cool trees there.

Random

 Guess who started school?!  I had to fill our tons of paperwork- which I went in and did on Tuesday.  They have a 24 hour wait period before the kids can go to school, so they didn't start till Thursday.  Which was fine with me, but the kids were lobbying for one more day at home.  Since school started last week, I didn't want them to miss more than necessary.  This year Marian is in 6th grade, Callie is in 4th, Delaney is in 2nd, and Joshua is in 8th.  There are only 2 schools here right now: Elementary is K-6 and the High School covers 7-12.  So Joshua is in High School now!

They were good sports.... except that kid on the right.  

Check out this nifty feature!  We have an awning that can be rolled out or  pulled in.  Awesome with the rain! You can also see our metal storage unit back there.

Look who is thrilled to be sprung from the kennel!  He still has 3 weeks left for his Quarantine, but that can be done here at the house.  He was SO happy to be back with us.  He seems pleased with his larger, luxuriously green yard.

Rylee came with Dan and I to the Friday class to get our driver's licenses.  Isn't she adorable?! 

She was also quite amazing. I gave her the kindle, with Minecraft to play, and there was nary a peep for the 2 hours it took to go over the material and take the test. 

Heh heh heh.  Dan is taking his test.  Good news, we both passed and as of 1600 Friday we are both licensed to drive in Japan!

Sights to see

 Things move at their own pace here.  You can't do much till you take the Newcomer Orientation  on Monday (usually, since Monday was a holiday, ours was on Wednesday.) You can't drive till you take the Friday class.  Then you have to pass a test to get your license and you can't register a vehicle without a license.  We are purchasing a van from off base, which adds a week and a mound of paperwork to the process.  Sigh.  Anyway, when you get here, you already know you will be on foot for a week.  It isn't the end of the world, and the base is only 6 miles long, so it is all doable, just incredibly inconvenient at times. (Especially if you have to buy groceries for a family of 7!)

However, it allows you to see fun trees, like this one!  They do some neat tree cutting.  

Walking the crew to the food court for dinner.

I think it is nice to see walking and bike riding as a way of life.  I think it is great, but I'm not a fan of hoofing it in the heat, or schlepping 50 pounds of bags from the commissary. So you know I am counting down the days till I am mobile!

Dan and I were able to take the Newcomer's Orientation on Wednesday. It was instructional for the morning, and a driving tour for the afternoon.  We got a little tour of the base, and then a trip out in town.  The bus windows were horribly dirty, so I didn't take many photos from the bus.

This store front was neat enough, I took the chance.  Sorry about the awful blurry blobs; that's all from the bus window! 

We stopped by the train station to learn how to buy tickets.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to use the machines, but the ticket window folks usually have enough English (I was told) to get me what I need.  This was across the street and so pretty. 

My "I was there" shot. 

This is the bus statin outside the train station.  Dan is enjoying donuts from the pastry shop on the corner.  It is always good to know where to get tasty donuts!

We had 20 minutes to stroll the area.  Fun! The little blue signs had the name of the shops in English, which was mostly helpful. 

I just liked the "Mojo Curry" sign. 

Awesome supermarket.  You could not tell what a lot of things inside were.  A lot of the products had no distinguishing information on them in English or pictures.  But it was bright and fun!

The bus drove us to this iconic bridge.  I guess it is a big spot?  It was pretty, but we couldn't get off the bus, hence the awful picture through the window.  I'm sure we will go back sometime for a better photo.

The Orientation was mandatory and from 8:30- 4:30.  They did provide free child care for the kids, which was nice.  It was like an all-day date for Dan and I!

And did I mention that while Dan and I were Orienting, the movers were delivering our household goods?  Yep.  We could look down from the window on the 2nd story where our class was, and we could see the movers moving our stuff in!  It was crazy.

I thought it would be nice to not have to do it, but it wasn't.  The 3 older kids were there "helping" our Sponsor, and I think they just made up destinations for the boxes.  Nothing is where it belongs.  And the Japanese movers are happy to unpack for you.  I had though it would be nice to have the kitchen and books unpacked.  Um, no.  No, it was not nice at all.  I thought they would just unpack and stack, but they actually put the kitchen items away.  They put them away in random places.  I am going to have to rearrange the kitchen at some point.

Same with the books.  We had a book shelf in each room.  However, the books were not unpacked in their designated rooms.  So they books are all jumbled together in the wrong rooms. Those also will have to be rearranged sometime.  It has helped me realize that I like unpacking directly to where stuff belongs.  That way, when the box is empty, I am done with it.  Now, once the boxes are empty, I will still have a ton of work left.  And let me tell you how motivated I'm going to be by then.... Not at all!

But it is all part of the adventure!  Semper Gumby!