Fall 2015

Post-boards exploration of Shibuya Crossing

Man, time flies when you let life happen! (Cue the perpetual "blog deja vu" that is our inability to post with regularity) Here's a quick-ish recap of the past three months or so:

--September happily brought the arrival of our household goods! Everything arrived here in one piece and it was so nice to get some of the much needed items back. In true Taylor fashion, we're still working on hanging up most of the pictures/frames and have been procrastinating on the office space, but it's feeling so much more like home. Once it's all completely done, we'll give you a video tour (probably in like 2 months knowing us!).

Tigre happily enjoying the arrival of our household goods

--For pretty much the rest of September Brian was studying his butt off for his Pediatric board certification exam. It was kind of a big deal and ate up a lot of free time. We did manage to still have quite a bit of fun in spare moments, but no big trips or major adventures since he had to keep studying away. Spoiler alert: He passed!!!! No more big tests for a long, long time.

--October included our first trip to Tokyo and mainland Japan.  Tokyo highlights were Shibuya Crossing (the famous pedestrian scramble), a giant (lifesized) Gundam statue, an Oktoberfest beer garden in the shadow of the Gundam statue, a cat cafe (look it up), and the Imperial Palace grounds.  Later in the month we went up to Osaka and Kyoto.  We joined up our friend Drew Hill and met him at Hogsmeade....at Harry Potter World, Japan!  We also got to go Back to The Future and it turns out Japanese Biff Tannen is just as much of a jerk as American Biff Tannen.  We then sampled Osakan delicacies like Takoyaki (fried octopus balls), Okonomiyaki (best described as a dinner omelette), Kushikatsu (fried stuff on sticks), and Brian's favorite, fish shaped pastries filled with bean paste.  We then took a train out to Kyoto which is basically the cultural capital of Japan.  We went to many temples like the Fushimi Inari shrine (known as the temple of the thousand Torii gates), the hillside temple Kiyomizu-dera, and the bamboo forest Arashiyama.  We also visited the old imperial palace "Nijo Castle" that had amazing carvings, murals, and nightingale floors (the floorboards sing out when you step on them).  An amazing trip.

--In November, Maureen started work. It turns out that teaching Spanish to Kindergarten-aged students is a whole different beast than the middle school and high school ages she was used to, but she's liking it so far and it seems to be going well. At the end of the month we hosted Thanksgiving for our little cul-de-sac.  We ended up with 9 families coming by and everyone brought a ton of food!  The counters runnethed over with smoked turkey, roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy, several stuffings, green bean casserole, cornbread, pasta salad, and a variety of pies.  It was a blast and got to know our neighbors better as we stayed up late putting the new firepit to use in the backyard (best new discovery being our friend from Arkansas knowing all of the words to "today was a good day").  November also saw us stay up until 2am one night to try for Comic con tickets and we got 'em!  We'll be putting the International in San Diego International Comic Con in 2016.  We should make it back to San Diego for about a week in July 2016.

--December has seen us continue our tradition of popping a bottle of champagne and putting up the christmas tree (Brian NEEDS the bubbles to become properly motivated to trim a tree).  We went to the Hospital holiday party, which was surprisingly fun.  Maureen won a massage from a "12 days of Christmas" scavenger hunt (unusual but fun game), food was great, and everyone was cleaned up nice.  Then we had our first inaugural Pred-Nog party.  A friend of ours apparently remembers always watching Arnold Schwarzenegger's critically acclaimed feature film "The Predator" around Christmas time while drinking egg-nog.  This seemed like a good excuse for a party, so we invited over a bunch of friends and sampled various 'nogs while watching The Predator in alternating states of awe and amusement.  I say various 'nogs because Okinawans do not carry cartons of egg-nog in their grocery stores and the Military Commissary has not carried it either.  However, the military liquor stores do happen to have multiple bottles of alcoholic egg-nog from your typical household brands of "Old Nelson", "Christian Brothers", and "McCormick's" (JK I have never heard of any of these before).  Our friend Mel found a recipe and home made some egg-nog, and her's was by far the best.  A successful night all the way around.

Orion Beer Festival

Hey Everybody!  This is Brian stepping in to author a post (I was promised a bizarre but most likely adorable and/or robot related Japanese toy if I wrote something).  Luckily we just had a blast last night and it won't be hard to talk/write your ears/eyes off about it.

This past Saturday (or current Saturday for you folks living stateside…in the past) we went to the Orion Beer Festival.  It is a 2 day event that Maureen read about on the MCCS (Marine Corps…..cool stuff) web site.  It coincides with a traditional Okinawan festival with tons of Eisa dancing (imagine drums, colorful outfits, face paint, and people dressed as (I'm assuming) traditional characters from Okinawan history/mythology.  We went with Mel and Jonathan so all 4 of us piled into one of our tiny cars (Mel's, which is codenamed: Beeteru ((Beetle)), and headed out.  We could have parked on base but it's a bit of a walk from there to the stadium/fair grounds where the event was so we decided to drive over and try our luck.  Our luck didn't look good at first as tons of streets were blocked off and many people were walking to the venue, but then our luck changed and someone held up a sign with Japanese writing and "¥1500" with an arrow.  We asked in perfect Japanese (I'm lying) if they were offering parking, and they were!  They said "follow her"(I think) and pointed at an adorable grinning 6 year old girl who waved at us and took off down a side street.  She kept looking back and waving then running again and it was awesome.  She led us to a grassy lot that ended up being about 100 yards from the event.  What luck!

We walked in and were immediately struck by awesome sites and sounds.  It wasn't even that big of an event space but the crazy Japanese stuff makes it 10 times more interesting than events I'm used to.  There was a huge archway with Orion Beer lanterns leading to the beer garden/venue.  We wanted to grab some food first so we got noodles at a food stand.  In amongst the vending stands there were carnival games (throw darts at a balloon, ring tosses, etc.) to win kids prizes.  They had tons of balloons, but in typical Japanese fashion, they do balloons better than anyone.  They had balloon swords, balloon giant hammers, and even balloon animals with wheels on them so kids could pull them around.  They also throw in a healthy dose of the bizarre, as per usual.  Some of the balloon hammers were "relatively" normal.  One had a cartoon kid with big fists but the head of the hammer had his face with his mouth really big on it and the words "punch" written over it (?).  But some were even weirder.  One had an anthropomorphic (and slightly phallic) mushroom on it and all of his mushroom warrior friends all over the rest of it.  I wanted one but Maureen said "no".  This is a healthy reflex she has developed as our house would otherwise be overflowing with weird japanese toys (or at least more than it already is).  Then there was the truly bizarre (yeah, it gets weirder).  There was a balloon bat with a photograph of a balding middle aged man in yoga pants just standing there.  I have seen a book where he does weird yoga poses on the cover.  He may be some comedian or something.  Not sure, but it was weird seeing him on the side of a giant balloon bat that some 3 year old was waving around.  They also had masks of different cartoon characters, which will come up later (foreshadowing!!!!).

Our bellies and eyes full, we decided to head into the beer festival.  Inside the archway there were rows and rows of communal tables in a huge open area roughly facing a stage.  It kinda reminded me of pictures I've seen of Octoberfest in Germany.  This was all surrounded with booths selling Orion beer or "beer-like drinks" (Chu-hai), as well as Orion merch and some food.  The drinks were impressively cheap, as in only ¥150-300 per drink (which is equivalent to ~$1.25-2.50 USD)! We grabbed beers but the tables were pretty taken up so we decided to walk around some more.

 We walked into the stadium and were surprised to find the Eisa dancing still going on (we thought it had ended hours before our arrival).  The outfits were really cool and the dancing and drums were impressive.  We ran low on beverages so headed back to the beer garden.  While we'd been out it had filled up even more and we had trouble even finding standing room.  The people watching was incredible.  Men and women were dressed in festival attire (kimonos for women, and these woven jacket and loose shorts outfits for the men)  This was mostly Okinawans but there were some Americans dressed this way too. I'm going to look into the appropriateness of this as I totally want one of the outfits as they looked super comfortable.  We also noticed that Okinawans were getting pleasantly drunk all around.  Many groups had staked claims to table areas (with actual markers and make shift flags) and were all challenging each other to drink more beer.  One group near us all had yellow shirts that looked like they represented some sports league (like an intramural softball team).  One of them was attempting to fend off passing out while sitting up in his chair.  His head kept slowly dipping back until he'd hit a point of maximum extension then he'd jerk his head back upright to start the process over.  We kept noticing and then one of his companions noticed us noticing and said to Maureen in basically perfect english "punch him, wake him up".  Maureen laughed and then started talking with him about his drunk friend.  She asked if there was any room around them and they regretted to tell us that all of the seats were claimed.  But they looked around for a few seconds and then a bunch of them hopped up and moved some chairs and offered us 4 seats in the middle of the table row!  This led to an awesome evening in which we established a few things.  Okinawans are incredibly nice…... and the happiest drunks I have ever met.

To set the scene, it's a bunch of guys in neon yellow shirts with empty and full beer cups overflowing all over the table.  They were to the left of us.  On our right there were some empty seats but a few Okinawan ladies and a few kids with a ton of food. Raku was the guy who first spoke to us and he chatted us up for a bit.  He'd studied abroad in Riverside, CA so when he found out we'd just moved from San Diego, he reminisced about In 'N Out burgers and the amazing mexican food in southern California.  His friends wanted to chat with us too and one of them put a strange light on his head that seemed to randomly flash red and green.  We asked what it was and he said, "I cannot lie, it will show" and pointed to the light.  We realized it was supposed to be a lie detecter.  Then he said, "Watch.  I am very smart!" and the light flashed red.  The whole table busted up laughing.  "I am very good looking" again red.  This continued to much laughter.  People kept coming by and taking pictures with the perpetually passing out while sitting up guy.  Girls would pretend to kiss him.  Guys would pretend to be feeding him beer.  The rest of the guys would then challenge the picture taker to a chugging contest and down more beers, followed by tons of high-fives.  I was struck by how they liked to prank and compete but it was always very good natured and so…..nice.  

As I was watching these antics and felt someone almost collapse into my back.  I turned and a tiny Okinawan woman wearing a egg yolk character mask had sat down/toppled into the seat next to me.  She was about 15 sheets to the wind and having a GREAT time.  She spoke very little english (looking back it mainly consisted of "yes" and "no") and I indicated that I didn't speak any Japanese, so of course we embarked on an epic and long lasting conversation during which she would randomly say "no-no-no-no-no" and re-explain something in Japanese.  I would guess something completely random, and she would say "yes-yes-yes-yes".  We had a really good time with this.  She kept cracking up and offering us things.  The mask she was wearing had a Sanrio kids' cartoon character on it. We asked her what his name was but all we got out of her was that he is a "lazy egg" and she interpreted our questions as us asking to put the mask on ourselves. She would give us the mask, we would hold it up to our faces, and she would crack up. This was repeated many times.  One of her table mates made a little plate of some of their food and gave it to us.  We tried to refuse but she insisted and it was delicious.  We went and bought them all a round of beers, but "tipsy eggyolk woman" (we never did get her name) insisted on also buying us beers.  Fortunately her friends accepted a few more beers from us later.  

This was all followed by the performance of some really great (from the Okinawans reactions) band and fireworks with a laser show through the smoke.

Theeeeeen, I noticed a kid at a side table who had BATTLE BEASTS! These were toys from my childhood in the 80's and they had NEW JAPANESE ONES!  I had to have them, so I asked the table where they got them.  Actually I most likely terrified the kid who probably thought I was trying to take his toys.  His Mom was, of course, super nice and after "talking" (pointing at toys, pointing around park, questioning look on my face) to her and some uncles at the table we determined that the toys could be won as a prize at a shooting gallery game.  So as soon as the fireworks were done, I beelined it to the shooting gallery.  You got an airsoft gun and 6 shots.  You had to knock down 5 cups with balls in them that then slid down a pachinko board and if you stacked 3 balls into one column, you could pick a "3" prize.  Being the sharpshooter that I am (you stand about 2 feet away from the cups) I won.  The battle beasts are mine!!! Amazing ending to a great night.  We're probably going back today.  So basically, I love Okinawa, and I write really long blog posts.  You're welcome.  Tune in next time for a much more coherent and elegantly written post by my amazing wife.  Konichiwa!

Cats and Our First Typhoon

No way has it already been a month since we left San Diego! At least it sure doesn't feel like it. It specifically feels more like a state of perpetual vacation--like we'll be returning to San Diego any day now. I know that's not true but sometimes I like to pretend it is. I think that the vacation feeling is mostly due to the fact that we're still using all of the military loaner furniture--that and the whole tropical weather and humidity piece, of course. Once our household goods get here I think we'll begin to feel a little more settled. Maybe. Either way I'm sure it will exponentially help to help feel more completely settled in.

Brian has been working away, seeing clinic and studying for his upcoming boards exam. I have been working away in a different manner: setting up our house, running errands, taking care of paperwork, and sending out job applications--I hope to start subbing at the Department of Defense schools here on base shortly to help keep me busy until a full-time teaching position or something similar opens up. There are moments when I'm knee-bouncingly antsy to get out of the house, see people, do something! (Which I go and do--but I mean more in terms of work). And then there are times when it's almost meditative to be able to read a little, to be able to study some Japanese, to be free to run out to the store to buy the lawn mower/mixing bowls/plunger/"fill in random item that we need but don't currently have because we either had to give it away or it hasn't arrived yet."

Luckily the cats made it here safe and sound to keep us/me company, which some of you are already well aware of if we're Snapchat friends (sorry not sorry for all the cat pics/videos guys. I love these furballs!) They arrived on the 21st and have been adjusting well to the new place. Their travel itinerary had them going from San Diego ➡️ Los Angeles ➡️ Tokyo/Haneda ➡️ Iwakuni ➡️ Okinawa so now they are quite the experienced jet setters! We shipped them through Sarah's Pet Paradise, which I would recommend to anyone needing to send pets overseas--they were great and there was a person flying along with the pets to get them from check point to check point, and even through customs, without much hassle. They even sent/posted pictures of the pets along the way so us concerned pet owners could see that they were still alive and well!

The kitties upon their arrival in Okinawa. They don't seem as happy to see me as I was to see them. 

Tigre looks super over it and has resigned to his fate of imminent death approaching; 

Patches is anxious to figure out what all the noises are 

and whether or not there are shadows that need to be attacked.

I seriously think that they thought they were going to die en route so by the time they got to us they were just happy to be alive. They got out and immediately started exploring. Their stay at Rachel's prepared them for a new home with stairs, so they were pretty willing to explore both upstairs and downstairs from the get go. They weren't big fans of the bare floors though so they were flopping on the bed and the chairs until we bought some area rugs to fill a couple of the voids.

Exploring their new digs. 

I can just hear Patches being all like, "Hey Tig! Come on, let's go explore!" and him being like, "Ugh, fine. I somehow made it through that plane ride without dying so this can't be much worse." 
That Tigre...he's such a butt sometimes.

There was also an initial fiasco with the new litter box that resulted in a pee-soaked Tigre butt racing around our bedroom, leaving wet booty marks all over our nice new floor, and culminating in our poor buddy receiving the further trauma of a never-before-received bath. But he survived that too, much to his surprise, and is now being the lovey-est cat he has ever been! Cuddling up with us, wanting to be petted and not running away, and following us from room to room. I think he's afraid that we'll abandon him or put him on a plane again. We won't, buddy. At least not for the next three years.

I mean, look at how cute he is! So happy to be back with his people! 

Patches looks pretty darn content, too.

In other non-cat related news, we "survived" our first typhoon here on island. And by survived I mean that Brian got to stay home from work, and we got to build a bunch of toys and drink all the chu-hais we had stocked up for the occasion. Typhoon Goni could have been much much worse had it come closer to the island, but as it was he ended up being mostly just a large, extra windy storm. A thankful outcome for all involved. No trampolines flew past our window, no one lost power, and our sandbags kept our trash cans in place. A big win overall. I wish there was more to say about it, but really that's about it. Typhoon season lasts into November though, so we'll keep you posted if anything big comes through our way.

Filling up sandbags to be typhoon ready!

Alright, that's it for now friends. We miss you and would love to hear from you/Facetime with you if you're ever free! Afternoons/evenings in your U.S. time zones are best for us as they are our morning time. Take care!  xoxo Maureen

Our New Place (Part 1)

Our suitcases (pre-unpacking/exploding)

We got to move into our permanent place this past Friday morning! It's much larger than any place we've had before and has an incredible amount of closets & cabinets for storage--a huge change from our last place which had practically no storage. Here's a quick video of what it looked like before we exploded our suitcases all over it:

Between the limited number of bags we were allowed to bring with us and purging of items that we had to do before the move in order to make our weight limit, we knew that we would be short many of the required necessities to start up life in a new home. Luckily the military takes that into consideration and provides a modest moving stipend to help alleviate the costs of (re)purchasing these supplies. Although Brian teased me for packing sheets, towels, blankets, and shower curtains, they were immediately helpful and put to good use. General cleaning supplies (especially the liquid ones that we couldn't ship here) had to be bought along with food, beverages, and a couple of action figures for good measure :) All of that was anticipated and not too bothersome, but I do get a little irked when we have to buy items that are being shipped but haven't gotten here yet--like another broom & dust pan, or a new microwave since we unfortunately put ours in storage thinking that there would already be one here. But again, it's those kinds of things that the stipend is thankfully there for--just gotta chalk it all up as another part of the moving process!

Since our place doesn't currently have any carpeting at all, we also purchased some house slippers. We already try to make it a habit to take our shoes off when we enter homes, so we figured it would be culturally appropriate to have some house slippers of our own in our home. Plus it helps keep the dust off our feet :)

Overall the place has been really nice so far! The neighborhood is pretty quiet, there are a fair amount of trees and bushes in the back and front yards to give some visual privacy, and the loaner furniture has allowed us to begin to feel right at home. Our next door neighbor even came by in the pouring rain to introduce himself and to welcome us to the neighborhood with a bottle of wine.  It was such an unexpected and kind gesture, and it makes me realize the kind of community we may have been missing out on living in apartments the last few years.

A welcome gift from our new neighbors

We've still got a lot of unpacking to do to declutter the common areas but it's all falling into place. And we're super excited because the cats will arrive and join us here on Friday! We've missed them lots but know that they've been in great hands with Rachel back in California. (Thank you, Rachel!!! You're the absolute best!!!)

Ok, that's all for now. Take care, friends!
xoxo Maureen

PS. Part 2 will come once we get our household goods sometime in September--we'll post a new video of what it looks like once it's more complete :)

Cars, Housing, and Laughing at the Sea

Sunset on the sea wall

Have we really been here 10 days already? It's gone by so quickly! We're slowly and happily settling in to life here but there are so many details to still figure out. It's been common (for me at least) to run the gamut of emotions in one day: awe and joy, frustration and confusion; be overwhelmed and irked with my lack of independence, then feel connected and settled thanks to the support of Brian, Melissa, and Jonathan. The island and the people here are beautiful, helpful, and wonderful! The paperwork process to get cars and housing is.... less than wonderful.

However, life is good! So please do not worry/stress/feel bad for us at all. The positive definitely outweighs the negative by leaps and bounds, but it would be disingenuous to pretend that everything in an international military move goes off without a hitch. All in all the process has been as smooth as it can be--things are all getting done and the pieces are falling into place :) And with that said, enough of diary mode--bring on the fun stuff!

We got car #1 of 2 this past Tuesday so that has helped out a lot in terms of feeling independent and "normal." It is a 2004 Toyota Passo and it's a fun little car! Most everyone drives used cars here since they are so well taken care of and are quite affordable. There is absolutely no need for a large car here (unless you have a large family) so the small cars are the way to go if you want to get around the island with ease. We chose to buy this first one from a used car dealer since they help get all of the paperwork, taxes, and insurance settled for you in addition to providing a one year warranty. We still have yet to name her but I'm sure it will come to us soon :)

Our new Toyota Passo

We also got car #2 today--a 2003 Will Cypha (nope, I hadn't heard of it before either!). This one was bought directly through a previous owner--well, friend of the previous owner since they have already PCSed back to the states. There's a website called Bookoo (similar to Craigslist) where the Americans and English speakers here sell their new and used items, and we were able to get a great deal on it. The paperwork process was a bit complicated but we were able to get it all done today--yay for transportation! Brian thinks it looks kind of like a Transformer, so he will more than likely be driving this one rather than me ;)

The Will Cypha aka Transformer Car!

Another big piece of news is that our permanent housing set up is almost completed! As we thought and hoped, we will be living on base in the multiplex housing (which is basically the military name for connected town houses). We get to move in on Friday (tomorrow!) so we're pretty stoked for that. Since our household goods (including our bed) won't arrive until the end of September, the military provides loaner furniture that will already be there when we move in. Kitchen table & chairs, couch, bed, dressers, etc. We can also get loaner pots/pans/etc. as well so there is no need for us to go out and buy all new things until our stuff arrives--which is good since that would obviously get to be quite wasteful and expensive. A big bonus of where we'll be living is that we will be in the same neighborhood as four of our friends, so it will be just a stroll down the way to grab a drink together or to share a cab somewhere. 

It will be great to move into our permanent home but we will definitely miss our awesome sea wall hotel. Besides the gorgeous view, one random thing I will miss is drinking my morning coffee while watching a group of generally older Okinawans do their daily calisthenics. Every morning without fail they meet up at 6:30am, do some stretching, raise their heart rates with some jumping/kicking, do some more stretching, and end with vocal warm-ups. Yup, vocal warm-ups. After some chanting they deliberately laugh loudly for an extended period of time--first towards the ocean and then towards the city. I'm so intrigued by this ceremonial way of starting your day, and love their dedication and commitment! Maybe someday I'll find out what they're saying/chanting beforehand but for now I'll just make sure I enjoy my last morning with them. 

Morning calisthenics on the sea wall

Ok, that's all for now. Will try to update soon about our new place along with other fun tidbits!

xoxo,

Maureen

The Beginning of our Island Adventure

Today begins the fifth day of our Okinawan adventure so we'd thought we'd catch you up on some of the happenings so far, starting from the beginning. (Be prepared for multiple writing voice changes as we co-authored this one). 

After saying goodbye to Rachel and Jenn at the airport, we began the long multi-stop trek to our new home--San Diego to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Okinawa. We left SAN at 9:30am on Sunday and finally arrived in Okinawa at 9:30pm Monday night. The trip was about 20 hours of travel/layovers and then you have to add in the +16 hour time difference from the west coast. The LAX-->NRT leg of the flight was the long one, at 11+ hours in the air, but it wasn't too bad.

And we're off!

 The coolest part of the flight was the Dreamliner plane itself.  Initially flummoxed by the lack of window shades, we soon discovered that we were living in the future when the windows...TINTED THEMSELVES!!!  You touch a little button at the bottom of the window at it goes from completely clear to almost entirely dark.  Fortunately we weren't sitting right next to a window or the entire flight would have been spent playing with this fanciful future-tech.  The flight attendants were great and brought us a drink, snack, drink, meal, and drink in quick succession.  They then auto-tinted all of the windows and turned out the lights to simulate night-time even though it was roughly noon and we were following the sun across the globe making it perpetual day.  The quick combo of food, booze, and simu-night was clearly designed to make all of the passengers go sleepy-bye.  However, there was quite a bit of television and film to be watched, and it wasn't going to watch itself (although on a dreamliner, it might just be able to do that).  Multiple movies and TV shows (and a few naps) later and we arrived in Japan.

Cheers!/Kanpai!

In the Tokyo/Narita airport we made quick progress getting through customs, grabbing our bags, and then progressing to the domestic terminal.  The Japanese airport workers were as polite, efficient, and helpful as advertised.  We arrived at the new gate and explored our first location in Japan a bit.  There was a Udon noodle shop and we got to grab some noodles and a beer.  We then settled into some seats and were immediately mesmerized by Japanese television (cute and/or weird mascots for everything!).  The lack of sleep and the fact that it was now midnight in San Diego finally caught up to us and we dozed a bit.  We then got on the flight to Oki and slept almost the entire 3 hour flight.

Tokyo/Narita food kiosk

A much needed snack

After arriving in Oki and retrieving all our of checked baggage without a hitch, we were greeted by by the smiling faces of our friends Amy and Eric to take us to our temporary lodging/hotel. Amy and Eric have been here for a year already and are both Navy physicians who we hung out with in San Diego, so we were immediately spoiled to have people we know help us with our transition from square one. And if that weren't enough, we have four other close Navy doctor friends from San Diego that are here too--MJ & Andy who have also been here for a year already, and Melissa & Jonathan who are starting this journey with us at the very same time. It might be corny but #blessed is a very appropriate way to describe how we feel to be here right now with all of these awesome people that we already know!

We loaded up the tiny cars (more on those later) and drove up the island to our temporary digs.  Our awesome sponsors (Adi and Amy) got us reservations at a hotel right on the sea wall!  It's a beautiful walkway/wall that holds back the East China Sea.  The hotel is was painted blue but otherwise blended in with it's surroundings.  Okinawan buildings are built to withstand typhoons (mighty smitings of the wind gods) so they are blocky and a bit weathered on the outside.  We were expecting a tiny Japanese room inside but we entered into a huge sitting area backed by a large dining table and expansive kitchen. Luxury!  It also has windows all along the seawall side so we can look out on the water.  We were duly impressed, but also duly tired.  So after much hugging, exclaiming, and laughing; Amy and Eric bid us good night (it was now midnight local time and....some other time SD time) and we hit the sack.

Our hotel during daylight hours

Then next day Brian began the extensive multi-day check-in process while Maureen went to get Japanese cell phones, hence the earlier post on how to communicate with us while we're here. Having phones made us immediately feel more connected and normalized so it was a good first step to get done. We didn't have to wait long to get our first full Japanese meal fix as we went to the restaurant Gen that day for lunch. Just like many restaurants in Japan the building is small with not much parking. This one is quite noticeable though as its roof is lined with cartoonish shisa in a variety of poses (more on shisa later, too).  We stuffed our faces with fresh rolls, gyoza, and sets (or combo platters), and left entirely happy and full.

The many shisa on the roof of Gen

That's all we have the stamina to catch up on for now, but promise to keep you posted. Take care, friends! We miss you!

Welcome to Okinawa! But how do we call home?

Well, we made it! The Taylors are Okinawa residents. As I'm typing this we are in the middle of our third full day on the island and lots has happened in that short amount of time! 

Before I tell you all about it, let me fill you in on our communication situation should you want to contact us:

If you want to "text" or chat with us the easiest option is through the Facebook Messenger app, through which you can message, call, and even video chat! I know some of you aren't fond of it, but it sure makes things really easy if you have it.

We can't text or call to the USA in the normal fashion without international fees but we can iMesssage. Since these come through via internet/data instead of the phone carriers these iMessages are free for both you and us. For this option, you will need our new phone numbers--otherwise you will reach our computer or iPad instead of our phones. Just let us know and we'll send you our info. Then iMessage the heck out of us!

If neither of those options work for you, we can also do: 

Skype

What's App (you will need our new numbers)

Google Hangouts

Snapchat

So many options! Gotta love our new technological world.

And if the interwebs are not your favorite, we also still have an American mailing address. Postage is the same as the states so that's really awesome. Let us know if you want any of our contact info since posting it on a public blog is clearly not a smart thing to do :) We will miss our friends and family in the States dearly, but at least we can still be in touch! 

Our Next Big Adventure

After much anticipation, the verdict is in! This summer Brian, Tigre, Patches, and I will be moving to......

OKINAWA, JAPAN!

We are super excited, especially since this was one of Brian's top choices, and can't wait to see what this new chapter of Navy life will bring! We don't have a set-in-stone moving date yet, but it will likely be in late July/early August. Brian will be working at the main Navy hospital there with a couple of our favorite Pediatric people (yay for knowing friends already!), and I'm already working on applications to hopefully be able to teach there as well. Even with all the excitement, I still have some slight apprehension about moving--mostly stemming from being so far away from my family and not knowing the language (yet)-- but we luckily live in a day and age where FaceTime, email, airline travel, and Rosetta Stone are all pretty readily available so I know it will all be ok. Start saving your pennies now, friends! Our future guest room awaits your presence ;) We'll keep you posted as new developments come along, but are happy to share this big piece of news with you for now.