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!