I'm finally here!
Phew! I'm here in Japan and I have time on my hands! The flight over was long and annoying. It wasn't as long getting here as it was getting to Australia so I suppose I should be thankful for that. Instead of flying in a straight line to Japan, we flew north over Canada, Sarah Palin's house, the Arctic Ocean and Siberia. Palin really can see Russia from her house! Hopefully one day I'll be able to move up to Business or 1st class one day - my legs would love me forever.
When we landed, it took me about an hour to figure out how to get through immigration and customs and all that jazz. I had to fill out paperwork that was in both Japanese and English so I was a little overwhelmed at first. Anyway, I made it through unscathed and finally managed to meet up with Kevin. I wanted to do one of those running jump-hugs that you see all the time in movies but apparently things like that are frowned upon in Japanese culture. Boo. It took us another hour or so to get back to base on the shuttle. We didn't go directly through Tokyo or Yokohama because, well, that would've been punctuality's suicide, so I didn't get to see much. I did, however, see 3 ferris wheels - one of which is featured in my normal LiveJournal's layout: the Minato Mirai 21 area.
The next day was full of exploring. Since I was still very much jet lagged, I woke up extra early and made Kevin wake up too. We walked to the front gate and on the way, I was able to spy Mt. Fuji. So in order to get a better look, we climbed to the top of an adjacent parking garage. Apparently this was the first time Kevin was able to see it too because it was a clear day. Well, we haven't seen it since. After getting off base, we walked around outside where most of the shops were closed. So to kill some time, we stopped in a restaurant and had some soba noodles, beef and miso soup. I think I'm going to go back to this place today because it was so fantastically yummy. After that, the stores had opened up so we were able to get cell phones. We both got these cell phones - mine in white and his in gold. Remember how when I bought Audrey I said it was smarter than me? Yeah, this one makes me feel like I'm 2. Everything is so high tech and most of the really fun features I want to get to are in Japanese. D'oh! However, the camera in this phone puts to shame my little Canon which has 5mps vs. this one's 8.1mps. Dang. After getting our phones, we took a train to the Ikego base where we will be living to visit one of Kevin's friends. We did a little tour of their apartment (the same as ours only horizontally flipped) and then left to go wander some more. There's literally a train station maybe 10 steps from the main gate there so it's going to be very convenient. We walked down the street and saw the entrance to a shrine which we then visited. A bit further down the road, there was another bigger shrine that was even more beautiful. It was so surreal.
This past week I've been in an orientation that's meant to familiarize me with the main base and Japan. The first few days bored me to tears but the last 3 were pretty fun. The end of the week was basically Japanese Culture 101 and taught us words, numbers, history, holidays, etiquette and more. Then on Thursday, we were going on a field trip to a large shrine a few train stops away from here. Unfortunately, I had to skip out on the last part because Kevin and I had a housing meeting so that we could walk through our apartment to see if anything was wrong. Well, just to make sure we were meeting in the right place, we went to the housing office and asked if we were to meet there or at the apartment in Ikego. The receptionist looked us up in the computer and told us that we were to meet them at Ikego at 3:30pm. Ok. So we get on the train to get there early. We head over to the housing office there and for some reason, no one seems to know why we're there. They call the Yokosuka base and the person we're suppose to be meeting says, no, we're suppose to be back there. They were wrong. Well, it's only like 3:10pm so if we left now we would be able to make it back in time. Nope. The woman says she's already with someone. ... But...we have a set appointment at 3:30pm to meet with her. Oh no, she'll still be with someone. ... So, because of someone's blatant mistake, we had to reschedule for next week and won't be able to move in until a week from now. This is the first time I'd actually seen the incompetence first hand. You can bet your sweet ass I' won't be sending them a pretty evaluation when it's all said and done.
Today is Saturday here and Kevin's on duty which means I won't see him until Sunday morning. I've got an entire day to myself and I'm just trying to figure out what out of the many things running through my head I should do. The possibilities are endless!
When we landed, it took me about an hour to figure out how to get through immigration and customs and all that jazz. I had to fill out paperwork that was in both Japanese and English so I was a little overwhelmed at first. Anyway, I made it through unscathed and finally managed to meet up with Kevin. I wanted to do one of those running jump-hugs that you see all the time in movies but apparently things like that are frowned upon in Japanese culture. Boo. It took us another hour or so to get back to base on the shuttle. We didn't go directly through Tokyo or Yokohama because, well, that would've been punctuality's suicide, so I didn't get to see much. I did, however, see 3 ferris wheels - one of which is featured in my normal LiveJournal's layout: the Minato Mirai 21 area.
The next day was full of exploring. Since I was still very much jet lagged, I woke up extra early and made Kevin wake up too. We walked to the front gate and on the way, I was able to spy Mt. Fuji. So in order to get a better look, we climbed to the top of an adjacent parking garage. Apparently this was the first time Kevin was able to see it too because it was a clear day. Well, we haven't seen it since. After getting off base, we walked around outside where most of the shops were closed. So to kill some time, we stopped in a restaurant and had some soba noodles, beef and miso soup. I think I'm going to go back to this place today because it was so fantastically yummy. After that, the stores had opened up so we were able to get cell phones. We both got these cell phones - mine in white and his in gold. Remember how when I bought Audrey I said it was smarter than me? Yeah, this one makes me feel like I'm 2. Everything is so high tech and most of the really fun features I want to get to are in Japanese. D'oh! However, the camera in this phone puts to shame my little Canon which has 5mps vs. this one's 8.1mps. Dang. After getting our phones, we took a train to the Ikego base where we will be living to visit one of Kevin's friends. We did a little tour of their apartment (the same as ours only horizontally flipped) and then left to go wander some more. There's literally a train station maybe 10 steps from the main gate there so it's going to be very convenient. We walked down the street and saw the entrance to a shrine which we then visited. A bit further down the road, there was another bigger shrine that was even more beautiful. It was so surreal.
This past week I've been in an orientation that's meant to familiarize me with the main base and Japan. The first few days bored me to tears but the last 3 were pretty fun. The end of the week was basically Japanese Culture 101 and taught us words, numbers, history, holidays, etiquette and more. Then on Thursday, we were going on a field trip to a large shrine a few train stops away from here. Unfortunately, I had to skip out on the last part because Kevin and I had a housing meeting so that we could walk through our apartment to see if anything was wrong. Well, just to make sure we were meeting in the right place, we went to the housing office and asked if we were to meet there or at the apartment in Ikego. The receptionist looked us up in the computer and told us that we were to meet them at Ikego at 3:30pm. Ok. So we get on the train to get there early. We head over to the housing office there and for some reason, no one seems to know why we're there. They call the Yokosuka base and the person we're suppose to be meeting says, no, we're suppose to be back there. They were wrong. Well, it's only like 3:10pm so if we left now we would be able to make it back in time. Nope. The woman says she's already with someone. ... But...we have a set appointment at 3:30pm to meet with her. Oh no, she'll still be with someone. ... So, because of someone's blatant mistake, we had to reschedule for next week and won't be able to move in until a week from now. This is the first time I'd actually seen the incompetence first hand. You can bet your sweet ass I' won't be sending them a pretty evaluation when it's all said and done.
Today is Saturday here and Kevin's on duty which means I won't see him until Sunday morning. I've got an entire day to myself and I'm just trying to figure out what out of the many things running through my head I should do. The possibilities are endless!