konnichiwa!

Hello there!! We made it to Japan and I just got our computer in our quick shipment. Man, it has been a long two months without my computer! You don't realize how much you use it until it's packed in a box moving across the world. So I realize that I have about a million pictures to put on here from our summer adventures, but I thought I should give you a little taste of our first experience in Japan. Then I'll do some back tracking and update the rest of the summer.

My mom took us to the airport nice and early. I think we left at 4am. They gave her a pass to come back to the gate with us, so despite being super tired, she came and had a yummy airport breakfast (enter sarcasm here) and hung out with us. We bought some neck pillows, shed a few tears, and said our goodbyes. I must say the goodbyes have been the worst part about this whole thing. Too many tears!!

Our first flight was 10 hours. The kids did really good on this flight. They slept, watched movies, ate snacks and were pretty much happy the whole time. It didn't seem like ten hours. 

We landed on Yokota Air Base in Tokyo. We were on a military flight so everyone on our flight was military. Lots of families moving to Japan. We had a couple hours in Tokyo before getting back on the same plane and flying to Iwakuni Navy Base, which is on the southern part of mainland Japan. It was really beautiful!! By this time we were all so exhausted. I don't remember how long we were in Iwakuni. But we got back on the same plane and then flew to Kadena Air Force Base (where we live) in Okinawa.

This was our first glimpse of Okinawa. We got there just as the sun was going down. We landed at 7:30pm, which is 3:30am Seattle time. So we had officially been going for 24 hrs at this point. We waited for our luggage for almost an hour. This was one of the most painful parts. We were so close to getting in a bed and yet we had to sit there and wait for what felt like hours. Finally it came out and our sponsor/friend, Shane, was there to pick us up and take us to TLF (temporary living facility).

This was our TLF building. When we finally got there, we were so exhausted that we slept the whole night! 

Shane was so nice to us and drove us around until we got our drivers licenses. This was one of our first times off base. The general in our new comer's briefing referred to Okinawa as the concrete jungle. You can see why! It's funny because the landscape is so beautiful but the buildings are not so much. 

Our friends the Bjarnason's live on the Navy base close by and this is the view from their house. Behind those buildings is the East China Sea. Isn't that awesome!?

This is a right by our TLF building. I thought it was pretty.

We went to Araha beach with the Jenks and the Bjarnason's for family night. The sunset was amazing! The park there looks like a pirate ship. The kids were in heaven. We played at the park for a while and then headed down to the beach.

There is a zip line that the kids were going crazy over. Justin had to run and follow Anderson to make sure he didn't fall off when it hit the end.

Pretty, right??

Some people from church went to Sunset beach with their kids and I tagged along with Ashlee while Justin got some work done. The water is so pretty and crystal clear. This beach and Araha beach are only ten minutes from our house.

This was our first restaurant experience. They had the yummiest fried rice we have ever had! The only tricky part, is there are no forks. We had to dive right in with the chopsticks!! We also ate gyozas which are one of my favorite foods.

This is our new house. It's not much to look at on the outside but it's nice inside. It's been newly remodeled which I am grateful for. It's actually a four-plex, and we live on the end. We are supposed to get the rest of our belongings next week. We can't wait to put our house together and actually feel like we have a home!! It will be so nice.

This is the place that we bought our cars. The way they do it is really strange. You don't test drive any of them, and some times the ones you look at don't even start. But when you buy them they go through a big inspection and they fix all the stuff that is wrong with them. So you put a down payment on it, they fix it, and you pick it up a few days later. It has been really weird driving on the left side of the road!! I feel like I have to constantly think, ok....what side am I supposed to be on?? One time I just automatically went on the right side of the road. It wasn't until a car was approaching me and started flashing me that I realized I was on the wrong side!! Hopefully that's the last time I do that.

I'll end the post with one more beautiful beach. This is at the Kadena Marina. I can't get over the water! It makes you want to buy a plane ticket and come visit us....right?? :)

We miss everyone lots!!