Nom nom nom nom

Hi guys! It's been quite a while since I updated my blog. My older brother brought it to my attention the other day and I realized I had an semi-adequate amount of pictures of stuff I've been eating and drinking to share with everyone. I've been kind of forgetful about picture taking. It's not something I'm used to doing.

Not pictured is my very disappointing trip to Red Lobster with friends. Not that my friends were disappointing- the food was. It's no big deal though, there are plenty of other places to eat on this island.

To start off, here's the Japanese eggs I've been telling everyone about. They aren't different except a little smaller and they come in 10 packs instead of a dozen. The whole reason I have them pictured is because most people who know me know about my ongoing struggle to reintegrate eggs into my life. For some reason eggs have been making me very sick for the past 4 or 5 years. I've been kind of courageous since we got here and for some reason, Japanese eggs do not make me sick. I have no idea why but I'm not going to question it, just enjoy the time I have to eat them.

 

Those of you who have been chatting with me now and then know I was paranoid about not having spam. I'm happy to inform you that there is spam at our grocery store. Not only that.. Japanese people are obsessed with spam. I saw this sandwich on a sign at American Village. At the time I was still paranoid about eggs but now that I'm aware that I can get away with it, I've been quietly plotting a trip to this restaurant to enjoy what looks like a very delicious sandwich. I know.. You all think Spam is gross. Sorry about that...


A trip to Okinawa, I was told, was not complete without trying taco rice. After my recent haircut, a friend and I went out to eat at a place called King Taco. It's a ticket restaurant. At ticket restaurants you purchase a ticket from a vending machine for the food you want. Then you hand them to a waiter/waitress/person at the counter, and they fulfil your order. My friend took me to this restaurant and I have had several fat kid fantasies about it since our first visit. Taco rice looked kind of... questionable at first. I looked at it with its cheap cheese and pile of lettuce and thought, "What on earth are people raving about?" ...Then I ate it. And had a revelation. It was the most magnificent thing I'd tasted. White rice, some kind of shredded velveeta type cheese, ground beef, and hand shredded lettuce with some kind of red sauce at the table. It was a combination that somehow worked. I was smitten.

 

This. This is taco rice.

 Besides the taco rice, we also got tacos. I had been forewarned about the massive pile of lettuce on the restaurant's tacos but when they arrived I thought that we had ordered a salad instead by accident. These aren't like any tacos I have ever had. They are made a lot like the taco rice.. minus the rice. The shells are thin and crispy but very fragile and light like the taco salad shells back in the states. They were also fantastic and are now subject to my fat kid fantasies. I've been bothering Frank for about a week now to take me to the tacos.

 

 Another place that was introduced through the same friend was Ramen Kagetsu Arashi. Arashi's, for short, is also a ticket restaurant. It specializes in ramen and fried rice. While I've had nearly enough ramen to last me a lifetime, I can never get enough fried rice. The fried rice is simply amazing. It comes to your table still cooking and you must stir it until it is done. They will put soy and garlic sauce in it for you and then leave you to enjoy your meal. My pictures of this just do not do it justice. We were starving when we went to lunch. There was no time for something like picture taking, only stuffing our faces.

 

 The portions are huge with the exception of the Gyoza sets and even those are a lot of food for one person. Frank and I split the fried rice. There were no leftovers to take home. I like it that way. Nothing to forget about and tsk over when you realize that it was wasted. So far this is probably my favorite place to eat out here. I'm not sure this will change with time as their menu has lots of things to try. I'm sure it will be a long while before I diverge from my familiar favorite. In fact, just looking at this picture is making me so very hungry...

A really popular drink out here is Qoo. It comes in weird sippy packages with jelly but since the texture of jelly makes me cringe I do not own any of these "Qoo" packets. The juice itself is fantastic. You can get huge bottles of it at the grocery store on base but it's cheaper to just go to the store in town and purchase it. My favorite is orange. It tastes pretty much just like Sunny D but just a hair less sweet. It is very good. As you can see, this large bottle is mostly empty. Mostly empty because it was filled with delicious.

One of the best things I've found out about living here is that canned alcohol is pretty much the norm. While back home most things that came in cans were absolutely vile the same does not apply to Japan. Pictured here? STRONG and STRONG ZERO. The Strong Zero is one I have yet to try. I'm not sure what rainbow fruit is pictured on the can but I can only assume it's going to be delicious. And possibly papaya flavored. The other one is Grapefruit flavored and remarkably sour. Getting drunk in Japan comes cheap if you're a lightweight like me. These cans were around 150 yen (Roughly $1.80 or so depending on the exchange rate. Don't quote me on that. My conversion math is terrible.) Either way, one of these is plenty for me to be very intoxicated for a decent length of time and somehow avoid having a hangover the next day. I'm assuming it is because these seem to be marketed towards other women who are around my shape and size. I'm sure there are some ladies who pound back seventeen PBRs here too but I imagine by and large most people take the better option. These. They also do not taste like alcohol at all, which I like because my older brother turned me into a booze snob by ordering me a proper dirty martini. Once. Ruined for life. Either way- these top anything you could throw my way back in the USA. I have tried other brands and flavors but keep coming back to these. The tartness of the grapefruit is just too appealing.

In other news, we got surround sound a couple of weeks ago. We also got Rockband 3. One of the big reasons I haven't been updating my blog is because I've been enjoying the surround sound and our new game. Other than that, things have been by and large uneventful. Frank was sick with Strep B and I quarantined him to the guest bedroom, fortifying myself with vitamins, and bleaching anything that gets touched. I'm hoping I was able to dodge the bullet. We'll find out in a few days, I suppose. For now, I'm feeling a-ok and enjoying the recent string of storms. I've been trying to catch some pictures of the lightning out over the ocean but it's a matter of luck with how quick it is. Until next time!



Government furniture!

First a little information- when you travel oconus, which means outside continental united states, often times you're given a very restrictive weight limit. When this happens, you are loaned some furniture from FMO (Furnishings managment office). Depending on your stay, your dependents, and your restricted weight, you are either given the furniture temporarily or it is loaned to you for the duration of your stay. In our case, we were given this furniture for the duration of our stay. Once our things arrive (tomorrow!!) we will decide what we will be returning and set up a pick up date for those things.

Here are some pictures of the furniture we were issued. All of the furniture arrived overly polished (very greasy!) but in decent shape. I'll expand more on that topic as we go on:

We were given a very nice dining room table that seats six but we were given 5 dining room chairs. One of which is apparently our "computer chair". I find this fascinating because The chair is not ergonomic nor does it quite fit with the desk. If I have my legs on the seat and I pull the chair up so I can have proper posture while using the computer, my legs hit the drawer underneath. I imagine Frank can't even get his legs under the desk. So there's alot of hunching going on in this house. Anyway, the table also came with a leaf for the center to expand it. Since we never have company I doubt we will actually use this leaf for anything other than taking up space in the closet. The table itself is very nice, albeit dinged in a few places.

The hutch we were given is super nice. It has plenty of storage with drawers and the shelves behind the sliding glass doors. I will say that this is a very heavy piece of furniture and that the top and bottom pieces are not connected. This mostly concerns me due to the fact that there are earthquakes out here. If one is strong enough do you think the top of this will come crashing down, taking whatever lovely dishes I decide to display inside along with it?

I also foresee the cat figuring out how to get on top of this in no time and sitting up there close to the air conditioner when its hot outside. We need to get something for the drawers. They are very musty smelling and I'm hesitant to put dinner linens in anything that smells less than clean. Other than that- this is probably my favorite piece of loaner furniture. I've never had one of these before and I can see how owning one now will probably spoil me in the future. Once we get our things I plan on filling the shelves with the new set of dishes we were given from the wedding. They are all snow white and square. I'm sure you all know how obsessed I've always been with square dishes. They are also the only matching set we have, haha!

Our living room furniture is very nice. We were given two end tables, a coffee table (Even though we asked them not to give us a coffee table), and two chairs. That's a whole lot of seating options for two people and one temporarily absent cat! I think it took us about a week to sit in all the seats in the house. I found it comical that I asked if we could possibly get two computer desks and two chairs and they said "No, there's only two of you." then dump living room seating for 5 and dining room seating for 4 on us.

Now before any of you start with the "They could have given you nothing at all!" Remember, this blog is Okinawa REALIST not Okinawa Polly-Anna. Moving along.. Those of you who know me understand that I sit in one place. The corner of any couch I sit on with my feet on something and a controller in my hands. This picture shows our living room furniture neatly arranged in the living room. At the time of writing this, the couch has taken up residence in our office until we get a second desk. We watch tv on the laptop and I play pspgo while Frank uses the computer. It's a handy set up. Kind of feels like a therapist's office with the couch and the desk.

Speaking of desks- here is the desk we were given. It's functional in terms of desks but not meant for the kind of hobbies Frank and I have. It's more like a writing desk than a computer desk. Like I said, there is the issue with the chair not quite fitting which leads to another issue. When we get a computer chair it will not fit period. The space for a chair is very narrow. The desk has lots of drawers, which is nice but they also suffer from the same condition as the hutch drawers. There is a musty, almost methane-like smell coming from their interior. Once we get something to take out that smell I will probably be more inclined to like this desk. At the moment though I have mixed feelings. More than an hour at the computer seated here takes a very nasty toll on my back but it's such a beautiful desk that it's hard to resist it's modern charm and darkly stained wood for long. The desk is also in immaculate shape. Not a single scratch or ding, not even the hint of a wobble or warping.

Our bedroom furniture is great looking. We got two nightstands, a dresser with a mirror, and a bedframe. All of the furniture matches.

The mattress and boxspring were new in the plastic and they are pretty comfortable. Unfortunately, no bed will work quite right for me and hasn't worked quite right for me since we took down my twin bed at our first apartment. Mostly, my back is very fickle about the support level. Beds are usually too soft and I wake up feeling a bit like I've been run over by a bus. This bed doesn't do it to that extent. It's more like I was run over by a bicycle. I'll take it over the air mattress we slept on the first four days we were here. Also- we had to buy our own bed linens. These were on sale at the PX (Which is like Target but more expensive...Think Macy's and Target's terrible love child.) I really like the set but the sheets need a few heavy washes before they are malleable enough to be comfortable.

Here's our dresser with a mirror. The reflection in the mirror is our shoji screen windows, not it's actual design. It's pretty nice but it suffers the same fate as the rest of the furniture with drawers. All the drawers stink! This dresser's drawers are the worst of it to the extent that if we close the bedroom door the smell becomes overwhelming and makes me nauseated. At the moment it's not a terrible problem since we have a very small amount of clothes. The drawers are all empty. Who wants a bunch of clothes that smell like that? I'm sorry I can't offer up a better description of the smell.. I lack the words to actually define it. Not a big deal. It's a gross smell and will be remedied as soon as we get our hands on satchels of anti humidity stuff for the drawers. They sell them down the street. ^.^

That's all the furniture we were given. Some of it will be going back to FMO after tomorrow. I don't think two people need all this stuff. Either way, it's really nice that we get whatever we do want to keep for the duration of our stay here in Okinawa. Next time- Japanese convenience food experiments!

Our Japanese Home

For those of you who have been waiting a week or so for an update, I apologize for the wait and thank you for your patience. Most of the time between the posts was spent catching up on all my favorite American tv shows. I'm still in the process of catching up with Syfy's Lost Girl but I now am up to date on The Voice and Faceoff.

- A shot of our entryway and entryway storage closets. Welcome to our home!

Those entryway closets opened up! Three cheers for lots of practical storage!!

Today, let's talk about our apartment here in beautiful Chatan Cho. First, a tour:

This is the living/dining room of our apartment. It has a large wrap around balcony and very shiny floors. It's also very large compared to the other places we looked at. On the left you can see our double set of sliding glass doors which, much to my suprise, were airtight. We've lived in a place with sliding glass doors before and all the cold and hot air came drifting through little unseen spaces all around the frames. The day we looked at the apartment was a bit windy and cold so it was very beneficial to be able to check to see if any air was getting inside.

Next, a picture dump our of main bathroom. The entry to the anteroom of our bathroom is a sliding door with a window in it. Why? No idea. It's a triangle of frosted glass. The bathroom has three parts. A room with the tub and faucet to rinse off before bathing, the anteroom with a vanity counter, sink, and linen storage, and a separate room with a toilet and sink.

Our lovely 80's style bathroom door. Gotta love the weird triangle window for seemingly no reason other than to put a window somewhere.

The vanity counter in the anteroom with a bonus shot of me taking a picture and the linen closet. Both sides open, I just wanted to show the nice wood slats on the door.

Here is my much loved and much used soaking tub. It has a hose and spray thing for showers but I rarely use that part. It's more fun to wash myself off and then take a nice long steaming hot bath. This tub is much deeper than American tubs.

The toilet room. We have a bidet and seat heater attached but the idea of the toilet spraying my butt with water unnerves me so it remains unplugged.

On a side note, I now think that green bathrooms are following me. I've had a green bathroom everywhere I have lived since I moved out of my parent's house. Speaking of parent's house.. Here's a shot of the mom washcloth hanging out in the main bathroom.

The other washcloths were jealous. It got to be the only one on the towel rack.

Here are a couple of shots of the kitchen. Lots of nice storage for all my cooking stuff. We were also very fortunate to get American appliances. We have a fridge, stove, washer, and dryer. All without the need to figure out how to use them based on "Push a button, see what happens.

The office/bedroom 1

This room is right off the living room and kitchen. It's a bit smaller than the other two bedrooms so we decided it would be appropriate for our office. There's enough space for two desks and maybe a small area for a cosplay workspace. Nothing super duper big though. It has a great closet with lots of drawers that will be perfect for storing Frank's magic cards and my cosplay supplies. (One side has a place to hang clothes.)

Guest bedroom/Bedroom 2

This bedroom looks much smaller in the picture than it actually is. There's enough space for a bed, one nightstand, and probably a small dresser. It also has a closet like the one in the office. We're going to turn this one into a guest bedroom. Of course, hopefully our efforts won't be in vain and people will actually come visit us. (I'm looking at you, Serenity and Sid.) Once we get our own bed, we will be moving the bed we have been borrowing from the government into this room so that it will be all ready for visits!

The master bedroom is amazing. It's so very large. For those of you who have visited, it's about the size of the living room in our last apartment. It has three sets of windows, all covered with delightful shoji screens. We will be investing in curtains for nighttime though, I think. The two sets you see on the right face an office building and anytime the night crew comes to clean it the lights shine directly into our room, bright as day. Like the rest of the apartment, it has beautiful hardwood floors.

Our ridiculous master bedroom closet. It's about twice the size of the other closets in the house. and has the drawers that I love so much. That extra door on the right of the closet leads to a smaller bathroom that's attached to the master bedroom. Protip: Don't try and open those sliding doors from the middle, the closet doors don't like that and will try to eat your hand. I've had to pry my fingers from between them a few times already.

Here's a close-up shot of our ridiculous in closet drawers that are in all the bedroom closets of the house. Oh how I adore them!!

This is *technically* our master bathroom. It's kind of bizarre because it has a place to stand up and take a shower but the sink and mirror you see there are INSIDE the shower area. We usually don't bother with using this bathroom for anything but it's toilet since anytime someone takes a shower the entire floor is soaked.

Move in day was interesting. We got the keys and on a Friday morning we moved in. Now by moving in, I mean we brought our suitcases and then we were technically moved in. It's not as if we were carrying tons of stuff. I did, however, put a bottle of ketchup in the fridge. That bottle of ketchup meant it was finally "home" for me. Home is where the ketchup lives.

Anyway- that day we were supposed to get a delivery of borrowed furniture from the government to get us by until our TMO (More on that later) shipment arrived. We gave the paperwork a once over and realized that the office put down the wrong address to our house. Usually this kind of error falls on the family because we should have pointed out that the address was wrong in our consultation. Fortunately for us, we provided them with a map that not only showed where the apartment was and how to get to it but also had, plain as day and written in very large romaji, our physical address. We were able to avoid the 80$ no show fee. Frank made a few phone calls and the end result was us not getting our furniture for four more days.

With that out of the way we went to the loan locker and borrowed a tub of kitchen stuff. Here is the list of what we got:

four plates

four bowls

four small plates

two coffee cups

four glasses

four sets of utensils

one santoku knife

one serated serving spoon

one regular serving spoon

(very) rusty can opener

a dull potato peeler

spatula

frying pan

three pots (Small, medium, and large)

Iron + Ironing board

We also got a coffee pot because as all of you know, coffee is a neccesary part of my existence. Without its magical abilities, I would be a witch every morning between the hours of 9 and 11. All these things (save the coffee pot) were given to us in a large rubbermaid bin. (More on that ahead.)

Since we were going to be furniture-less for the next four days, Frank and I went to the PX (Military term for Walmart with too many name brand things) and bought an air mattress, a bedding set, two sets of towels, kitchen towels, and some hangers. Then it was off to the grocery store where we got some relatively simple kitchen foods and snacks.

When we got back home Frank opened the air mattress only to discover that it was not the kind you can use a blow dryer to fill. It needed some kind of special pump OR your mouth. Guess which route we took?

So Frank set out to blowing up this full size air mattress and I got to work putting stuff away. I popped in now and then to assist and found that I got dizzy way too fast to help much. Plus I slobbered all over the plug and mattress as I tried to blow the thing up.. Attractive, I know.

Fast forward 4 hours later. Frank finished the air mattress and I made our first dinner in the apartment.

Unfortunately, we had no table so we improvised:

Yes, our first meal was eaten on the countertop in the kitchen. It was akward but it was very good. Nothing elaborate since we lacked a table. Just grilled cheese and tomato soup. Once we figured out that eating on the counter was somewhat uncomfortable, we moved on to using the plastic bin our dishes came in like a little table. Inventive, yes, but still uncomfortable. Either way we managed our four days and finally our government furniture arrived. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a couch in my life. Anyway, more updates are on their way. I will post an article tomorrow on the arrival (and condition) of our government furniture.

Buying a car in Okinawa

We finally have our car! We got it on Tuesday but we've been running a lot of errands so I haven't had time to come and talk a little bit about the process. When you buy a car out here, you have to wait a few days for the dealership to take care of the details for you. At the dealership they set up your JCI (Japanese compulsory insurance), your license plates, and your other myriad of paperwork. Just like in the states, you make payments on your car but rolled into your payments is also your insurance.


There are different types of license plates in Japan. So far I've yet to really figure them out other than the yellow license plates take a while to get going. I'm also pleased to mention that our car is not one of those. It's a speedy little thing and came with sports racks. Yes. For the most sporty people ever. Now we can load up all our surf boards, ski equipment, and hockey sticks!!

Affectionately dubbed, Risa, our new car is very easy to drive. Well.. It would be easy to drive if it weren't for the fact that we now have to drive on the left side of the road from the Western passenger side. It also doesn't help that the turn signal is now on the right side of the steering wheel.

I've now driven twice and only on base out of paranoia that I will crash it into anything and everything. I'm also very concerned that my stubborn brain will cause me to turn onto the wrong side of the road. So far it hasn't happened. What has happened is me turning on the windshield wipers every time I need to turn. I also can't figure out what the speed limit is anywhere because the speed limit signs are few and far between. Most of the time I just go with traffic till I see a sign.



Look familiar?

Luckily, they sell the Echo out here on Okinawa. It's the four door version of my old car and every bit as familiar with the exception of the steering wheel on the other side of the car. It was nice seeing one on the lot. I got in and sat inside for a bit and felt right at home. Unfortunately it's often rainy and windy here and the Echo didn't do so hot in the rain and wind so we went with a car that would be safer in a storm. That doesn't mean that every time we pass a dealership I don't look out the window longingly at my old friend...

Some important news:

After today, I will be without internet for quite some time. We're moving into our apartment tomorrow and as excited as I am going to be, I am also going to be so very bored! Sims 2 is going to get a ton of use and so is the PspGO. Luckily we also live walking distance from shops and the beach is pretty much right outside our back door. Hopefully it's all enough to keep me from going crazy until I can share pictures and stories.

Until then, please feel free to send me emails and post on my facebook. I'll have something to look forward to when I get back online. :)

Japanese apartment shopping (2)

Here are some pictures from an apartment we looked at. . The rooms are smaller than most American rooms but the apartments themselves are very nice.

This particular place lacks a tatami room, which is okay by me. As much as I'd like to have one, the care for tatami mats and shoji screens would just be too expensive and too much work.

One of the largest differences between Japanese homes and American homes is bathing and the layout of the bathroom. In traditional apartments, which is what we have been shown- the bath and shower are separate from the toilet, as this is seen as rather icky. It makes sense to me. Who wants to step out of the bath into toilet dusties?

Next to the tub, which you can't see very well in the photo, is a place to rinse and wash yourself before using the bath. As you can see, there is a drain in the floor. This is so that you can fill the tub nearly to the rim and get in and also so that you can wash before entering. Japanese baths are not for washing but soaking and relaxing. A nice deep tub is a bonus for me since my back is always sore.

The kitchen is much smaller. This one had lots of cabinet storage and a very small convection style oven. The door in the kitchen led to a large wraparound balcony. All in all it was a very pretty place and very well kept. This isn't going to be our apartment. It was too far away from town and in a nice residential area. We wanted something more walking distance.

The place we looked at today was amazing. The girl who showed us the apartment was very nice. It was kind of funny though. There was another girl in the apartment and they oooed and awed over my hair and said I was kawaii. I was so flattered I just kept saying "Oh oh! Thank you thank you so much!" and giggling. We've picked our apartment and pictures will be soon to follow once we move in. I'll give you guys a little teaser though:

In other news, we went to a 100 yen store today and I found what I've been seeking for a very long time. Those of you who know me know all about my obsession with the anime Nana. So of course the first thing I look for at the store is the famous strawberry glasses. Well... I have finally aquired them!!

Squeee! I also got a cute cellphone strap and some cappucino flavored cookies. Just as I had hoped and dreamed, 100 yen stores are the coolest place I've ever been. I plan on visiting one with a good chunk of change once we get our place so that I don't have to buy all the expensive stuff at the exchange.

That's all for now! I'm going to go get start some laundry and go outside and read. It's a beautiful day!

Apartment shopping

When we had our housing brief, we were told there was no room in the base housing. We were given permission to go out into town and look. At first I was unbelievably disappointed. My mind was filled with a million thoughts...
How would I make friends? What about our furniture? Japanese apartments are small! If I need to go out I most certainly must drive there!!

I was also excited. The opportunity to live in a traditional apartment was too tempting to pass up. We looked at two apartments and found them to be the most beautiful places with nice views and exceptionally big rooms, even for a Japanese style place. The first had a tatami room and was brand new. The second was only just recently renovated. It was also beautiful. No tatami room but lots and lots of space for our things, including a very impressive walk in closet.

Everyone we talked to about it said that living out in town would cost us most if not all of our paycheck. With that knowledge we went and looked at one place on base that we could take even though it wasn't a mandatory house.

After seeing what was available out in town I assumed I would find a similar quality available for us back on base.

...I was sadly mistaken. The only unit available was one that people turned down. It was big. Much bigger than anywhere we've lived before but it was outdated, quite drafty, and felt very lacking.

We are waiting on a woman from the real estate agency to come and pick us up to take us around the view houses. When we return, please check back as I will post pictures from our first set of views as well as the places we look today.

Japanese cell phones!

Yesterday afternoon we went out and bought our cell phones. My husband got an iphone 4 and I got a more traditional phone. It's still a flip phone for all those wondering what my choice might have been. The way that Japanese phone insurance and payment plans work made me leery of buying a smart phone I might break or overuse.

My Japanese cell phone!

On the good side, our plan is a hair cheaper than our stateside phone plan. My husband has unlimited data and we have unlimited calling and texting between our phones all day long. On the bad side, my buttons are mildly confusing...

The center button. I know not what it does....

The phone company we went with is SoftBank. They have a funny dog named Otosan as their mascot and there was Otosan stuff all over the place. Teacups with his face, noodle bowls... Stuffed animals. Even their plan booklet. The office where the building was located was very hot. I ended up wandering in and out of the office while the paperwork was being signed.

The company we got phones from seems to be the one everyone on the island goes with. After we finished signing up for our phones they gave us ramen noodles as thank you gifts. I couldn't help but find this extremely amusing. We have yet to try them but hopefully they will be good.

Otosan Ramen ^